Hillary Clinton Campaign Press Release - Hillary Clinton Outlines Economic Plan for Kentucky; Criticizes Senator McCain for Embracing George Bush's Economic Vision

Today, at a rally in Frankfort, Kentucky, Hillary Clinton will outline her plan to create good jobs for Kentucky workers and cut taxes for middle class families. Hillary will also criticize Senator McCain for embracing George Bush's economic vision. She said: "Senator McCain has said he doesn't understand the economy. But the economic agenda he's laying out on the campaign trail suggests he understands exactly what he's doing. It's nothing but four more years of George Bush economics: Corporate special interests first, middle class families last, borrow from China and stick our children and grandchildren with the bill."

Hillary has a fundamentally different approach to the economy. Her economic plan will take back the benefits from corporate special interests and make the economy work for middle class families again. Her plan will:

Provide new tax cuts for middle class families, not tax giveaways to corporations: While Senator McCain wants to offer corporations a $100 billion tax cut, Senator Clinton's plan will provide more than $100 billion in middle class tax cuts to help families afford healthcare, college, and saving for retirement.

End tax cuts for companies that ship jobs overseas, and investing in an aggressive plan help create good jobs in the U.S.: While Senator McCain wants to maintain tax incentives for companies that outsource, Senator Clinton's plan will reform our tax code to reward job creation here in the U.S., and invest in helping create millions of good new jobs that can't be outsourced.

Protecting Social Security from the McCain-Bush Privatization Plan: While John McCain has embraced President Bush's failed Social Security Privatization scheme, Senator Clinton's plan will protect Social Security for future generations of workers.

Restoring fiscal responsibility to Washington: While Senator McCain wants to continue President Bush's fiscal recklessness with more than $400 billion in new unpaid for tax cuts, Senator Clinton's plan will restore fiscal discipline and move us back toward balanced budgets.

1. Provide more than $100 billion in new tax cuts for middle class families. Hillary's middle class tax cut plan will save families thousands of dollars who are struggling to pay for health care, college costs, or the care for an elderly parent or disabled child. It would also help families who are saving for a secure retirement. The cuts would provide middle class families with at least $100 billion in tax relief per year. A typical family making $50,000 would receive at least $4,500 in tax benefits, including matching tax cut of up to $1,000 to help save and build wealth, a $3,500 tax credit to help pay for college costs, and a generous tax cut to make health care affordable. In addition, a family caring for an elderly parent or disabled child would receive a $3,000 tax credit to help cover the costs of caregiving. Hillary would also expand the Earned Income Tax Credit (EITC) to help larger families, giving at least 3 million families with $1,000 in additional income and would triple the size of the EITC benefit for single workers, providing more than four million people a tax cut averaging $750. The impact of these tax cuts would be enormous for millions of Kentucky families. For example, 1.2 million Kentucky households will be eligible to receive with new matching tax cuts to help save for retirement and at least 67,000 Kentucky seniors, people with disabilities and their families will be eligible for a new $3000 Caregivers Tax Credit.

In contrast, Senator McCain's economic plan will give more than $100 billion in new tax cuts to America's largest and most profitable corporations.

Senator McCain's plan will provide a $1.4 billion tax cut for Exxon, the most profitable company in history; a $500 million tax cut for Halliburton; and a $2 billion tax cut for America's largest health insurance companies.

Senator McCain's tax plan is even more skewed to the wealthy than the Bush tax cuts. Fifty-eight percent of the benefits from the McCain plan would go to the top 1% of taxpayer, compared to the 31% of the Bush tax cuts that went to the top 1% of taxpayers. [Center for American Progress, 2008].

Senator McCain's corporate tax proposal would create massive new tax sheltering opportunities that would allow many corporations to avoid paying taxes altogether. As tax expert Reuven Avi-Yonah has explained, McCain's proposal to allow businesses immediately expense 100% of their new investments "would open up almost unlimited opportunities for sheltering income. In fact for many corporations, the proposal would result in a negative effective tax rate on many investments-rather than paying a tax on profits the corporation would get money from the government in addition to their profits." [Center for American Progress, 2008].

2. End tax cuts for companies that ship jobs overseas, and invest in an aggressive plan help create good jobs in the U.S.: John McCain's corporate tax plan would maintain current tax incentives that actually reward companies for outsourcing jobs. In contrast, Hillary will take away all tax breaks from companies that are sending jobs and production overseas and use those tax dollars to reward companies that invest in creating good jobs here in the U.S. Her plan to create good jobs for Kentucky families includes:

Investing in Infrastructure to help create 3 million new jobs. Hillary's infrastructure plan would invest $10 billion in funding to help states review and repair their critical infrastructure; modernize seaports; expand funding for public transit and intercity rail; incentivize environmentally sensitive land use policies; and a reduce congestion. She is also a co-sponsor of bipartisan legislation to create a national infrastructure bank that would evaluate and finance large infrastructure projects.

