In a speech at Detroit Manufacturing Systems, Hillary Clinton said that there has been a breakdown of America's basic bargain–that fundamental idea that if you work hard and do your part, you'll be able to get ahead and stay ahead—and outlined her plans for a "new bargain" to create more, good-paying jobs in America.
Thank you. Wow. I am so excited to be here. And I appreciate the short tour that I just had and the information that I was given. I want to thank Detroit Manufacturing Services for welcoming us here today, and I want to thank them especially for giving so many hardworking people the chance to make a good living with a good job with benefits and union representation. It all adds up.
I want to thank Andra Rush, the CEO of DMS. I want to acknowledge this is the largest woman-owned business in Michigan and one of the largest Native American-owned businesses in America. It's also great to be here with so many of my friends, my former colleagues. I'm thrilled to be in Detroit. I want to thank the mayor. Where is the mayor? Mayor. Thank you, Mayor Duggan, for everything you're doing. I want to thank Senator Debbie Stabenow, my friend and colleague Congressman John Conyers he's got that red jacket on, you can see him. Congresswoman Brenda Lawrence, thank you. My long-time friend, Congresswoman Debbie Dingell.
And of course, I want to recognize a legend. Now you may think I'm talking about his storied career in the Congress, and of course I am. But I want you to know that former Congressman John Dingell is a social media sensation. He is the king of Twitter. And I'm so pleased he's here today. I want to hank former Governor Jim Blanchard and Janet Blanchard. And we have some great union leaders here. We have the former president of the UAW, Bob King. Thank you, Bob, for being here. We have the president of SCIU here in the state, Marge Robinson. And the president of AFSCME, Council 25, Al Garrett, thank you all for being with me.
Now, I deliberately chose to come to Detroit and to come to this company to talk about jobs. Because I want more people to see what's happening in southwest Detroit and Midtown and Eastern Market. New businesses are opening, families are moving in, the street lights are on again, the buses are running, there is a palpable feeling of pride and community. And we have to spread the economic revitalization to all of Detroit's neighborhoods. And you can do it, because look how far you've come. Thanks to your hard work, the auto industry just had its best year ever.
Innovation is on the rise. Between the car makers and suppliers, the clean energy sector, the defense corridor, high tech firms in Ann Arbor, cutting edge design happening in Grand Rapids, the next generation of engineers getting trained up in Houghton and so much else, your hard work, doing what you've always done, making and designing things that America needs and the world wants is once again going strong, and I am so grateful to everybody who played a part in that.
Now last night, Detroit played a different role, didn't it? Hosting the Republican presidential—I don’t know what to call it, I guess debate. There were so many insults flying back and forth, it was hard to keep track. But the biggest insult of all was to the American people. The economy, which should be at the top of any list that anybody running for president has was basically an afterthought. Maybe that's because all the Republican candidates support the same failed policies: cut taxes for the rich, get out of the way of corporations, don't raise the minimum wage -- in fact, the frontrunner says he thinks wages are too high in our country—and slash government to the bone. Now surprise they've all criticized or opposed the auto rescue. What was missing last night is an honest reckoning with the most important economic challenge we face. How do we raise incomes and create the good jobs of the future?
Now on the Democratic side, we agree on a number of things. But I don’t think we can answer that question by refighting battles from 20 years ago. Anyone running for president owes it to you to come up with real ideas, not an ideology, not an old set of talking points, but a credible strategy designed for the world we live in now. And that's exactly what I'm here today to do.
In America, if you work hard and you do your part, you're supposed to be able to get ahead and stay ahead no matter who you are or where you started out. That's the basic bargain that made this country great. But for many Americans, that no longer holds true. Too many barriers hold back our families, our economy, and because of that, our country. Instead of good paying jobs, millions of Americans are stuck in low-wage work. Now corporate profits and CEO pay keeps rising, but paychecks for working families have barely budged. And instead of affordable college, we have skyrocketing tuition and millions of people weighed down by student debt.
