Last week, Hillary Clinton made a stop in Boston to campaign for Massachusetts gubernatorial candidate Martha Coakley. During her 25 minute speech, Clinton said, “Don’t let anybody tell you it’s corporations and businesses that create jobs. You know that old theory, trickle-down economics. That has been tried, that has failed. It has failed rather spectacularly.” She then made a statement that her husband “brought arithmetic” to Washington.
Some people have called Clinton’s statement her “You didn’t build that” moment, a reference to a comment by Barack Obama, which in context, meant that business owners did not build the infrastructure that allowed their business to thrive. However, the statement by Clinton lacks context, as the transcript of her speech has not been released, nor has the full video of her speech. Politico reports, “A Clinton aide said she had been referring to tax breaks for corporations.”
Even if one believes the explanation from the aide, that doesn’t explain who Mrs. Clinton thinks is responsible for creating jobs. Knowing that Clinton is a supporter of government intervention, it isn’t hard to take an educated guess that she believes jobs are created by governments. That may even give some insight to the aide’s explanation. It’s possible that in the mind of Hillary Clinton jobs are created by government through tax breaks, government handouts, bids on government contracts, etc. I’m sure there are a lot of Republicans, many of whom are attacking Hillary, that would agree that those factors help create jobs.
Again, since Hillary hasn’t explained her statement, and since the transcript of her speech hasn’t been released, it’s hard to know exactly what she meant. However, it’s easy to know what she didn’t mean, and what she doesn’t believe.
Hillary Clinton, and many others from the two factions of the Ruling Party, doesn’t believe that a free market produces wealth. Hillary doesn’t believe that a free market creates jobs. She doesn’t believe that people should be free to produce goods and provide services absent government regulations. Hillary believes that you are not capable of making decisions for yourself when it comes to what you produce, buy, and/or sell. She doesn’t think you’re smart enough to decide how your children should be educated. She doesn’t think you’re smart enough to decide what substances (i.e. food, drink, etc) you decide to ingest; and most importantly, Hillary Clinton doesn’t think you’re capable of living a normal life without a ruler telling you how to be safe.