Tag: United States Politics

U.S. Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton said on Tuesday, November 3, at two campaign stops in Iowa that she would like to raise the federal minimum wage to $12 an hour from the current $7.25.

Clinton has said repeatedly she wants to raise wages for working Americans, including by raising the minimum hourly wage, but she has rarely named a specific figure.

“I want to raise the federal minimum wage to $12, and encourage other communities to go even higher,” Clinton told a campaign event in Coralville, Iowa.

“I think we can manage it, and I don’t think there should be any unintended consequences to job creation,” Clinton said at another campaign stop at Grinnell College.

Many U.S. cities and municipalities have established a higher minimum wage than the federal rate. Bernie Sanders, who is Clinton’s chief challenger for the Democratic Party nomination for the 2016 presidential election, has said the federal minimum wage should be raised to $15 an hour.

“I’m more comfortable saying let’s get to $12,” Clinton said at Grinnell, “in a reasonable, expeditious way.”

WASHINGTON (TIP): At times, appearing impatient but never losing control of self, Hillary Clinton answered questions at a nearly 11-hour congressional hearing Thursday, October 22. The Congressional hearing was dominated by Republican criticism of her response to the Benghazi attacks. After a day-long grilling on the details of the attack and how Clinton handled it, the former secretary of state was forced to defend her use of a private email account while in office from a flurry of late evening attacks by GOP lawmakers.

CNN reports that she also came under testy cross-examination over the extent to which she has taken responsibility for the deaths of the Americans in the September 11, 2012, attacks and her contact with U.S. Ambassador to Libya Chris Stevens, one of the victims, after sending him to the North African country.

“I came here because I said I would. And I’ve done everything I know to do, as have the people with whom I worked, to try to answer your questions. I cannot do any more than that,” Clinton said towards the end of the grueling day — before later breaking into a coughing fit and taking a throat lozenge to ease her failing voice.

One of the most dramatic moments of the hearing came when Clinton was asked about her contact with Stevens. She acknowledged that she couldn’t recall having talked to him after having sworn him in as ambassador, though she believed they had spoken.

Despite the day’s intensity, Clinton appeared cool and in command for much of the hearing. But as the day wore on, she seemed to be increasingly impatient with the Republican line of questioning and with the constant interruptions from the GOP members on the panel.

In her most emotive testimony, Clinton sought to defang the GOP attacks by arguing that she was agonized over the deaths of four Americans in Libya more than anyone else on the panel.

“I would imagine I have thought more about what happened than all of you put together,” she said. “I have lost more sleep than all of you put together. I have been wracking my brain about what more could have been done or should have been done.”

Clinton noted that an independent Accountability Review Board that she set up as secretary had pulled no punches, unveiling 29 recommendations for improving security for U.S. diplomats overseas. She also noted that previous attacks on Americans abroad, including in 1983 on a U.S. Marines barracks and the U.S. Embassy in Beirut, had produced changes to U.S. security procedures after nonpartisan investigations by Congress.

WASHINGTON (TIP): Leading Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton has proposed measures including new taxes for trading to hold Wall Street accountable and reduce risk of the failure of big banks and investor firms.

“The bottom line is that we can never allow what happened in 2008 to happen again. Just as important, we have to encourage Wall Street to live up to its proper role in our economy — helping Main Street grow and prosper,” Clinton wrote in an op-ed as she rolled out her new set of proposals.

“I will propose a new fee on risk that would discourage the type of excessive leverage and short-term borrowing that could spark another crisis,” she said, adding that her plan would give regulators the authority they need to reorganise, downsize or even break apart any financial institution that is too large and risky to be managed effectively.

“It is a comprehensive and flexible approach. It allows regulators to adapt to changing markets and help ensure that large financial firms never pose a danger to our entire economy,” she said.

Clinton said it is time for more accountability on Wall Street.

Stories of misconduct in the financial industry are shocking – like HSBC allowing drug cartels to launder money or five major banks pleading guilty to felony charges for conspiring to manipulate currency exchange rates, she said.

This is criminal behavior, yet the individuals responsible often get off with limited consequences — or none at all. “I want to change that,” she said.

Following her announcement, The Wall Street Journal said the proposed tax on excessive order cancellations could increase costs, cause market problems.

“We don’t yet know how good or bad this idea could be,” said James Angel, a professor at Georgetown University who studies markets.

“If it’s a small fee used for regulatory purposes, then it could be helpful. If it’s more than that, it could end up costing investors more money in a lot of ways,” he told The Wall Street Journal.

