Hillary’s Plan: Debt and Entitlements

Clinton Will Fight For Medicare & Social Security, Pay For Her Plans; Trump Will Risk These Programs & Add Trillions To Debt

Tonight, voters will hear from Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump on six topics of national importance: debt and entitlements, immigration, economy, the Supreme Court, foreign policy, and the fitness of the candidates to serve as president.

Clinton has stood up for Medicare, Social Security, and Medicaid her entire career, and she will not stop now.  She will ensure the wealthy, Wall Street, and big corporations pay their fair share, invest in middle-class families, and defend and expand Medicare and Social Security.  Furthermore, her new plans are paid for, so they will not add to the national debt.

Conversely, Trump’s plans will add $21 trillion to the national debt over 20 years and give reckless tax cuts to the wealthy instead of investing in Medicare and Social Security for generations to come.

Hillary’s vision on fiscal matters is clear. As she has said before, “We know what sound fiscal policy looks like and it sure isn’t running up massive debts to pay for giveaways to the rich. And it is not painful austerity that hurts working families and undercuts our long-term progress. It’s being strong, stable, and making smart investments in our future. So let’s set the right priorities and pay for them, so we can hand our children a healthier economy and a better future.”

Hillary has put forward credible plans to pay for her proposals without adding to the national debt.  As president, Hillary will:

• Continue to put forth plans that add up, are paid for, and will not add to the national debt. As the Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget said recently, “We are encouraged that Clinton continues to largely pay for her new spending…”
• Restore fairness to the tax code and make sure the wealthiest Americans pay their fair share. The independent, non-partisan Urban-Brookings Tax Policy Center found that around 2/3rds of the revenue from Hillary’s tax plan came from the top 0.1%, earning more than $3.7 million per year.
• NYT: “Mrs. Clinton would substantially raise taxes on high-income taxpayers, mostly on the top 1 percent; … reduce taxes on average for middle- and low-income households; and overhaul corporate taxes. Her plan would increase federal revenue $1.4 trillion over the first decade….Mrs. Clinton would use the money to pay for education and other initiatives.”
• Hillary has a responsible, progressive fiscal vision. Progressive policies such as investing in growth and the middle class, and asking the wealthy to pay their fair share – not trillions of dollars in tax cuts for the wealthy, have been successful. For example, President Bill Clinton took a $300 billion deficit in the year before he took office and turned it into a $200 billion surplus.

Hillary believes seniors have paid into Social Security for a lifetime, and they’ve earned these benefits when they retire. Social Security isn’t just a program—it’s a promise.  As president, Hillary will:

• Defend Social Security against Republican attacks and attempts to privatize the program – and refuse to embrace proposals to raise the retirement age or reduce cost-of-living adjustments
• Expand Social Security for those who need it most and who are treated unfairly by the current system—including women who are widows and those who took significant time out of the paid workforce to take care of their children, aging parents, or ailing family members.
• Preserve Social Security for decades to come by asking the wealthiest to contribute more.

Hillary believes Medicare and Medicaid are the bedrock of health care coverage for more than 50 million Americans, from seniors to people with disabilities.  As president, Hillary will:

• Fight to preserve Medicare benefits for Americans – and stand strongly against Republican attempts to “phase out” or privatize Medicare.
• Require drug manufacturers to provide rebates for low-income Medicare enrollees that are equivalent to rebates in the Medicaid program through her prescription drug plan.
• Reduce the cost of prescription drugs for seniors by allowing Medicare to use its leverage with more than 40 million enrollees to negotiate drug and biologic prices.
• Tackle rising medical costs by expanding value-based delivery system reform in Medicare.
• Help protect consumers from unjustified price hikes for long-available drugs.
• Ensure we expand Medicaid in the states where Republican governors and legislatures have refused to do so.

Donald Trump may have abused the tax system to avoid paying taxes into Social Security and Medicare – Hillary Clinton would help end this practice. Based on what we do know about Donald Trump’s tax returns, independent experts at the Tax Policy Center believe that Trump may have avoided paying his fair share in taxes into Social Security and Medicare by abusively taking advantage of the so-called “Gingrich-Edwards” loophole. This loophole allows some high-income business people to funnel their wages through a business.  While the law still requires these business owners to pay payroll taxes on a reasonable portion of compensation, Trump may have flouted this legal requirement and avoided paying his fair share in payroll taxes that support programs like Social Security and Medicare. Earlier this year, Hillary Clinton embraced a proposal from President Obama’s budget that would end such abuses and crack down on tax gaming by high-income individuals through shifting business income, including addressing the so-called “Gingrich-Edwards” loophole.

