To Hillary, Bill was the King of Income Inequality

On June 13, Hillary Clinton was about to relaunch her presidential campaign after its horrible launch weeks ago, that came amid all the Clinton Foundation scandals.  But, prior to her appearance, a close campaign confidant leaked an excerpt of the speech she was about to give in the Business Insider magazine. It concerned income inequality. The text follows:

Republicans think it’s time to go back to the old top-down playbook that failed us before.  They think it’s time for lower taxes for the super-rich and fewer rules for the biggest corporations. We’ve seen this before.  And we can’t let it happen again.

Really? Failed us?  This from a woman who makes more money giving a one hour speech than nearly 4,000 minimum wage workers would make in a year working 40 hours a week with no vacation or sick days?  Not exactly an "I really feel your pain moment"!

That aside, one measure of income inequality is how the top 10% of the nation's income earners fare against the rest of us.  To that point, let me thank two liberal (actually socialist) French economists for the following chart:

As you can clearly see, in 1928 (a year prior to the Crash of '29), the top 10% were almost earning 50% of what all the rest of the country earned.  Then came the market crash, the Great Depression, World War II, and the Korean war, so that by 1953, the super rich had only controlled a little more than 32% of all incomes.  Until Democrat Jimmy Carter became President, the richest incomes meandered sideways from 32-1/2 percent to 35% with the years under Republicans Nixon/Ford being the most stable.  Then, in 1979, under Democrat Jimmy Carter, the current increase in super rich wealth began. From that point forward, the rich not only regained their high percentage of income earning power they enjoyed from pre-1929 levels, but exceeded it by now earning in excess of 50% of all incomes in 2012 and under Democrat Barack Obama's watch.  Further, under Obama, we have historically high levels of poverty. 

Interestingly, the steepest and least interrupted growth in income inequality occurred during the years that Hillary's husband, Democrat Bill Clinton was in office from 1993 to 2001.  During those years -- starting in 1995 -- the super rich grew from 41% of incomes to nearly 47% by 2000.  A gain of nearly 15% in just 4 years.

Once again, Hillary is making a campaign issue out of a lie.  More often than not, gains in the rich's earning power increase under Democrats because the super wealthy feed off higher government spending, policies, and regulation. For example, right now, the rich are making money hand-over-fist in the stock market which is reaching record highs because interest rates have been so low.  At the same time, those who are lucky enough to have some money in the bank are seeing interest rates that are less than inflation; meaning that they are losing money on every penny of savings they have.

Hillary may talk like "Robin Hood" regarding the rich, but she's not going to do anything about it. Hillary and Bill love the rich.  That's who pays them for all those speaking engagements and that's who supports the Clinton Foundation.  These are also the very people who will give Hillary enough money to run her billion dollar campaign. 

References:

Hillary Clinton, in Roosevelt Island Speech, Pledges to Close Income Gap: http://www.nytimes.com/2015/06/14/us/hillary-clinton-attacks-republican-economic-policies-in-roosevelt-island-speech.html

Hillary Clinton's 'talking points' for 'friends and allies' just leaked: http://www.businessinsider.com/hillary-clintons-talking-points-for-friends-and-allies-just-leaked-2015-6

Chart source: How do we know income inequality is getting worse?: http://www.cbsnews.com/news/dreaming-of-a-better-gini/

That's rich: Poverty level under Obama breaks 50-year record: http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2014/jan/7/obamas-rhetoric-on-fighting-poverty-doesnt-match-h/?page=all

How Did the Clintons Become So Rich? [and help their rich friends at the same time]: http://www.alternet.org/news-amp-politics/how-did-clintons-become-so-rich


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