Veering left, Hillary Clinton puts profit-sharing in economic plan

Hillary Clinton on Monday called wage inequality the “defining economic challenge of our time” as she unveiled a wide-reaching economic platform that veers toward the liberal policies championed by her main rival, Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.).

“As the shadow of crisis recedes and longer-term challenges come into focus, I believe we have to build a growth and fairness economy,” Clinton said at The New School in New York City.

“You can’t have one without the other. We can’t create enough jobs and new businesses without more growth.”

{mosads}Clinton’s 40-minute speech provided the clearest look yet at the economic proposals she aims to champion while running for the White House.

The expansive address — delivered the day before she visits Capitol Hill to meet with Democrats — included a litany of plans that Clinton said would boost economic growth and have a tangible impact on income inequality.

“The measure of our success must be how much incomes rise for hard-working families,” she said.

“Not just for successful CEOs and money managers and not just some arbitrary growth target untethered from people’s lives and livelihoods.”

One of the most attention-grabbing proposals in the speech was a call for encouraging businesses to share their profits with employees, something Clinton said would involve a change to the tax code.

“Hard-working Americans deserve to benefit from the record corporate earnings they helped produce,” she said.

“That will be good for workers and good for business. Studies show profit-sharing that gives everyone a stake in a company’s success can boost productivity and put money directly into employees’ pockets.”

Clinton’s focus on economic issues comes as her primary opponent in the Democratic race, Sanders, is drawing strong crowds and exciting the liberal base.

While Clinton holds a mammoth polling edge over Sanders, he’s been gaining ground in recent weeks, particularly in the early voting states of Iowa and New Hampshire.

Clinton did not mention Sanders by name on Monday but appeared to be adopting the language of the movement supporting him.

She called for “defending and enhancing Social Security,” going “beyond Dodd-Frank” with additional measures to clamp down on banks that are “too complex and too risky” and once-again signaled support for a raise in the minimum wage. But while many of her other policy proposals came armed with specifics, she didn’t provide details in those areas.
 
The speech drew praise from Jim Dean, the president of Democracy for America. That group had previously spearheaded the “Run Warren Run” campaign, which sought to encourage Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) to join the fray as a progressive counter to Clinton.
 
“Secretary Hillary Clinton’s economic policy speech reflects a very clear understanding that the Democratic Party and the vast majority of the American people want a President who will fight alongside Senator Elizabeth Warren and refuse to kowtow to wealthy and powerful interests on Wall Street,” he said in a statement.
 
Clinton also used the speech to rebuke her rivals in the Republican presidential field. She jabbed Jeb Bush for his recent comments that Americans need to work longer hours, comments he said were intended to highlight the need for full-time work.
 
“Let him tell that to the nurse that stands on her feet all day, or the teacher who is in the classroom or the trucker that drives all night,” she said.
 
“They don’t need a lecture, they need a raise.”
 
She also criticized Sen. Marco Rubio’s (R-Fla.) tax plan as a “budget-busting giveaway” and argued that Gov. Scott Walker (R), who launched his White House bid on Monday, made his name “stomping on workers’ rights.”
 
The speech prompted quick criticism from the GOP field.

Bush spokeswoman Allie Brandenburger bashed the speech as a retread of “failed” Obama policies that hurt the middle class. And Carly Fiorina chided it as a “bundle of contradictions, a litany of progressive prescriptions.”

— This story was last updated at 12:19 p.m.