Donald Trump’s tax plan would increase the debt by $21 trillion over 20 years to give tax cuts to the rich, and he has recklessly considered defaulting on the national debt.

• Trump infamously called himself the “king of debt” and has proposed a tax plan that would increase our national debt by 21 trillion over 20 years – with more than half of the benefits going to the top 1%.
• Trump displayed his willingness to play Russian roulette with the full faith and credit of the U.S., suggesting recently that “you could make the case” for defaulting on the debt, or maybe we could just “make a deal.” Defaulting on our debt would undermine more than 200 years of confidence in the American economy, and could cause a global financial crisis.

Paying for Donald Trump’s tax cuts for the rich could require cutting Medicare and Social Security by trillions:

• As an analysis by CAP Action explains, “Trump says his agenda ‘will be completely paid-for,’ but paying for his tax plan would require cutting federal spending by an average of approximately 13.5 percent. In the next 10 years, an across-the-board cut of 13.5 percent would mean cutting Social Security by $1.7 trillion and cutting Medicare by $1.1 trillion.”

Trump is willing to jeopardize Medicare, Medicaid and Social Security, which he once called a Ponzi scheme.

• Trump said “it’s possible” to replace Medicare.
• Trump wrote in his book that he would privatize Social Security and raise the retirement age, calling the program a Ponzi scheme.
• Trump’s campaign adviser suggested Trump would be open to looking at program changes to Social Security and Medicare.
• Trump’s running mate, Mike Pence, wanted to privatize Social Security faster and further than George W. Bush, and supported privatization in Medicare long before the Ryan Budget tried to voucherize it (which Pence also supported).

Trump’s plan to block grant Medicaid could cause millions of low-income adults and people with disabilities to lose or see lower benefits.

For all the latest, follow our Scheduled Events page and follow Clinton on Twitter, Facebook, YouTube, and Instagram. Also, be sure to subscribe to the campaign’s official Podcast, With Her.

Hillary’s Plan: Immigration

Clinton Will Fight for Comprehensive Immigration Reform, Trump Will Deport 16 Million People

In her first 100 days, Hillary Clinton will put forward a comprehensive immigration reform proposal that includes a pathway to full and equal citizenship. While Clinton will fight to strengthen families, our economy and our country through immigration reform, Donald Trump’s immigration plan remains the same as it’s always been: build a wall, tear apart families and send a “deportation force” into American communities to forcibly remove 16 million people from the United States.

*This will not happen.

Hillary will work to fix our broken immigration system and stay true to our fundamental American values. She has long been a supporter of comprehensive immigration reform. As Senator, Hillary cosponsored Senator Ted Kennedy’s 2004 bill and voted for comprehensive immigration reform bills in 2006 and 2007.

As president, Hillary will:

• Introduce comprehensive immigration reform within her first 100 days that includes a pathway to full and equal citizenship for undocumented immigrants.
• Defend President Obama’s DACA and DAPA executive actions to keep families together.
• Conduct humane, targeted immigration enforcement, including ending family detention and closing private detention centers.
• Promote naturalization by expanding fee waivers to alleviate naturalization costs.
• Support immigrant integration by creating a national Office of Immigrant Affairs.

Donald Trump’s entire campaign has demonized immigrants. Since calling Mexicans “rapists” and “criminals” and, since then, his rhetoric and dangerous immigration policies have only escalated. Trump’s immigration plan would tear apart families and contribute to the loss of  nearly 3.5 million jobs in his first term.

As president, Trump has planned to:

• Deport all of the more than 11 million undocumented immigrants in America.
• Repeal birthright citizenship and apply that repeal retroactively to deport the roughly 5 million United States citizens born here to undocumented parents.
• Send a “deportation force” into American communities to round up families.
• Repeal DACA and DAPA on Day One and deport DREAMers.
• Implement a “total and complete shut down of Muslims entering the United States.”
• Build  a “big, beautiful wall” along the southern border and pretend Mexico will pay for it (and when he had the opportunity to tell Mexican President Pena Nieto that, he choked).

