The bus tour carrying Hillary and Bill Clinton and Tim Kaine and Anne Holton stopped in Johnstown today. They visited Johnstown Wire where Tim Kaine joked about Trump mistaking him for former NJ Governor Tom Kean, but talked seriously about how Trump stiffed and even destroyed small businesses that had contracted with him. Kaine’s family ran a small business when he was growing up. He introduced Hillary, whose dad also ran a small business.
Hillary spoke on tax reform and against trickle-down policies. She said that she has plans and that some people make fun of her for that, but it doesn’t hurt her feelings anymore. Hillary talked about broad job creation and manufacturing initiatives. She also spoke firmly in support of organized labor and against unfair trade deals. She will name a trade prosecutor. Her policies will support and sustain small businesses and their job creation initiatives. She said 98% of the businesses in Pennsylvania are small businesses. If you would like to take a tour then get your tickets for bus tours from PEI, they are a lot of fun and you get to see some amazing sights.
On the second day of their “Stronger Together” jobs-focused bus tour through Pennsylvania and Ohio, Hillary Clinton and Senator Tim Kaine of Virginia continued introducing the American people to their 100 days jobs plan, which will make the largest investment in new, good-paying jobs since World War II during their first 100 days in office. They visited Johnstown Wire Technologies, a factory with a record of creating jobs and investing in America. highlighting her plans to invest $10 billion to strengthen manufacturing communities like Johnstown. She also highlighted an economic analysis by a former McCain advisor that said Clinton’s plans would create over 10 million jobs in her first term alone.
Clinton and Kaine also contrasted their shared vision for an American economy that works for everyone—not just those at the top—with Trump’s long record of outsourcing products to be made overseas, instead of here in America. As Clinton said, “Donald Trump, you hear him, he talks a big game about putting America first. Well, with all due respect, please explain to me what part of America first leads Trump to make Trump dress shirts in Bangladesh, not Ashland, Pennsylvania. Or to make Trump furniture in Turkey, not Freeburg, Pennsylvania. Or Trump picture frames in India, not Bristol, Pennsylvania.”
Tim Kaine praised Clinton’s dedication to protecting American manufacturing jobs, saying “And we’re on this tour so that we can talk about the American economy: to talk about manufacturing; to talk about the way to grow jobs and make sure everybody benefits from our economic growth, not just a few. And that’s why I admire Hillary so very, very much.”
Clinton and Kaine’s remarks, as transcribed, are below:
TIM KAINE: “How you guys doing? So good to be here at Johnstown Wire, and thank you for welcoming us. I want to thank Jim and Ron. And I had a great chance to visit with Nick a little bit, and heard about what you all do. It is a treat for us to bring our bus tour here. You can see my voice has gotten a little hoarse this week. I don’t know why. It’s not like I’ve been doing a lot of talking. I want to say a special thanks to Leo Gerard, the head of the steel workers. Leo, it’s so good to have you here.
The largest steelworker union in the international, the largest […] local, is in Newport News, Virginia. Local […], which is the manufacturers who build the most complicated things on planet Earth – nuclear aircraft carriers and subs. So we’re glad to have our steel workers there in Virginia, Leo.
This has been an incredible week. And my wife, Anne, up until a couple of days ago was the Secretary of Education in Virginia, but she stepped down to campaign full time so we can get Hillary Clinton elected President. The week has been amazing, and I’m just really humbled and honored to be part of this ticket. Being asked by a public servant who is as superb as Hillary Clinton, to join her on this ticket and to do good things for the economy, to grow it so that all benefit, to make us strong in the world with stronger alliances to build a community of respect – It’s deeply humbling.
There has only been one bad thing about being asked to join this ticket. And I’ll just be blunt about it. Once I was on the ticket, Donald Trump had to decide how he was going to make fun of me. So he basically decided at a press conference a couple of days ago, it really hurt my feelings, by saying what a lousy governor of New Jersey I had been.
