Realizing that Democratic front-runner former Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton does poorly with white, non-college educated voters, former President Bill Clinton warned the group that the President Barack Obama’s economy has left them behind. Speaking at Union County College in Cranford, NJ June 1, Bill told students non-college educated “need to be brought along to the future,” hinting that Obama’s economy left them behind. “My husband . . . I’m going to put him in charge of revitalizing the economy because you know he knows how to do it,” Hillary told backers May 16. Hillary and Bill can’t have it both ways: Running on Obama’s economic record, and, at the same time, admitting the economy’s a mess. Bill’s message contradicts Hillary’s main selling point that she wants to continue the Obama’s foreign and domestic policy legacy.
Trying to spin Obama’s economic problems as part of a global picture, Bill hopes to reconcile the apparent contradiction. “All over the world there is stagnant economy growth, stagnant incomes, rising inequality and deep argument over what to do about our increasing diversity,” Bill told the Union College audience. While it’s true that global trends impact the U.S. economy, it’s also true the U.S. economy stands on its own. Thinking that Hillary’s looks like an insider, Bill wants to discredit GOP presumptive nominee real estate mogul Donald Trump, blaming Bill’s past trade deals for causing much of today’s economic problems. Raising the “diversity” issue, Clinton hopes to paint Trump as a racist, while, on the other hand, Hillary’s as in-step with current U.S. demographic changes. Demographic changes have little to do with today’s underemployment and slow growth.
.Saying she’d put Bill in charge of “revitalizing” the economy admits that Obama’s economy isn’t working. Bill can’t have it both ways too: Claiming to know how to fix the U.S. economy, while, at the same time, claiming U.S. economic trends are global. What’s known for sure is that U.S. Gross Domestic Product for the second quarter ran at under !%, well below Federal Reserve Board Chairman Jane Yellen’s target for raising interest rates. Yellen wants to continue hiking rates but fears recession if she hikes too quickly. Bill gets plenty of kudos for strong bull market and tech bubble that generated enough capital gains for the Treasury to balance the budget in 1999. What Bill ignores is that Wall Street unraveled in the last year of his presidency, continuing in a downward spiral in 2001. Bill wants to see higher incomes but offers no ideas how he’d pull it off.
When Congress started slashing the budget under the so-called 2013 government “sequester,” the government continue to shed federal jobs. Under the Republican controlled House, under Rep. Paul Ryan’s (R-Wis.) Budget Committee, the government continued to slash federal jobs. Bill mentions nothing about the net loss of federal jobs, reducing the middle class and creating the sluggish economy, leading to anemic GDP growth. “To do it [improve the economy], we have to build a future that is inclusive—not divisive—a future which has no only higher incomes but more upward mobility and less inequality, and one which recognizes our diversity because it’s the only way to honor our common humanity,” said Clinton, saying nothing about how to fix Obama’s sluggish economy. Bill knows that Hillary will fair just as badly as Obama with a Republican controlled House and Senate.
Bill ripped Trump’s often-cited statements about banning Muslims and building a Mexican border wall. “We have been told over and over again is this election we ought to build a wall against Mexico, we ought to stop the Muslims form coming in, we want to do all this stuff,” said Bill, hoping to paint Trump as a racist. When Bill talks of the wall “against” Mexico, does he really think there’s a problem with having secure borders? Whether or not smugglers or drug dealers breach the wall, that’s no excuse for having a porous border. “Let me tell you, all those people who want to do that—and one in particular—forget what the real security challenges we face are,” said Bill, saying nothing of Hillary’s mistake of backing the Iraq War, toppling Libyan strongman Col. Muammar Gaddafi and backing the Saudi-Turkey-funded proxy war in Syria causing over 250,000 deaths, displacing 11 million more.
Bill avoids completely Hillary’s policy backing the five-year-old Saudi-funded Syrian proxy war creating the worst humanitarian crisis since WWII. Hillary opposes Russia and Iran, backing the Saudis attempt topple Syrian President Bashar al-Assad. Keeping the war going for five years has displaced more than 11 million Syrians to neighboring countries and Europe. Flooding Europe with Syrian refugees currently threatens the Schengen, passport-free zone in the European Union, threatening to breakup the EU. Bill talks about “diversity” but he doesn’t point to Hillary’s obvious foreign policy mistakes that have cost thousand of lives, continuing to displace millions more. Bill touts Hillary’s “inclusive, non-divisive America,” but can’t account for how Obama left the country with more racial problems over his two terms. Bill doesn’t admit that a Hillary presidency would be more “divisive” than Obama’s.
A