Trump’s plan would cripple the American economy:

• $4.7 trillion: Amount a policy of mass deportation would reduce cumulative GDP over 10 years.
• $66 billion: Potential loss to U.S. economy under Trump’s “muslim ban” each year.

Nearly 3.5 million jobs: According to Moody’s, Trump’s immigration policies would contribute to the loss of nearly 3.5 million jobs in his first term.

For all the latest, follow our Scheduled Events page and follow Clinton on Twitter, Facebook, YouTube, and Instagram. Also, be sure to subscribe to the campaign’s official Podcast, With Her.

Hillary Clinton Announces New Middle Class Tax Cut

On Tuesday, Hillary Clinton announced a new plan that will expand tax relief to families with young children. The plan is outlined in the following release from Hillary for America:

As part of her plan to build an economy that works for everyone, not just those at the top, Hillary Clinton is announcing today a new expansion of the Child Tax Credit for families with young children. She will double the Child Tax Credit to a maximum of $2,000 per child up to and including age 4, and she’ll expand access to millions more families. As many as 15 million young children will be eligible for the credit of up to $2,000 – and millions more people will benefit from additional relief. And this is only a down payment on further relief for middle-class families.

“Hard-working, middle-class families are struggling with rising costs for child care, health care, caregiving and college,” said Clinton. “This new tax credit will make their lives a little bit easier and help restore fairness to our economy.”

Clinton has previously announced middle class tax relief in the form of an up-to-$5,000 credit for families with excessive out of pocket health costs, and up to $1,200 for families caring for parents and grandparents.

Specifically, Clinton is announcing today that she will:

• Double the Child Tax Credit from $1,000 to $2,000 for each young child. Right now, the Child Tax Credit gives millions of families up to $1,000 per child each year to help cover all the burdens they face. Clinton will double the maximum credit to $2,000 for each young child up to and including age 4.
• Expand Child Tax Credit refundability so millions more working families get additional relief. Under our current system millions of families do not qualify for the full credit or get very little benefit because they simply do not make enough money, since the tax code excludes the first $3,000 in earnings in determining whether a working family is eligible for refundable relief. Clinton will lower the threshold for refundability from $3,000 to the first dollar of earnings for families with children of all ages, so every working family can benefit. And she will increase the phase-in rate to 45% from 15% for families with young children. According to the nonpartisan Urban Institute, the credit is structured so that families at the low end of the income distribution do not receive the full credit, and those families that are left out are more likely to be African-American and Latino. Improving refundability and increasing the phase-in rate will help close this gap and increase the overall fairness in the system.
• Provide further tax relief for middle-class families, including those without children, and with older children: Clinton believes we should go further than doubling the Child Tax Credit for young children. The expansion Clinton is calling for today is a down payment on her overall vision for tax relief for middle-class families. Clinton believes we should further expand the Child Tax Credit for families with older children, and expand refundable relief for low-income workers without children.

Clinton’s plan will be fully paid for by her proposals to ensure the wealthy, Wall Street, and big corporations pay their fair share. And like the current Child Tax Credit, it will phase out for higher-income families.

Refundable tax credits like the Child Tax Credit reward work, lift families out of poverty, and improve lifelong outcomes for kids. Studies have shown that the Child Tax Credit helps lift millions of Americans out of poverty each year. Not only does the Child Tax Credit help fight poverty for families in the year that they qualify for the tax cut, its effects can be seen for many years later. Parents in families that receive refundable credits like the Child Tax Credit are more likely to be in the labor force and contribute to the economy. Children in those families do better in school, are more likely to go to college and earn more when they become adults.

Clinton’s proposals to expand relief for hard-working families with children stand in strong contrast to Donald Trump’s plans. Because Trump’s child care and maternity leave plan gives far more to high-income families than middle-class families struggling with costs, and his tax plan rolls back dependent exemptions and other relief for parents with children, it would actually raise taxes on 8 million middle-class families to fund his tax cuts for the rich and multinational corporations, and $4 billion for his own family.