When you work hard in public life, and then somebody trashes your record, you feel bad. I was feeling bad for a few minutes, and I thought, ‘Wait a minute, I wasn’t governor of New Jersey. I’ve never lived in New Jersey. I was governor of Virginia.’ So then I started to feel better. You’ve got – listen, you’ve got to give the guy a break. He’s new at this. He’s still getting the briefing memos on 50 states and New Jersey’s different than Virginia. So give him time, I guess, give him time. Well, look. I took this nomination a couple of days ago, and I talked about my own background, which makes me feel proud to be here. I was talking to Jim and Ron and Nick as we came in.
I grew up in Kansas City, and my dad ran an iron-worker organized ironworking and welding shop in the stockyards of Kansas City. My mom was his best salesman. My brothers and I worked in a manufacturing business that is pretty similar to this, except a whole lot smaller. Five employees plus family and […], plus family in a good year, but I know the deep importance of manufacturing: the deep importance of cooperation between management and union labor. So that’s why I’m so glad to come here today.
And we’re on this tour so that we can talk about the American Economy: to talk about manufacturing; to talk about the way to grow jobs and make sure everybody benefits from our economic growth, not just a few. And that’s why I admire Hillary so very, very much. She —
No, please. please. Hillary also grew up in a small business family. You know, we were comparing notes. The businesses were different, but one thing’s the same if you grow up in a small business family. Everybody, it’s all hands on deck, just like this campaign.
Everybody comes down and the kids come down. If you’ve got to get an order or if it’s a holiday or a weekend and something is needed, everybody gets pressed into service. And she learned those same values growing up in her family in suburban Chicago and she’s been living them for her entire career. And she’s got just about the best life partner that you could imagine if you’re trying to serve others. Please give a great round of applause to President Clinton.
For all of us on stage and frankly for anybody who’s got their values straight, it’s not about title, it is not about money, it is not about prestige, it’s not about popularity it’s about what you can do to help folks out. And that’s why I’m so excited to be here on this tour with Hillary, Bill and my wife Anne.
For us to just be sitting on a bus shooting the breeze with Hillary and Bill Clinton – I mean, I’ve got to tell you, I’m still sort of pinching myself. And yesterday – we have a boy in the Marines who deployed overseas earlier this week. And we were able to – and […] that Nick is a Marine – we were able to get him on the phone and talk to our running mates, and man that just blew him away. That’s something that he felt so good about many time zones away.
But look, we’re here because the convention was great and Pennsylvania did a superb job. We think we know hospitality in Virginia, but Philly and Pennsylvania did a superb job.
But this is the part of the campaign I like best, not in the suit but with the jacket off and with the tie off, just going out and pounding the pavement. 100 days from now and we are pounding the pavement to make sure we win. On this bus tour, which is in Pennsylvania and Ohio, we’re talking about creating jobs, raising wages and the leadership that we need to show in order to make that possible.
In this county, you’ve got 125 to – 129 manufacturing businesses just like Johnstown Wire that employ nearly 4,000 people. And Hillary’s going to talk at some length about our ‘Make It in America’ plan that will invest $10 billion in communities just like Johnstown.
We’ll put workers first, we’ll put their wages first, we’ll put their families first. We’ll reject trade agreements like the TPP that don’t meet the standards that they ought to meet.
And we need to do something that has a direct tie to Johnstown Wire’s business, which is invest in infrastructure, so that everybody’s able to get around. We can have a power grid that works, we’ve got bridges that are solid, because these kinds of jobs and infrastructure hire people today and raise our platform of economic success down the road.
This way to build the economy so that all benefit is just one of the few issues at stake in the campaign, but it’s really the most important one, because if we can build those ladders of success for every community and every industry and every region, then our country’s going to be very, very strong.
