The LuLac Edition #3335, October 30th, 2016

7 SUNDAYS

Our “7 Sundays” logo.

(This is a 7 part series on the major issues in this Presidential election and where the candidates stand. The information is directly from each candidate’s website. The order of appearance will vary from week to week because we will use a coin toss to determine what candidate’s views will appear first).

THE ECONOMY

10-30-16

CLINTON

Despite the progress we’ve made in coming back from the Great Recession, we face a set of core challenges to building an economy that works for everyone—including a political system that is doing too little to help working Americans, an economic system that encourages too many corporations to favor short-term profits over long-term investments, and outdated workplace policies that aren’t meeting the needs of modern families.

AS PRESIDENT, HILLARY HAS A FIVE-POINT PLAN TO MEET THESE CHALLENGES:

•A 100-days jobs plan: Break through Washington gridlock to make the boldest investment in good-paying jobs since World War II. Hillary will fight to pass a plan in her first 100 days in office to invest in infrastructure, manufacturing, research and technology, clean energy, and small businesses. She will strengthen trade enforcement, and she’ll say no to trade deals like TPP that don’t meet a high enough bar of creating good-paying jobs. And she will make the U.S. the clean energy superpower of the world—with half a billion solar panels installed by the end of her first term and enough clean, renewable energy to power every home in America within 10 years of her taking office.
•Make debt free college available to all Americans. Hillary will make college debt-free, and she’ll provide relief for Americans with existing debt by allowing them to refinance their student loans.
•Rewrite the rules so that more companies share profits with employees—and fewer ship profits and jobs overseas. Hillary will reward companies that share profits and invest in their workers, and she will raise the minimum wage to a living wage. She will crack down on companies that shift profits overseas to avoid paying U.S. taxes, and she’ll make companies that export jobs give back the tax breaks they’ve received in America. She will defend existing Wall Street reform and push for new measures to strengthen it.
•Make certain that corporations, the wealthy, and Wall Street pay their fair share.Hillary will pay for her economic priorities and avoid adding to the national debt by ensuring the wealthiest Americans and the biggest corporations pay their fair share. For example, she’ll fight for the Buffett Rule, close the carried interest loophole, and impose a new surcharge on multi-millionaires and billionaires.
•Enact policies that meet the challenges families face in the 21st-century economy.Hillary will make it possible for parents to succeed at work and at home by updating outdated laws so they match how families work today. She will fight for equal pay and guarantee paid leave, two changes that are long overdue. And she will provide relief from the rising costs of necessities like child care and housing, while taking steps to provide Americans with greater retirement and health care security.

THE ECONOMY

10-30-16

TRUMP

Create a dynamic booming economy that will create 25 million new jobs over the next decade.
For each 1 percent in added GDP growth, the economy adds 1.2 million jobs. Increasing growth by 1.5 percent would result in 18 million jobs (1.5 million times 1.2 million, multiplied by 10 years) above the projected current law job figures of 7 million, producing a total of 25 million new jobs for the American economy.
Reform policies with a pro-growth tax plan, a new modern regulatory framework, an America-First trade policy, an unleashed American energy plan, and the “penny plan.”
Boost growth to 3.5 percent per year on average, with the potential to reach a 4 percent growth rate.
Read Donald J. Trump’s Plan to Create 25 Million Jobs, here.
Read Mr. Trump's Remarks in Monessen, Pennsylvania, at the Detroit Economic Club, and at the New York Economic Club.

KEY ISSUES

•Over the last seven years, 14 million more people have left the labor force.
•The lowest labor force participation rate since the 1970s.
•1 in 5 American households do not have a single family member in the labor force.
•23.7 million Americans in their prime-earning years [ages 25-54] are out of the labor force – an increase of 1.8 million over the last seven years.
•Real GDP grew only 1.1% in the second quarter of this year. Over the last seven years, real GDP grew 2.1% the slowest seven-year period since at least the 1940s.
•It’s the weakest so-called recovery since the Great Depression.
•Hourly earnings and weakly earnings are lower today than they were in 1973.
•The number of Americans on Food Stamps during Obama’s time in office has increased by more than 12 million.
•2 million more Latinos are in poverty today than when President Obama took his oath of office less than eight years ago.
•45% of African-American children under 6 are living in poverty.
•1 in 6 American men between the ages of 18-34 are either in jail or out of work.
•Student loan debt exceeds $1.3 trillion — nearly doubling under the Obama administration.
•Since President Obama took office, the national debt has doubled.
•U.S. trade deficit in goods reached nearly 800 billion dollars last year alone.
•The U.S. homeownership rate fell to 62.9 percent in the second quarter – the lowest rate in 51 years.

CONTRAST WITH HILLARY CLINTON

•Hillary Clinton says she'll put her husband ‘in charge’ of the economy – which is half the job. [ABC News, May 15, 2016]
•Hillary Clinton’s economic plans would send our economy into a tailspin:
Whereas Trump will cut taxes and reduce anti-growth regulations, she plans massive new tax-and-spend policies, endless regulations and tight government control.
oHer corporatist trade and immigration deals would eviscerate the U.S. middle class.
Clinton’s policies are worse than current policies, which have already been evaluated as failures. The Federal Reserve has lowered its estimated growth rate to 1.8% per year through 2019 based on current policies. CBO expects only 2% growth per year for ten years.