By focusing on cancellations, Clinton runs the risk of hampering an important function of trading firms called market making, according to some market observers, the daily noted.

Bill Harts, spokesman for the high-frequency trading group Modern Markets Initiative, said taxes on trading firms will only “end up costing investors more” because market-makers would have to widen their spreads to accommodate the added cost.

Widening the spread means increasing the difference between offered buy and sell order, which would make it more expensive for buyers and sellers of stocks, Harts said.

However, Joseph Saluzzi from Themis Trading said Clinton’s proposal — if designed correctly — could reduce some of the “noise” in the markets.

“You’re not going to fix things with a tax, but there should be a fee that helps distribute the costs more fairly and reduces manipulative activity,” he told Journal.

WASHINGTON (TIP): A new CNN/ORC poll has found that Hillary Clinton’s lead in the race for the Democratic nomination has fallen to just 10 points, and at the same time, her advantage against the top Republican contenders has vanished. The new poll finds Clinton with 37%support among Democratic and Democratic-leaning voters, down 10 points since August, followed by Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders at 27% and Vice President Joe Biden at 20%. Sanders’ support is about the same as it was in August, making Biden the only candidate to post significant gains in the last month. His support is up 6 points in the last month as he weighs making a run for the presidency.

Behind the top three, former Maryland Gov. Martin O’Malley holds 3%, former Virginia Sen. Jim Webb is at 2% and former Rhode Island Gov. Lincoln Chafee logs less than 1% support.

In the general election match ups, Clinton trails former neurosurgeon Ben Carson by a significant margin (51% Carson to 46%Clinton among registered voters) while running about evenly with both former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush (49% Bush to 47%Clinton) and businessman Donald Trump (48% back each).

The shift away from the former secretary of state stems from shrinking support among women. Clinton’s advantage among women has disappeared in match ups against Bush and Carson. Facing Trump, Clinton still carries women by a large, though tighter, margin. In August, 60% of women favored Clinton to 37% for Trump, but that’s narrowed slightly to 55% Clinton, 41%Trump now. Clinton’s advantage among women against Trump is fueled by independent women, despite that group shifting away from Clinton in the head-to-head against Bush.

The poll suggests Republican women have consolidated their support around their party’s front-runners in the last month, and are now more apt to back both Bush and Trump than they were a month ago. At the same time, the near-universal support for Clinton among Democratic women has softened slightly, bringing it more in-line with her support among Democratic men.

With Biden’s consideration of a run for the White House gaining attention, the poll finds he outperforms Clinton in these hypothetical general election matchups, topping Bush and Trump while falling just slightly behind Carson. Biden tops Trump by 10 points (54%to 44% among registered voters), leads Bush by 8 points (52% to 44%) and is 3 points behind Carson (50% Carson to 47% Biden). Biden’s advantages against Bush and Trump rest on the same kind of gender gap that Clinton appears to have lost: Biden leads Bush by 16 points among women while tying him among men, he tops Trump by 26 points among women while trailing him by 7 among men, and he leads Carson by 5 among women while trailing by 10 among men.

The poll also finds Democrats’ overall enthusiasm for Clinton has waned. In April, shortly after she launched her campaign, 60% of Democratic and Democratic-leaning voters said they would be enthusiastic about her candidacy should she win the party’s nomination for president. Now, just 43% feel that way. But neither Biden nor Sanders has mustered that level of enthusiasm among the Democratic faithful, 37% say they would be enthusiastic about Biden, 31% about Sanders.

And Sanders prompts the greatest potential dissatisfaction, with 30% saying they would be dissatisfied or upset if he eventually won the party’s nomination.

Clinton’s fade in the Democratic race comes as an ideological divide within the party grows into a chasm. In August, Clinton held support from 43% of moderates and 46%of liberals. In the new poll, her support among moderates holds at 47%, while among liberals, it has plummeted to just 23%. Sanders has increased his share of the liberal vote (from 42% to 49%), while falling 9 points among moderates (from 24% to 15%). Meanwhile, Biden has gained ground in both groups.

And enthusiasm for Clinton among liberals has fallen nearly 40 points. Just 29%of liberal Democrats say they would be enthusiastic if she were the party’s nominee, down from 68% in an April poll.

Asked why they back their candidate, most Clinton supporters said her experience is the draw: 58% say it’s mostly on account of her on the job experience, 32% because of her positions on the issues, and 9% because they don’t like the other candidates. Among those Democrats backing her rivals for the nomination, 55% say their choice was driven by the candidate’s positions on the issues, while 27% cite experience and 17% say it’s due to dislike of the other candidates.