We saw in Philadelphia this week a united Democratic Party. And look, for Dems that’s not always just an automatic. I will just be honest. We came in and there were challenges, because we are a family that doesn’t mind airing debates and having robust debates and there were challenges on Monday morning, but by Thursday night, when our candidate hit the stage, took the nomination and laid out her vision for the country, they saw the Democrats pull together behind a relentlessly upbeat and patriotic view of this country, right?
And aren’t we all patriots and aren’t we all optimists?
I think the vision we put on display was a sharp contrast from the darker and more twisted version that we saw in Cleveland and we like being the upbeat, positive people. We don’t sugarcoat stuff, we don’t whitewash challenges, but we know we can solve our challenges because of you.
This election, the stakes are very clear and the stakes are very high. It’s a choice between a leader who’s been working her entire life on behalf of families and children or somebody who’s spent his entire life watching out for himself no matter who gets hurt. There’s a story that the campaign has told of a guy named Andrew Tesoro who’s an architect. You might have seen it – there’s a video and an ad, and the reason we mention him, he lives in New York but he’s been teaching over at Carnegie Mellon, so that’s why I wanted to mention him, Donald Trump hired him as an architect to design a clubhouse for one of his golf courses, that was a huge honor to him.
He believed Donald Trump. He believed he could do good work for him, and he did. He honored his part of the bargain, he designed, and they built this clubhouse, this very nice place. But as he so often does, Donald decided, ‘Hey, I can stiff this guy.’ And even told him, ‘You know what, because you’re a nice guy, I’ll pay you half.’ You know, if he didn’t like him, he was going to pay him less than that.
And Andrew couldn’t hire the […] lawyers to go after a big machine like the Trump machine. And so I guess he figured, well, I guess, probably can’t go after him. So maybe I’ll have to settle for half. But after he did that, Trump had second thoughts about paying him half. He bullied this guy, this small business owner, this entrepreneur, he threatened him, he said he’d tie him up in court forever, and so the guy basically had to settle for virtually zip when he had already done all of the work.
He had already paid for all of his work, all of his folks, and all the entire project, and built the clubhouse that Trump gets to take advantage of and enjoy. This was a small business that took a punch because they believed Donald Trump. So when it comes to Trump there is, there are just too many stories like that, I talked about it at the convention the other night, so many people when they believed in him, they found out they got stiffed. And now he’s still saying, ‘Hey folks, believe me.’
We’ve got a candidate who respects you enough to lay out a plan, here’s what I’ll do, here’s how I’ll do it. And I thought when of the best lines that Hillary said the other night was, ‘I’ve got details, but remembers when it’s about your own kid, or it’s about your own business, it’s not a detail, it’s a big deal, and you ought to have to tell people, what you’re going to do.’
But Trump just says, ‘Look, believe me. Trust me.’ And we’d be fools to do it. I can’t help but think what would have happened if my dad’s business had been trying to do work with seven or eight employees for a guy like Trump, who just felt like he could use them and then just kick them aside, I wouldn’t have the opportunities I have today had my Dad dealt with people like that when he was running his iron-working shop.
So the last thing I’ll say before I bring up the Secretary is this: Virginia and Pennsylvania share something in common, and that is we call ourselves a commonwealth, not a state. There’s 46 states and there are four commonwealths, Kentucky, Pennsylvania, Mass, and Virginia. Once when I was Lieutenant Governor I went to a school and I talked to a student just about your age, young lady, standing right in front of me, and I was in a classroom and a little girl asked me, ‘Hey, why are we a Commonwealth and everybody else is states?’
And I did what a good politician was who doesn’t know the answer, I made something up on the spot. And I said, ‘Commonwealth – a state is a dotted line, it’s geography, Commonwealth says, it’s something about our values.’ The wealth we hold, we hold in common, it’s got to be about the community. It’s got to be about bringing everybody together, and Pennsylvania, you have the boldness to say that’s how you want to be known, and in Virginia, we have the boldness to say that’s how we want to be known.
