Munmun Khan :
The US first presidential debate of 2016 was held in Hofstra University. Candidates talked on three different issues from achieving prosperity, America’s direction, and securing America.
The first question was about creating jobs. Hillary responded by saying first, ‘we need to know what kind of country we want to be’. She focused on interaction among different sectors of the economy. She stressed on economy that works for everyone, invest in people, jobs in infrastructure, advance manufacturing, renewable energy, and small businesses.
Her answer was holistic as she mentioned how increasing number of jobs creation would need other things like higher minimum wage, profit sharing, tax sharing by wealthy people and closing corporate loopholes.
Trump said, “America’s job are fleeing to Mexico. China is devaluating currency. They are using US as a piggy bank and many other countries are doing the same thing. Jobs are leaving from Michigan and Ohio”. But the fact is – jobs from auto industry are going away because of 2008 recession.
He blamed other countries for taking away jobs from US. In the debate, he (Trump) did not say how his diplomacy would solve this problem.
He said, he will reduce tax from 35% to 15% for all businesses and that will make jobs stay in America. Tax cut can cause higher federal budget deficit. When cuts are financed by borrowing as they had in the post-Ronald Regan tax cutting era, it just pushes tax, plus interest, into the future. If government doesn’t decrease spending with tax cuts when there is a chance of inflation.
He said, jobs are fleeing over to China and Mexico. But China is investing a lot in US. The question is: Is he against globalization? Chinese investment in the US real estate market has surpassed $300 billion. Mrs. Clinton said, she wants a tax system that rewards work not just financial transaction. She said, “Trump is going to cut taxes for the top 1%. Trump is for the top 1% but I believe in middle class.”
Trump moved from tax cut to devaluation of currency. He said, China is best at devaluating currency. He said, we need to renegotiate trade deals. But he failed to answer how he will bring back the jobs and companies that had left the country.
He blamed Secretary Clinton and said she was supposed to do that. Later he responded to the question by saying that he would not let the job leave. If a company has a plant outside then they will need to give taxes when selling product inside America. What he forgot to think that if he impose taxes on products then price will increase. There would be inflation and he will not be able to decrease tax.
Trump may know how to do business. He has ambition to become more rich. But America doesn’t only want to become rich. It wants to keep its control over the world economy, world politics, world military power, maintain geo-strategic control and so on. A president should know about all these subject matters. Does Trump know them?
Clinton said, her economic plan is better because it will invest where there is growth prospect. New technology like renewable energy, micro grid, solar energy will create new jobs. In respond to Secretary Clinton’s plan, Trump said, “Our energy policy is a disaster.
You can’t do what you want to do with 20 trillion in debt.” He again named Michigan and Ohio – looked like he was getting out of examples. Clinton said, trade is not the only challenge in economy and she will have a special prosecutor for trade deals. She also said tax cut would add 5 trillion dollar in debt.
Trump said, Hillary is going to do the biggest tax raise in history. This was the time when Trump’s attitude won over Hillary. But attitude is not everything. He also added that Hillary would drive business out and her regulation would be a disaster.
But he will cut regulation. Only few moments ago, he was telling he is going to add taxes for companies who produce products outside of US and that a new regulation is required to control it.
In our opinion, small businesses can be the supplier for big businesses. Trump cannot stop companies to leave country but he can give tax incentives instead of tax cut. Government can control interest rate. Government can control oil price, control dollar value and keep the products price cheaper. Plant can be situated near the border and Government can allow cheap labour to come from near the border.
Clinton said, top down approach doesn’t work for America. She wants to build middle class, make colleges debt free, and refinance students so that they can be debt free. Trump then moved to trade deficit. He said, ” We have trade deficit with almost all of the country”. He did not point out any reason for that. Consumers of US purchase more than any other country, so there will be a trade deficit.
Clinton gave some reasons why Trump had not published his tax returns. She said, “May be he is not as charitable as he says. Perhaps, we don’t know all of his business dealings. He owes 650 million dollars to Wall Street and he paid nothing as Fed tax.” Trump interrupted and said , “That makes me smart.”
Trump brought his business success in the debate a lot. He mentioned about a club of his own where there is no discrimination. He is only expert to work with rich people. He doesn’t know enough about an “Average Joe’s ” life.I am not going into the details of other points. But it looked like Clinton won by controlling her temperament, by giving sensible answer. Trump gave example from his successful career as a businessman. Now it’s America’s choice, if they want a businessman or a politician to run their country.
