I think Hillary Clinton is 1000 times better than Donald Trump, but...

Robert Reich
9-3-2016

I think Hillary Clinton is 1000 times better than Donald Trump, but I continue to worry about how close she is to the moneyed interests that are taking over our democracy. The New York Times reports (below) that she’s raising huge money from big money. At a single event on Tuesday, 10 people paid at least $250,000 to meet her, raising $2.5 million. At other events the fee to meet her is $100,000.

More troubling is what she’s telling her wealthy hosts. According to the Times, when businessmen complain that Obama has been unfriendly to their interests, she says she’d approach business leaders more like Bill Clinton did during his administration. When financiers complain about Dodd-Frank financial regulations, she say’s she’s open to anyone’s ideas and sometimes notes she represented the banking industry as a senator. When wealthy contributors complain about her opposition to the Trans-Pacific Partnership and express concerns that Bernie Sanders of Vermont pushed her to the left on trade, she reminds them she has both opposed and supported trade deals in the past.

The Times reports she’s extremely relaxed at these gatherings, unlike elsewhere on the campaign trail. “If she feels most at ease around millionaires, within the gilded bubble, it is in part because they are some of her most intimate friends.”

I suggest Hillary (1) commit that campaign-finance reform will be part of her first 100-day agenda – including full disclosure of who contributes what, government match of small donations, ending the revolving door between business and government, and reversing “Citizens United”; (2) immediately sever all family connections to the Clinton Foundation; and (3) pledge that her top economic advisors will not be former Wall Street executives or directors.

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