More women than ever are the main breadwinners or co-breadwinners, but they still don’t get equal pay. And the unions that helped build our country and the middle class are under concerted attack. And it's no surprise that Americans are angry, is it? Folks work hard all day, then lie awake all night trying to figure out how in the world they’re going to pay for their kids’ college, or a new roof, or making sure mom gets the care she needs. And for some parents, it’s even worse. They have to worry about whether the water their kids drink is poisonous, like the families in Flint. Or about their kids’ schools that are crumbling and rodent-infested, like too many here in Detroit. That is not the way it is supposed to be in America.
Now, some of the blame for these changes in the economy rest with big, historic forces, like trade and technology. Wall Street and some of our corporations also, however, bear a lot of responsibility. Too many in the financial industry forgot that the purpose of banking is to get capital to main street to invest in new businesses or expand successful ones like this of any size, and to increase the opportunity for home ownership and community development.
It is not to create huge riches for a select few at the expense of everyone else. And meanwhile, too many leaders in corporate America are prioritizing their short-term stock price over their workers and their communities. And we can’t forget the damage caused by trickle-down economics and right-wing ideologues who believe in weakening government oversight, massive tax cuts for the rich, ripping away the safety net, and breaking the backs of unions.
But as Detroit proves every day, what has been broken can be rebuilt, stronger than before.
Throughout this campaign, I’ve said that creating good-paying jobs and raising incomes is the defining economic challenge of our time, and that in order to get where I want us to go, we need growth that is strong, fair, and long-term. That’s why we need a new bargain for the new economy. A new bargain to ensure that the jobs of the future are good-paying American jobs. The kind that provide both good incomes and the dignity, pride and sense of purpose that come when you have something to look forward to when you get up in the morning. And the people that I met as I was walking here with Ed were all people who fit that description, proud of what they’re doing, grateful for the opportunity to be part of a team that respects one another, looking to continue the growth that this company has enjoyed. So that’s the kind of jobs we want, and you’re creating them again in Michigan.
Some of the most exciting technological breakthroughs are happening right here – not in China, not in Germany, but in Michigan. You used to make B-24 bombers at Willow Run. Now you’re developing driverless cars there. At Ventower in Monroe, you’re making the towers that make wind turbines possible. Chevy is making electric cars in Hamtramck and using clean energy to do it. Shinola has created more than 500 jobs, and they’ve cornered the market on watches for presidents. Both my husband and President Obama love their Shinolas.
So Michigan proves every day that American workers are the best in the world. All they need is a fair chance on a fair playing field. That’s why we need this new bargain, and here’s what it should be.
First, corporations have to do right by their communities and our country. Corporations benefit in so many ways from being right here in the United States. But too often, this relationship feels like a one-way street. Too many are not holding up their end of the bargain. They don’t recognize that one of the biggest assets on their balance sheet in America. And part of the problem is a casino culture on Wall Street that for too long puts short-term speculation ahead of long-term strength, and asks taxpayers to hold the bag when they bets go bad. We need to make sure Wall Street never threatens Main Street again. And as I have said may times, no bank can be too big to fail and no executive too powerful to jail.
But we also have to understand how bad behavior on Wall Street and pressure to meet quarterly earnings expectations contributes to bad behavior across corporate America. Look at companies like Nabisco, laying off 600 workers in Chicago and moving their production line to Mexico, even though the company has long received tax breaks from the state of Illinois. They have no problem taking taxpayer dollars with one hand and giving out pink slips with the other. Look at the growing number of companies moving their headquarters overseas just so they can avoid paying their fair share of taxes here at home.