That’s our values. The wealth we hold, we hold in common, and those are Hillary Clinton’s values too. So, I’ll just ask you this last question and then bring up our next President. I think as far as it goes with the economy, we’ve got a really, really clear choice, and I’ll boil it down to this: Johnstown, Pennsylvania – do you want a ‘you’re fired’ President, or a ‘you’re hired’ President?
I mean I don’t think it could be any simpler, we’ve got a ‘you’re hired’ President in Hillary Clinton, and I’m so proud to be her running mate and I’m so proud to bring her up to talk to you! Hillary Clinton, give her a big round!
HILLARY CLINTON:
Well I’ll tell you what, I’m glad I told Tim Kaine, ‘You’re hired,’ because you just got a great look at why the people of the Commonwealth of Virginia keep promoting him. He started off in the city council of Richmond, went on to become mayor of his hometown, got elected Lieutenant Governor then Governor, and now United States Senator, because he’s someone who really instills confidence in those whom he serves.
And as America gets to know him, that’s exactly what I think will happen as well. We’ve got an incredible week here in Pennsylvania, I can’t tell you how much I love being here.
And some of you may know that my father was from Scranton. My grandfather came as a small child from England, immigrant, to Scranton with his family. He worked in the Scranton lace mills, a factory his entire life, because he believed that he could produce a better life for his children, and he did. And every time I come to Pennsylvania, I think about the many journeys we made from where we lived, outside of Chicago, to Scranton, every single year.
We would go every summer, we went some Christmases, I was brought back, as were my brothers to be christened in the little Court Street Methodist Church, we really have a great deal of love and affection for Pennsylvania. My father plus one of my brothers played football at Penn State, so –
It’s always a joy for me to be here. And to come to Johnstown, a place that I’ve been to before and look forward to coming back and being here.
And having this opportunity to come and visit with you. I want to thank Ron and Jim for welcoming us, […] thank you for explaining some of the work you do and telling us that Nick was a Marine at Camp David when Bill was President, we’ve actually met him in his prior life, so that was a very special treat. I want to thank my friend Leo Gerard, a man who has fought for justice, for working families in America, North America, and who sets a great example, as does this company, where business and labor work together.
And Ron and Jim told me about something called gain share, where when you get more productive, get more productive, don’t have as much scrap, those gains are shared. That’s what I believe we ought to be doing in every single business in our country. So on Thursday, I was incredibly humbled and grateful to accept the Democratic Party nomination.
I have to tell you, it was pretty overwhelming to be out there and to think about the awesome responsibility of taking on the challenges facing our country, but I’m an optimist, and I’m confident, because I think if you look at American history, that’s how we get things done. It’s not the whiners and the complainers and the insulters who move our country forward. It’s the workers and the builders, it’s people who get up every day and try to figure out how it’s going to be better for them and their families.
So then yesterday, Tim and I and Anne and Bill hit the road, going across Pennsylvania — sorry we were a little late, the rain was really heavy and we have kind of a long convoy, so I apologize for that, but we are visiting places that prove what Americans can do. We have the most productive, competitive workers in the world, we just need to give our people the chance to succeed. So from Philadelphia to Hatfield to Harrisburg and now here in Johnstown, that’s exactly what we’re doing. We’re talking to people, meeting people who have each others’ backs. And you truly are the reason why I have so much confidence that America’s best days are still ahead of us, so –
It’s in stark contrast to the vision that Donald Trump is laying out, because I don’t think we’re weak. I don’t think we’re in decline. I think we can pull together because we are stronger together, and if anybody like him spent a day on the factory floor here, they’d see what teamwork looks like. They’d understand what it means to create and build.