Specifically, hard-working families that get tax relief under Clinton’s plan would see tax increases, or a much smaller tax cut, under Trump:

• A single parent earning $75,000 per year, with two young children, and $8,000 in childcare costs would see a $1,640 tax increase under Trump, and $2,000 in tax relief under Clinton’s plan. A recent academic analysis found that compared to current law, Trump’s plan would raise taxes on this family by $1,640, because it eliminates personal exemptions and the head-of-household filing status. Clinton’s expansion of the Child Tax Credit would give them an extra $2,000 in tax relief.

According to the same analysis, a married couple earning $50,000 per year, with two young children, and $8,000 in childcare costs would get a $93 tax cut under Trump’s plan, and $2,000 in tax relief under Clinton’s plan.

For all the latest, follow our Scheduled Events page and follow Clinton on Twitter, Facebook, YouTube, and Instagram. Also, be sure to subscribe to the campaign’s official Podcast, With Her.

News Source: The Wall Street Journal

Hillary Clinton Campaigns in Ohio

Hillary Clinton hit the campaign trail today in Ohio holding two events in the state. Her first event was in Toledo where she focused on her plans to help the middle class. She covered a number of her major policy proposals including her plans to boost American manufacturing, invest in and improve the country’s infrastructure, and create good paying jobs. During the event, Clinton also attacked Donald Trump for the recent revelation that he may not have paid income taxes for nearly two decades. She said, “Trump’s campaign is bragging that not paying taxes makes him a genius. What kind of genius loses $1 billion in a single year?” She pointed out that Trump’s plan would cut taxes for himself even more at the expense of working families. Watch a video of Clinton speech below.

Clinton then traveled to Akron where she continued to focus on the economy and her plans to ensure that everyone has the opportunity to prosper in America. She largely focused on the same big points she hit on in Toledo, but she also spoke about her plans to raise the minimum wage, ensure equal pay for women, and cap the maximum out of pocket expenses for childcare. Clinton continued her assault on Trump’s tax records saying that he has certainly benefited from the tax code, but he has not contributed to the United States. Clinton is likely to continue to criticize Trump’s tax returns as the two prepare for their next debate next week. A video from the Akron event is below.

For all the latest, follow our Scheduled Events page and follow Clinton on Twitter, Facebook, YouTube, and Instagram. Also, be sure to subscribe to the campaign’s official Podcast, With Her.

News Source: Time, The Toledo Blade, Patch

Hillary Clinton Announces Plan to Combat High Prescription Drug Prices

On Friday, Hillary Clinton announced a plan to combat the rising cost of prescription drugs, particularly the excessive rise in costs of live saving prescriptions like the EpiPen. Clinton’s plan would create a federal team to monitor drug prices and track increases. Her plan also provides several actions the government could take when drug prices have been raised excessively such as fines and increased access to treatment programs. An outline of Clinton’s proposal is below, and the full plan can be read on The Briefing.

• Making alternatives available and increasing competition
• Emergency importation of safe treatments
• Penalties for unjustified price increases to hold drug companies accountable and fund expanded access
• Dedicated oversight to protect consumers
• Strong new enforcement measures to respond when there are unjustified, outlier price increases that threaten public health
  • Directly intervening to make treatments available, and supporting generic and alternative manufacturers that enter the market and increase competition to bring down prices
  • Broadening access to safe, high-quality generic and alternative competitors through emergency importation
  • Holding drug makers accountable for unjustified price increases with new penalties – and using the funds to expand access and competition
• Cap monthly and annual out-of-pocket costs for prescription drugs to save patients with chronic or serious health conditions hundreds or thousands of dollars
• Clear out the FDA generic backlog
• Prohibit “pay for delay” arrangements that keep generic competition off the market
• Ensure American consumers are getting value for their drugs
• Stop direct-to-consumer drug company advertising subsidies, and reinvest funds in research
• Require drug companies that benefit from taxpayers’ support to invest in research, not marketing or profits
• Allow Medicare to negotiate drug and biologic prices and demand higher rebates for prescription drugs in Medicare

For all the latest, follow our Scheduled Events page and follow Clinton on Twitter, Facebook, YouTube, and Instagram. Also, be sure to subscribe to the campaign’s official Podcast, With Her.

News Source: The Briefing, The New York Times