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Hillary Clinton couldn't win on Bill's platform

Hillary Clinton says that as president she'd put her husband in charge of the economy since it did so well in the 1990s. The only problem is that she doesn't agree with most of the economic policies in effect then.

President Bill Clinton, for example, enacted the North American Free Trade Agreement over fierce union opposition. He signed legislation driving people off welfare and into work. Though not for lack of trying, nonetheless there was no equivalent of the Affordable Care Act.

Middle class income taxes were much higher. In 1995 a couple with a taxable income of $50,000 owed the federal government $8,930, compared to $6,578 today - 36 percent more.

Though he raised the top income tax bracket to today's 39.6 percent, he cut the capital gains tax from 28 percent to 20 percent. He increased the regressive gasoline tax by 30 percent, from 14.1 cents per gallon to 18.4 cents.

He repealed the Glass-Steagall Act, effectively fostering the rise and dominance of big banks. In his 1996 State of the Union speech, he famously declared, "The era of big government is over" and he spent the last half of his administration balancing the federal budget.

If Hillary Clinton ran on Bill Clinton's economic policies, she'd have to advocate raising taxes on the middle class, keeping the current capital gains tax rate, raising the gasoline tax by 12 cents a gallon, repealing Obamacare, reforming means-tested federal programs, ratifying the Trans-Pacific Partnership treaty, balancing the budget, repealing the Dodd-Frank regulation of financial institutions, and reducing the size of government.

She also wouldn't have a chance of winning the Democratic Party's 2016 nomination.

Bob Foys

Inverness

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