Now, one company doing that right now is called Johnson Controls, which makes car parts. It actually lobbied for and benefitted from the auto rescue in 2008. They went to Washington, along with everybody else, and they asked for help. The Republicans said, “No. We’re not going to help.” President Obama and the Democrats said, “Yes. We will help. Millions of jobs and families are at stake.” So everybody here, all of us taxpayers, we helped save Johnson Controls. And on their website, they talk about their contracts with the federal government. And they say that keeping the country safe and prosperous is, and I quote, “The patriotic thing to do.” Well, I hope they do the patriotic thing and stay in America and pay the taxes that they owe for everything we’ve done for them.
Now, look. I’m not interested in condemning whole categories of businesses or the entire private sector. Of course not. But I do want to send a clear message to every board room and executive suite. If you cheat your employees, you exploit your customers, you pollute our environment or rip off the taxpayers, we will hold you accountable. This country has given you so much. If you desert America, you’ll pay a price. But do the right thing, invest in your workers and your country’s future, and we will stand with you. And here’s how it should work.
To discourage bad behavior, we’ll make companies pay for what are called inversions under the tax code, which means they pretend to sell themselves to a company overseas. And then they pretend to move their headquarters overseas. I call it a perversion, but under the tax code it’s called an inversion. And we will make you pay for that with a new exit tax. And if a company like Nabisco outsources and ships jobs overseas, we’ll make you give back the tax breaks you received here in America. If you aren’t going to invest in us, why should taxpayers invest in you?
Let’s take that money and put it to work in the communities that are being left behind. And to encourage good behavior, let’s enact policies that promote long-term investment, like capital gains taxes that only scale downward for truly multi-year investments but are higher for short-term trading. Let’s promote in-shoring, innovation, and investment with new tax credits that make it profitable to take the high road rather than the low, like Michigan Ladder Company, which has been operating in Ypsilanti for over a century. They have stopped buying fiberglass ladders from suppliers in China and started making them here in Michigan. I know it would make more financial sense, and we’ve got to help other companies discover what they can do as well.
Now, I’m not asking corporations to be charitable, although that’s important. I’m asking corporations to realize that when Americans prosper, they prosper, too. The idea of corporate patriotism might sound quaint in an era of vast multinationals, but it’s the right thing to do and, I argue, the smart thing to do as well.
And that leads directly to the second part of the new bargain. Companies have to start treating workers like assets to be investing in, not costs to be cut. Look at what’s happening. These days, our biggest companies return eight or nine out of every ten dollars they earn directly back to shareholders, either in the form of dividends or stock buybacks. And they’re also, many of them, sitting on huge cash reserves, often stashed in foreign tax havens. That’s money they’re not using to train their workers or give them a raise.
Even worse, the link between rising productivity and rising pay has snapped. Productivity goes up still. Profits go up. Executive pay goes up. Stock prices go up. But workers are being left behind. And in an economy that’s 70 percent consumption, that’s a big problem. And it doesn’t have to be that way. In the 1990s, when we had another Democratic President that I think did a good job, in the 1990s, when productivity rose, the typical family’s income also rose by $10,000. Some of you remember that. And in fact, African American family income went up as a higher percentage because there were so many jobs and people really making progress. It’s good for everyone when workers’ incomes go up. America grows when your paycheck grows.
This is like fundamental Economics 101. More money in the hands of wealthy people just helps wealthy people. More money in the hands of working people helps everyone, including businesses. And that’s why we should raise the federal minimum wage and fight for even higher minimum wages in places where that makes sense. It’s why we should provide incentives for companies that invest in high quality training for employees, which can lead to higher-paying jobs. And we should create a tax credit for employers that share profits with their workers. Auto makers here in Detroit know the value of transparent profit-sharing plans that come on top of good wages.
Now, we also have to take on a big reason why paychecks haven’t moved and good jobs are still too scarce, and that is the diminishing power of labor unions. As you know well, unions helped bring back the auto industry. No one gave more to Detroit and Michigan during these past few years. Union members build our cities, keep our lights on, educate our children, and care for our loved ones. And the relentless assault on labor and the erosion of workers’ bargaining power has not only affected worker pay, it’s also a key reason why overtime rules haven’t been updated in decades and why family-friendly policies like paid leave, earned sick days, and fair scheduling haven’t been widely embraced.