Establishing a $50 billion Strategic Energy Fund to help create at least 5 million green collar jobs. In 2007, many of the largest oil companies recorded record profits. Exxon-Mobil recorded an annual profit of $40.6 billion, making it the most profitable corporation in history. Together, the five largest U.S. oil companies-Exxon-Mobil, Chevron, Conoco-Phillips, Valero and Marathon Oil-earned more than $75 billion in 2007- about $2,500 per second. Hillary's energy plan would give large oil companies a choice: invest more in renewable energy technology or pay into a Strategic Energy Fund to jumpstart clean energy research and the development and deployment of renewable energy technologies. These investments will lay the foundation for our economy to create at least 5 million high-paying green collar jobs over the next decade.

Providing New Support to Help Small Businesses Create Good Jobs. At this time of economic uncertainty, small businesses are more important than ever. They have accounted for 80 percent of net new jobs since 1990 and employ more than half of all private sector workers. As president, Hillary will double funding for the Small Business Administration, which has been cut by 50% under the Bush Administration. Hillary will also provide new tax credits to small businesses to make it easier for them to create new jobs with health care for their workers here in the U.S.

Making Trade Work for Working Families.<</b> Americans need a president who will fight for fair, pro-American trade policies that will not trap them in a race to the bottom. Low wages in other countries are costing America jobs and putting pressure on wages here at home. As president, Hillary will make trade work for working families by renegotiating NAFTA, demanding strong labor and environmental provisions in all trade agreements, enforcing our trade laws again, cracking down on China's currency manipulation and other unfair trading practices, and implementing a trade "timeout" to formulate a genuinely pro-worker and pro-American trade policy.

b3. Protect Social Security from the McCain-Bush Privatization Plan: Senator Clinton believes that Social Security is a solemn promise to our seniors, and she is committed to keeping that promise. Senator Clinton has a clear, straightforward plan to keep Social Security strong for future generations. First, she will restore fiscal responsibility in Washington. Second, Senator Clinton will address the long-term challenges facing Social Security through a bipartisan process. As part of that process, she will consider a range of options to strengthen the program without hurting seniors or middle-class families.

In striking contrast, Senator McCain has pledged to continue George Bush's failed attempts to privatize Social Security. On March 3, Senator McCain said "[a]s part of Social Security reform, I believe that private savings accounts are a part of it -- along the lines that President Bush proposed." That effort could mean:

Undermining Social Security's long-term finances: Senator McCain has embraced President Bush's plan for carve-out individual accounts within Social Security. That approach would not only do nothing to strengthen Social Security, but these carve-out accounts would actually undermine the program's finances - and speed up the date when Social Security can no longer pay full benefits. [WSJ, 3/3/08; CBPP, 2005].

Adding more than $5 trillion to our debt: Senator McCain has already committed to explode our long term deficit by making President Bush's tax cuts for the wealthiest permanent and by enacting a new $100 billion per year tax cut for corporations. Now, the Bush-McCain carve-out accounts will add another $5 trillion in debt over 20 years. [CBPP, 2005].

Exposing millions of workers to the risk of unexpected stock market losses: The Wall Street turmoil of recent weeks and near collapse of Bear Stearns should serve as a reminder of the unpredictability of Wall Street investments. Yet the Bush-McCain carve-out accounts would shift the risk of these unpredictable losses onto workers and near retirees, while imposing new burdensome administrative fees that eat away from savings. In 2005, Senator Clinton stood alongside members of the Wall Street financial services industry to warn against the danger of injecting stock market risk into Social Security's guaranteed benefit.

Cutting Social Security benefits by 40% or more: Like President Bush, Senator McCain has also pledged to slash benefits for Social Security recipients in the coming decades. President Bush's proposed benefit cuts would have slashed benefits for middle-income workers by about 40%, once fully phased in. Senator McCain's campaign has raised a number of options including raising the retirement age, cutting cost of living benefits or other deep benefit cuts. [WSJ, 3/3/08].

4. Restore Fiscal Discipline: Senator Clinton believes that in order to have a strong, growing economy that creates good jobs and lifts income across the board, we need to restore fiscal discipline to Washington. She is the only candidate running for president who has offered a clear, credible plan to pay for every new initiative that she has proposed. Beyond this commitment, she is the only candidate who has reserved additional savings to help reduce the deficit and move back toward balanced budgets. For example, she has not committed the savings that will come from ending the Iraq war to new campaign initiatives. That is more than $100 billion per year that Senator Clinton can use to reduce the deficit or address other unforeseen priorities. In addition, Senator Clinton recognizes that the single largest threat to our fiscal future lies in Medicare and out-of-control health costs. That is why she designed her healthcare plan to include the most aggressive cost-cutting measures of any presidential candidate. And by achieving universal coverage, her plan will eliminate the "hidden tax" of $922 per family that those with health insurance currently pay to cover uncompensated care for the uninsured.

In contrast, Senator McCain has proposed $400 billion per year in new tax cuts without offering any credible explanation of how he would pay for them. His plan would result in the largest deficits in American history, or force deep cuts in spending across-the-board. As the Wall Street Journal editorial board concluded, McCain's plan would "either cause the federal deficit to explode or...require unprecedented spending cuts equal to one-third of federal spending on domestic programs." [WSJ, 4/22/08]