There is some good news for Clinton in the poll, however, since most Democrats still say they expect her to be the party’s eventual nominee and the more enthusiastic Democratic voters are more apt to be Clinton backers. Among Democrats and Democatic-leaning voters, 65% expect Clinton to top the party’s ticket in 2016. And among those Democratic voters who say they are extremely or very enthusiastic about voting for president next year — a group which may be more likely to cast ballots in next year’s primary contests — 42% back Clinton, 29%Sanders and 15% Biden.

The CNN/ORC Poll was conducted by telephone September 4-8 among a random national sample of 1,012 adults. This sample included 930 interviews with registered voters, 395 of whom were self-identified Democrats or Democratic-leaning independents. For results among all registered voters, the margin of sampling error is plus or minus 3 percentage points. Among Democratic voters, it is plus or minus 5 points.

A Quinnipiac University poll released Thursday, September 10, showed Sanders continues to build momentum against Clinton, pulling even with her in Iowa, 41%to 40%. That’s up from a 21-point deficit with Clinton two months ago. Other recent polling that has shown Sanders ahead in another key early primary state, New Hampshire, although Clinton still maintains double-digit leads in national polling.

Sanders said his campaign has received contributions from more than 400,000 people with an average donation of $31.20, while eschewing raising money for super PACs.

WASHINGTON (TIP): The Hilary emails issue boils over and over again, with politicians and now the issue is before the courts, too. And Hilary camp keeps offering explanations. The latest explanation has come from the Hilary Campaign Communications Director Jennifer Palmieri. She released the following explanation on August 12.

Here are the basics: 

Like other Secretaries of State who served before her, Hillary used a personal email address, and the rules of the State Department permitted it. She’s already acknowledged that, in hindsight, it would have been better just to use separate work and personal email accounts. No one disputes that.

The State Department’s request: 

Last year, as part of a review of its records, the State Department asked the last four former Secretaries of State to provide any work-related emails they had. Hillary was the only former Secretary of State to provide any materials — more than 30,000 emails. In fact, she handed over too many –the Department said it will be returning over 1,200 messages to her because, in their and the National Archives’ judgment, these messages were completely personal in nature.

Hillary didn’t send any classified materials over email: 

Hillary only used her personal account for unclassified email. No information in her emails was marked classified at the time she sent or received them. She viewed classified materials in hard copy in her office or via other secure means while traveling, not on email.

What makes it complicated: 

It’s common for information previously considered unclassified to be upgraded to classified before being publicly released. Some emails that weren’t secret at the time she sent or received them might be secret now. And sometimes government agencies disagree about what should be classified, so it isn’t surprising that another agency might want to conduct its own review, even though the State Department has repeatedly confirmed that Hillary’s emails contained no classified information at the time she sent or received them.

To be clear, there is absolutely no criminal inquiry into Hillary’s email or email server.

Any and all reports to that effect have been widely debunked. Hillary directed her team to provide her email server and a thumb drive in order to cooperate with the review process and to ensure these materials were stored in a safe and secure manner.

What about the Benghazi committee?

While you may hear from the Republican-led Benghazi committee about Hillary’s emails, it is important to remember that the committee was formed to focus on learning lessons from Benghazi to help prevent future tragedies at our embassies and consulates around the globe. Instead, the committee, led by Republican Representative Trey Gowdy, is spending nearly $6 million in taxpayer money to conduct a partisan witch-hunt designed to do political damage to Hillary in the run-up to the election.

Hillary has remained absolutely committed to cooperating.

That’s why, just as she gave her email server to the government, she’s also testifying before the Benghazi committee in October and is actively working with the Justice Department to make sure they have what they need. She hopes that her emails will continue to be released in a timely fashion.

It’s worth noting: 

Many of the Republican candidates for president have done the same things for which they’re now criticizing Hillary. As governor, Jeb Bush owned his own private server and his staff decided which emails he turned over as work-related from his private account. Bobby Jindal went a step further, using private email to communicate with his immediate staff but refusing to release his work-related emails. Scott Walker and Rick Perry had email issues themselves.

The bottom line: 

Look, Indrajit, this kind of nonsense comes with the territory of running for president. We know it, Hillary knows it, and we expect it to continue from now until Election Day.

It’s okay. We’ll be ready. We have the facts, our principles, and you on our side. And it’s vital that you read and absorb the real story so that you know what to say the next time you hear about this around the dinner table or the water cooler.