And inequality, inequality has been widened by the decline of unions, too. We need to stand up to Republicans in Washington and in state houses like here in Michigan who do everything they can to reduce unions’ power. And we need to stand up for workers because when unions are strong, families are strong and America is strong.
The third part of the new bargain is government stepping up, too. Too often Washington only works for the wealthy and the well-connected. You know it. I know it. Everyone knows it. Like what Republicans in Congress did when they cut off unemployment benefits for people laid off in the Great Recession who were still working, looking for work or when candidates promise trillions of dollars in tax cuts that go mostly to the rich. This needs to change. American interests have to come before special interests. And the American worker and American jobs have to come first. And one area where we've gotten this balance wrong over the years is trade.
The good news is America's exports are up 40 percent under President Obama. I was proud to work with him on that when I was secretary of state. Because export jobs tend to pay better than non-export jobs, so there are real benefits there.
But looking back over the past decades as globalization picked up steam, there's no doubt that the benefits of trade have not been as widely enjoyed as many predicted, especially when the Bush Administration failed to enforce our trade laws or stand up to China. Corporations may have won, but many workers lost. They lost their jobs, they lost their sense of purpose. Cheaper goods are no substitute for that. So America has to do better.
There are people in both parties who think we can somehow shut ourselves off from the world. But even if the United States never signs another trade deal, globalization isn't going away. Our challenge is to establish and enforce fair rules so that our workers compete on a level playing field and countries don’t race to the bottom on labor, the environment and so much else.
The way we enforce trade rules right now is completely backward. We've put the burden of initiating trade cases on workers and unions. And we don’t take action until after the damage is done, which often means after workers is laid off. That is ridiculous. The government should be enforcing the law from the beginning so workers can focus on doing their jobs.
And enforcing trade laws means dealing with one country above all, China. Now when it comes to trade, China is, by far, the worst rule breaker in the world. It dumps cheap products in our markets, subsidizes state-owned enterprises who undersell in the global market to hurt our companies, and it discriminates against American companies. But now that China's economy is slowing down, we can expect even more bad acts from them. It will look to dump products overseas to make up for lost demand at home. So we have to stop that right now, and we have to prevent not just China but other countries from manipulating their currencies to gain an unfair price advantage.
So I will do this. I will expand the ways we respond to currency manipulation to include effective new remedies like duties and tariffs. Now I know something about dealing with China. I've sat across a lot of tables from Chinese leaders, discussing and negotiating, even arguing about some of the toughest issues we face: nuclear weapons, cyberwarfare, human rights, currency, climate change and much more. So I know firsthand that the relationship between our countries is the most complex and consequential in the world. And the next president is going to need the judgment and experience to steer that relationship in the right direction on trade and everything else.
When it comes to trade deals, here's my standard: I won't support any agreement unless it helps create good jobs and higher wages for American workers and protects our national security. I need to be able to look into the eyes of any hardworking American anywhere in our country and say this deal will help raise your income. That's why I voted against the last big, multinational trade deal called CAFTA. It's why I don’t support the Transpacific Partnership trade deal.
But our policies—can't just be about stopping trade abuses and outsourcing; they also have to be about creating jobs and higher wages here at home. And I agree with my esteemed opponent, Senator Sanders. We need major new investments in infrastructure, and I put forth a $275 billion plan that would put millions of Americans to work modernizing our roads and bridges and railways and ports, finish the job of connecting all of our homes to high-speed internet.
And we will also rebuild our crumbling water systems in Flint and around the country. I also want to create a national infrastructure bank to put private capital to work alongside taxpayer dollars. We have so much work to be done in this country, we need everybody contributing.
