Economic growth must go hand-in-hand with fairness
Clinton opened her speech hitting the theme of fairness in the economy hard. “I believe we have to build a growth-and-fairness economy. You can’t have one without the other,” she explained. Calling it her mission from her first day to the last, Clinton vowed to “get up everyday” to fight for the American worker and outlined a vision for the American economy under a Hillary Clinton administration.
Uber economy raises hard questions about workplace standards
Clinton acknowledged the changing landscape of the American economy. “This on demand or so-called gig economy is creating exciting opportunities and unleashing innovation,” she said, “but it’s also raising hard questions about workplace protection and what a good job will look like in the future.”
Businesses should share profits with workers
“Hard-working Americans deserve to benefit from the record corporate earnings they helped produce,” Clinton declared as she announced one of what she called her new ideas for the economy. “Studies show profit-sharing that gives everyone a stake in a company’s success can boost productivity and put money directly into employees’ pockets. It’s a win-win,” she explained. “I will propose ways to encourage companies to share profits with their employees. That’s good for workers, and good for businesses.”
Must go beyond Dodd-Frank
Clinton said that “we have to go beyond Dodd-Frank,” the 2010 financial reform law, because “too many of our major financial institutions are still too complex and too risky.”
A future economy can’t afford to leave Americans behind
“The measure of our success must be how much incomes rise for hard-working families—not just for successful CEOs and money managers,” Clinton said during her populist speech. But Clinton made the argument that an inclusive workplace is better for the economy, discarded the moral imperative for the economic bottom line. Citing her talks with business leaders, CEOs, she said, are eager to engage in their share of responsibility: “it’s not charity it’s clear-eyed capitalism.”
Goodbye to “women’s issues”
Calling it “another key to strong growth that often goes overlooked & undervalued,” Clinton cited the need to break down barriers to joining the workforce for women. Clinton said that in a global competition America can’t afford to leave talent on the side lines. “When we write them off we shortchange our country’s future,” Clinton argued.
She hit the GOP top-tier hard, but made no explicit mention of Dem rivals
Marco Rubio’s tax plan is trash, Scott Walker is mean-spirited in his attacks on unions and Jeb Bush just doesn’t get the Fight for 15, Clinton argued.
“You may have heard Gov. Bush say last week that Americans just need to work longer hours. He must not have met very many American workers,” Clinton told the crowd hitting top GOP hopeful former Florida Governor Jeb Bush. “Let him tell that to the fast food workers marching in the streets for better pay,” Clinton demanded serving a quick shout-out to the Fight for 15 campaign, “they don’t need a lecture—they need a raise.”
Being a grandma taught her to plant shade trees
After saying that she’s only here for reality-based debates,”let’s get back to making decisions that rely more on evidence than on ideology,” Clinton talked of the lessons her nine-month-old granddaughter Charlotte had taught her. “Maybe it’s the grandmother in me,” Clinton said, but “I believe part of public service is planting trees under whose shade you’ll never sit.”