Every day you are showing that America is home to the best products, the hardest workers, the most innovative entrepreneurs in world. And so as we are honest about our challenges here at home and abroad, let’s start from understanding that this country and our people have what it takes to get ahead and stay ahead if we have the leadership that gives us that chance. And most of all, we know better than to believe anybody that says, ‘I alone can fix it.’ Right? Those were actually Donald Trump’s words at the Republican Convention in Cleveland last week. And I think they should set off alarm bells for everybody. Because by saying that, he’s forgetting what all the rest of us do every day. He’s forgetting our troops on the front lines; our businesses who see possibilities in every problem; our unions who fight for working families every day.
He’s forgetting companies like this one who invest in employees. Americans don’t say, ‘I alone can fix it.’ We say, ‘Oh, okay. How are we going to fix this together? How are we going to raise a family, build a business, heal a community, lift a country?’ And that’s why we have to stand together. My grandfather, as I said, worked at the Scranton lace mills from the time he was a teenager, until he retired at the age of 65. It was dangerous work in those days, but he was one of the kindest and gentlest men I’ve ever known. He knew that hard work in America meant that his family would get ahead — that it would pay off.
And he was right. My dad, as I said, made it to college, made it to Penn State. Now, if he were still alive, he’d tell you it’s because he played football. But that’s okay. He got an education. He was proud to get it. He started working as a salesman, enlisting in the Navy after Pearl Harbor. And when the war was over, he started his own small business printing fabric for draperies. And it was a really small business. He would recruit my mother, my brothers and me. He had a print plant. It didn’t have any natural light. It was a pretty dark place.
But it had long tables where the fabric would be rolled out, and then the silk screens would be laid on the fabric. And then the paint for the color you wanted to put on the fabric would be poured onto the silkscreen, and then we would take squeegee. One person on one side of the table, another person at the other side — sometimes me. We’d take that squeegee. We’d roll it — you had to add exactly the right pressure to the other side of the silk screen —, lift it up, move the screen, go down the table and keep going.
I remember watching my dad standing for hours over those silk screens. Why did he do it? Because he wanted to give my brothers and me opportunities he never had. And he did. I believe every single family in America deserves that same chance in 2016.
And you know, I know we’re living in a time of really hot politics. People say all kinds of things — hateful things; insulting things. I’m sorry about that. I think we should have a much better dialogue and debate so that voters can decide which way they want to go. And sometimes, because of all of the static going back and forth, we lose track of where we are. We’ve come along way since the worst financial crisis in a generation. And it could have gotten a whole lot worse, my friends.
When I think back to 2008, I was in the Senate then, before I accepted President Elect’s offer, President Elect Obama’s offer, to become Secretary of State. We were losing 800,000 jobs. 9 million Americans lost their jobs. 5 million homes were lost. But it’s fair to say we did not know where the bottom was. Unemployment: over 10 percent. Stock market: down to 7,000. This was one of the riskiest economic moments in our country’s recent history.
And I will say it: I don’t think President Obama and Vice President Biden get the credit they deserve for doing what they had to do to save our economy.
And one thing they saved, and I’ll say it over the opposition of the Republican Party, they saved American auto industry, which is a big customer of this plant.
I found that debate back then just unbelievable. People saying, giving speeches: “Let the American auto industry just fall.” Millions of jobs were at stake — many millions more families of the people who worked in the American auto industry. And I’m proud that it was saved, and I’m even prouder that it had the best year it’s had in a long time last year on behalf of selling American-made automobiles. So that’s progress.
And I just want people, as we go into this election, to be fair. Because yes, we do have work to do. We can’t be satisfied with the status quo — I’m not. Not by a long shot. We’re still facing deep-seated problems that developed long before that recession and have stayed with us through the recovery. But let’s be fair and let’s be clear about where we’ve come from and where we need to go. And let’s not buy the same failed economic policies that got us into the mess we were in in the first place.
You know that old saying: “Fool me once, shame on you. Fool me twice, shame on me.” When people come around and say they’re going to cut taxes on the wealthiest Americans, we have seen this before and it does not turn out well. And it’s about time we say, “No, we’re going to make the wealthiest Americans, for a change, pay their fair share of taxes and support America.” That’s why I’ve gone around the country talking to working families across America.