And I also have a vision for a clean energy future. The longer we wait to deal with climate change, the more expensive it gets. But if we start today, we can create good paying jobs that can’t be outsourced. We can become the clean energy superpower of the 21st century. And we can protect our kids’ health and futures in the bargain. So far, so good, but that’s not enough. We need to invest in dynamic sources of growth, like small businesses, manufacturing, and technology. And I’m the only candidate on either side in this race who has actually put forward a plan to support entrepreneurs and remove the barriers that stand in their way.
You see the power of small businesses right here in Michigan, with companies like Detroit Bikes and McClure’s Pickles. They create jobs; they make the city a more dynamic, attractive place. But the sad truth is more dreams die in the parking lots of banks than anywhere else in America. People come with a good idea, and they get turned away. So we have to increase access to startup capital, give more help to community banks, so more entrepreneurs can get their dreams off the ground and compete for your business.
And one important tool to support both small and big business is the Export-Import Bank, which helps businesses reach new markets and compete for new customers. Now, unfortunately, Republicans in Congress, along with Senator Sanders, have tried to kill it repeatedly. He also stood with Republicans against another important job-creating tool, the New Market Tax Credit, which has helped steer investments into neglected communities. Now that doesn’t make sense to me. We should never let ideology get in the way of helping Americans find the good jobs they need and deserve.
So I think your next president has to offer a serious proposal to jumpstart manufacturing. With the right policies and investments, we can ensure America continues to have the world’s most competitive auto and auto parts industries. Now this is not a new fight for me. In the Senate, where I represented New York, I also represented some great manufacturing towns like Rochester and Buffalo. I worked closely with likeminded senators, like Debbie Stabenow. We reached across the aisle to start the bipartisan Manufacturing Caucus. This is a priority for me, to help our manufacturers use all the latest science to forge stronger steel and weave tougher fabrics and make thinner, stronger glass, like they do at Corning Glass in upstate New York.
Now I remember how hard I had to work to protect jobs in Corning against China. We had to battle the Chinese over intellectual property and fair competition. We had to battle the Bush administration to actually go to bat for a blue chip American company. But it was worth it, because good American jobs were at stake. So companies like Corning show how technology can transform our economy for the better. That creates entirely new industries, and it’s a powerful force for prosperity and improved quality of life.
The next 20 years are poised to be even more transformative than the last. I think it’s exciting, and you can see that all over Michigan, in Ann Arbor and other places. But you can’t have a candid conversation about the jobs of the future without also talking about the challenges posed by technology automation and mechanization. We’ve got to harness technology as a force for good for all of us.
And as we lay the foundation for a brighter future, we have to deal with the legacy of the past. There are still too many economic barriers that disproportionately hold back communities of color—redlining in housing, segregation in schools, a huge opportunity gap. We need a comprehensive commitment to invest in all communities, anywhere they have, that have too long been neglected.
And let’s work to replace the school-to-prison pipeline with a cradle-to-college pipeline. And let’s help the millions of people coming home from prison every year find new jobs, not closed doors. I want to work across our country, not only in urban communities, but in coal country, in Indian country. I want to do everything I can to help immigrants who are forced to live in the shadows.
But here’s the bottom line – creating good paying jobs has got to be a top priority. We’ve got to build on the progress we’ve made under President Obama, over 70 straight months of private sector job creation, and as we learned this morning, more than 240,000 jobs just last month. But you know what? I’m not taking that for granted. We’ve got to make sure we have much more in the pipeline, so that every American has a chance to get ahead and stay ahead.
And don’t let anyone tell you we can’t do this. As I said, in the ’90s, we made incomes rise for everyone. We’ve seen the auto industry pull together and recover from the brink of collapse to record sales. We’ve done this before. And I’ll tell you, when I hear people running for president who spend all their time badmouthing America, it really upsets me. You know what? We’ve got work to do. Instead of complaining, let’s join hands. Let’s lift ourselves up. Let’s get going together. Let’s make a difference.
Let’s build tomorrow. Let’s make sure every American has the same chance to live up to his or her God-given potential. Thank you all so much.