Clinton: Plan is for all Touts economic revitalization, pledges to keep jobs in U.S.
WARREN, Mich. — Over the course of 47 minutes Thursday, Hillary Clinton delivered a series of sharp attacks on presidential rival Donald Trump and outlined an economic plan she vowed will make America’s largest investment in jobs since World War II.
The Democratic nominee appeared in this northern Detroit suburb 14 miles from where Mr. Trump on Monday laid out his economic plan, proclaiming it would open a new chapter in American prosperity.
Ms. Clinton offered a contrast to Mr. Trump’s policy, which she portrayed as beneficial to the wealthy and hurtful to the middle class — “outlandish Trumpian ideas that even Republicans reject.”
“My mission in the White House will be to make the economy work for everyone, not just those at the top,” Ms. Clinton said. “He hasn’t offered any credible solutions for the very real economic challenges we face.”
She touted her $125 billion Economic Revitalization Initiative, which includes the addition of 10.4 million jobs nationwide through 2020, billions of dollars in infrastructure upgrades, and benefits for small-business owners.
Ms. Clinton promised to invest $10 billion in a “Make It in America” partnership to boost American manufacturing, to charge an exit tax to corporations that move jobs to Mexico, and give tax incentives to companies that share profits with employees.
“We are a nation of builders and we need to get back to building,” she said. “There’s nothing America can’t do if we do it together.”
Ms. Clinton spoke to a group of 450 supporters at Futuramic Tool
and Engineering, established in 1955 as an auto industry supplier but now also in the aerospace industry, contributing to the military’s F-35 fighter jet project and NASA’s proposed manned mission to Mars.
Perhaps the biggest applause came when Ms. Clinton chastised Mr. Trump for rhetoric she claims is fearmongering. “If Team USA was as fearful as Trump, Michael Phelps and Simone Biles would be cowering in the locker room afraid to come out to compete,” she said. “Instead, they’re winning gold medals. America isn’t afraid to compete.”
The battleground state of Michigan, with 16 valuable electoral votes, carries significance in the election. Mr. Trump carried the state handily in the Republican primary in March, and Ms. Clinton suffered a stunning defeat — by fewer than 20,000 votes — to U.S. Sen. Bernie Sanders of Vermont in the Democratic primary. She received roughly 93,000 more votes than Mr. Trump, but the Republicans had more candidates.
Republican primary voters outnumbered Democrats by about 130,000. The Trump campaign believes Ms. Clinton is vulnerable in Michigan because of her past positions on free-trade agreements, especially the North American Free Trade Agreement and the Trans-Pacific Partnership. Mr. Sanders used that to his advantage in the spring.
On Thursday, Ms. Clinton expressed disapproval of TPP. “I oppose it now, I’ll oppose it after the election, and I’ll oppose it as president,” she said emphatically.
The most recent Michigan poll, conducted by EPICMRA of Lansing in late July and early August, shows Ms. Clinton leading Mr. Trump by 11 percentage points. In a recent CNN poll, Ms. Clinton leads Mr. Trump 50 percent to 48 percent nationwide regarding which candidate voters trust most on handling the economy.
“Right now the American economy is only working for the rigged system in Washington and on Wall Street, yet Hillary Clinton is running to keep things as they are,” said Dan Kowalski, Mr. Trump’s deputy national policy director. “Clinton’s plans today will short-circuit our economy by raising taxes, increasing spending and killing jobs. Donald Trump presents a better vision and a new direction — a plan to unleash prosperity, create jobs and increase wages so that all Americans can succeed.”
In an address to the National Association of Home Builders in Miami Beach, Fla., Thursday, Mr. Trump said, “Enjoy your tax increase, folks. It’s going to be four more years of Obama, but it’ll be worse.”
About a dozen demonstrators gathered in Warren to protest Ms. Clinton. One of them was Pat Thomas, a retired railroad worker from Waterford, Mich., who traveled to Warren to disavow Ms. Clinton and President Barack Obama’s economic policies.
“We want Trump to win,” Mrs. Thomas said. “We cannot possibly have a third Obama term and that’s what we’ll get with Hillary. The economy — my husband hasn’t worked since Obama’s been in office. He’s an interior architect. He can’t get work because no one is building because of Obama. We’re done with that. Donald Trump’s economic plan was awesome, awesome, awesome. He’s for everyone, not just himself like the Democrats. The Democrats are imploding. They need to be gone.”
A few hundred feet from the Trump supporters stood Tom Moran of Fenton, Mich., who held a sign saying Mr. Trump mocks the disabled, degrades women and belittles his critics. The bottom read, “America deserves better.”
“I took a day off work from driving my bus and made this banner because of the way Trump treats people with disabilities,” said Mr. Moran, who drives a transit bus. “On my bus, I get a lot of special-needs riders. I respect everyone that rides. When I saw Trump mock that reporter [Serge Kovaleski, who has arthrogryposis, a congenital condition affecting the joints], that’s what got me motivated to do this. It’s his character, not what he says about the issues. He doesn’t respect other people. The idea of Donald Trump in the White House is too scary to me.”
In Mr. Trump’s speech Monday, he deemed Ms. Clinton the candidate of the past and his campaign one for the future. “When we reform our tax, trade, energy and regulatory policies, we will open a new chapter in American prosperity.”
The Block News Alliance consists of the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette and The Blade of Toledo, Ohio. Kyle Rowland is a reporter for The Blade.