Clinton's Big Tax Hike

MANCHESTER, N.H. — Senator Clinton is pitching herself as the "progressive" candidate for president, proposing to raise taxes on upper-income Americans and eliminate breaks for corporations under an economic plan that is drawing an immediate rebuke from Republicans.

In a policy address yesterday in New Hampshire, Mrs. Clinton laid out an economic vision that envisages an expanded role for government as part of an effort to foster a society of "shared prosperity." She assailed the policies of the Bush administration, saying they have benefited the wealthy and large corporations, particularly oil companies, at the expense of the middle class. "For the past six years," she told an audience of hundreds at the Manchester School of Technology, "it's been like going back to the era of the robber barons."

Offering nostalgia for her husband's tenure in the White House, Mrs. Clinton said she wanted to "hit the restart button" on the 21st century.

"It's time for a new beginning, for an end to government of the few, by the few, and for the few, time to reject the idea of an ‘on your own' society and to replace it with shared responsibility for shared prosperity," she said. "I prefer a ‘we're all in it together' society."

Under a nine-point plan, Mrs. Clinton proposed to let President Bush's tax cuts for top earners expire, scrap subsidies for oil and gas companies, and require large oil companies to invest in alternative energy or pay into a national research fund. She also called for greater scrutiny of the salaries of chief executives. In a bid to keep jobs in America, she is pushing to eliminate an element of the tax code that allows companies to defer taxes on profits they earn overseas.

In ending what she called Mr. Bush's "irresponsible" tax cuts, the former first lady said she would revert to the tax rates for "upper-income Americans" during the 1990s. She did not specify an income cutoff, but a campaign spokesman said later that it would be $200,000. A rival for the Democratic presidential nomination, John Edwards, has proposed repealing those cuts, rather than letting them expire.

Leading Republican presidential candidates, who have campaigned on lower taxes, were quick to criticize Mrs. Clinton's proposals.
"Senator Clinton's big government philosophy now has its very own blueprint," a spokesman for Mitt Romney, Kevin Madden, said. "Senator Clinton's plan guarantees higher taxes, which will slow down our economy, halt job growth dead in its tracks, and make American businesses both large and small less competitive in the global economy."

A spokesman for Senator McCain of Arizona, Danny Diaz, said: "Hillary Clinton's plan to raise taxes on hardworking American families and businesses would take the economy backward and hurt our nation's bottom line."

In her speech, Mrs. Clinton acknowledged that economic growth has occurred under Mr. Bush, but she said it has not spread nearly wide enough across socioeconomic classes, and she decried the widening income gap between the highest and lowest earners. "It's not as if America hasn't been successful economically these past years," she said. "But the measure of success doesn't relate to what's happening in households across our country, because, while productivity and corporate profits are up, the fruits of that success just haven't reached many of our families."

"It's like trickle-down economics, but without the trickle," she added.

Mrs. Clinton harked back to the turn of the 20th century, comparing today's economy to the one targeted by the "trust-busters" of the progressive movement. She said America has failed to manage globalization properly, leading to "rising pessimism" in the work force.

The tax policy director for Americans for Tax Reform, Ryan Ellis, criticized Mrs. Clinton's focus on corporations, saying the country also has the second highest corporate tax rates of any nation, lower only than Japan. "It makes us very uncompetitive," Mr. Ellis said. "That's what pushes corporations overseas."

Like the first stage of the health care platform Mrs. Clinton unveiled in Washington last week, the senator's economic plan appears to incorporate a number of proposals that she and other Democrats have pushed, with little success, in recent years. She urged increased college aid, universal health care, expanded broadband Internet access, and government investments in alternative energy as a way of creating new American jobs.

After the address, Mrs. Clinton headed south to Nashua, N.H., where she stopped in a home decorating boutique and greeted customers at Martha's Exchange Restaurant & Brewing Co., on Main Street. Like many of her previous trips to the Granite State — this was her seventh since announcing her candidacy — Mrs. Clinton basked in the fond memories that many patrons had for her husband's campaign and presidency. "This is one of the first places we came to in '91," she recalled as she joined a group of local elected officials at a table for a few minutes.

One man seated outside, Donald Peppard, said he was one of President Clinton's early supporters and that Mrs. Clinton's experience in the White House and Senate made her the best candidate. Mr. Peppard, a retired psychiatrist, described her as "gracious," "poised," and "shrewd."