Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton
took aim at Republicans for destroying economic opportunity for workers
by undermining the basic American bargain that hard work is rewarded
with success.
While speaking in Chicago, Clinton said, “I joined
the Senate in 2001, and I saw from the get-go that what the new
president wanted to do along with his Republican allies was not just
turn the clock back on an economy that was working better for hard
working Americans. But turn the clock back on what built the middle
class. Going back as far as they could, and I saw it. I spoke out
against it. I gave speeches on the Senate floor and every other place I
could get. Basically, making the argument don’t let them go back to
trickle down economics. Don’t let them impose their failed economic
policies on us again. Don’t let them turn their backs on what works in
America.”
In a separate statement former Sec. of State Clinton added:
America’s workers are the backbone of our
economy. Working men and women forged the basic bargain that made this
country great – that if you work hard and do your part, you can get
ahead and stay ahead. This Labor Day, we celebrate all the workers who
built America from the ground up.
But as we celebrate, we also rededicate ourselves
to making sure that basic bargain lasts. It’s under attack from
Republicans who want to cut taxes for the wealthy and let corporations
write their own rules. They don’t want to strengthen workers’ rights;
they want to undermine them. We can’t let that happen.
I have fought for working families my entire
career. In the Senate, I was an original co-sponsor of the Employee
Free Choice Act. As President, I will fight to increase the minimum
wage and get wages rising again for all American workers. Right now,
CEO pay and corporate profits are through the roof but middle-class
incomes have barely budged. That’s not the way it’s supposed to work in
America.
I’ll also fight for investments in infrastructure
and high-tech manufacturing, to create more good-paying jobs. I’ll
invest in America’s future workforce, by making sure every child can go
to a high-quality preschool, costs won’t be a barrier to college, and
student debt won’t hold anyone back. And I’ll expand apprenticeship
programs, so more companies invest in hiring and training new workers.
None of this will come easily. But we Americans
aren’t afraid of hard work. This Labor Day, we celebrate advances that
took a lot of patient, persistent effort – like the 40-hour workweek,
overtime protections, workplace safety rules, Social Security, Medicare
and Medicaid, and the Affordable Care Act. They all took sacrifice and
courage on the part of American workers, from the factory floor to the
emergency room to the construction crane. And thanks to them, our
country became a better, fairer place.
I will always stand with workers. I’ll
always champion their right to organize. And I’ll always fight efforts
to roll back union collective bargaining rights. Because when workers
are strong, and working families are strong, America is strong.
The basic bargain in this country has always been
that hard work creates opportunities for success, but American workers
are working harder than ever before and are being cheated out of their
share of the rewards that come from success.
As Clinton pointed out, Republicans have gone from
opposing anything that they view as expanding workers’ rights to
actively trying to undermine the rights of American workers. The
Democratic nominee must vow to fight against the interests that are
bankrolling the Republican agenda against workers.
Former Sec. Clinton hit the nail on the head. The
next battle will be centered on increasing wages for the nation’s
workers. Democrats must lead this unified fight because Republicans have
the billionaire’s money. It will take a united Democratic front to move
this nation forward.
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