And I’ve heard all the concerns people have that, you know, the economy isn’t working it needs to. Too many people feel like they’re out on their own. Well I can tell you that Tim Kaine and I will get up every single day. We will fight for you and we will work for you. We will look out for you. How do you know that? Because I’ve actually told you what I want to do. I’m not standing here insulting my opponent and making crazy promises. I’m telling you what I want to do. I actually have plans. Some people make fun of me for having plans. Yes, it used to hurt my feelings. It doesn’t anymore.
At each of conventions, you get four days to tell the country what you want to do. That’s what they’re supposed to be for. At the Republican convention, they spent more time on insults for me than on jobs for you. Donald Trump spoke for 75 minutes and offered zero solutions. Now, I don’t think that’s good enough. I have the […] idea if you’re going to ask somebody for their vote, we owe you a clear explanation of what you’re going to get for it.
And I have said from the beginning of this campaign, my mission from first day to my last, will be to create more opportunity and more good wages that will give people a chance at their own dreams. We’re going to create jobs in Pennsylvania and across America, especially in places that have been left out and left behind. And that means from our inner cities, to our small towns, to Indian country, to coal country, from communities ravaged by addiction like too many in this county.
I believe with all my heart that the economy should work for everyone, not just those at the top. Leo knows because when I was privileged to work with him. To stand up for steelworkers. To start the very first Manufacturing Caucus in the United States Senate. I had no idea then that I was going to run for president. What I cared about is that I had lots of great people in New York who saw their jobs leave.
Who lost them to automation and technology. Who were the victims of efforts to bust unions and undercut fair wages and benefits. So what I wanted to do was to make it clear that in America, we’re going to keep making things. Anyone willing to work hard should be able to find a job that pays well enough to support a family. That’s the basic bargain of America.
So, here’s how we’re going to do it. Within the first 100 days of our administration, we are going to break the gridlock in Washington and make the biggest investment in new, good paying jobs since World War II. We will start by making the boldest investment in America infrastructure since we built the Interstate Highway System back in the 1950s.
Now, Donald Trump may think we never win anymore and our country is full of losers, but, boy, is he wrong. We still do big things and we can do more big things. We’re not going to build a giant wall, we’re going to build roads and bridges and tunnels and forts and airports and water systems and a new electric […].
And we’re going to connect up all of America to high-speed internet connectivity. You know, yesterday night in Harrisburg we had a great rally at the Broad Street Market, if any of you know that. We were outdoors. It was a beautiful night. And I said, you know, I’m not just talking traditional infrastructure. I’m talking about broadband, virtual infrastructure. Electricity.
And I made a point that some teachers told me. There’s been a recent survey. 70 percent of teachers said that they assign homework that requires the student to go on the internet. Well, you know, that makes sense if you’re going to live in an information age you want your kids to be prepared and smart and savvy about how to use the internet.
But here’s the kicker – 5 million don’t have access at home to high-speed internet. And then I was talking to some of the people who were there after the rally and they said boy, were you right. We have places in Pennsylvania where it’s still dial up.
I mean, how are we supposed to be competitive in the rest of the world if we have smart, hardworking people – their businesses, their kids – their essentially shut out of being able to access information quickly and use that information. So, we’re talking broadly here. And I’m going to do everything we can to create a national infrastructure bank so that we are going to have investments made every year, not just when Congress decides to appropriate money for that.
The second thing we’re going to do is invest in American manufacturing. Anybody who thinks we can’t make it in America ought to come to Pennsylvania and do a tour as I have. Now, the products that you’re making here in the Commonwealth are being sold all over the world, including products made right here. Ron and Jim were telling me about a big order you had from Bangladesh. You know, we can export. Donald Trump, you hear him, he talks a big game about putting America first.
Well, with all due respect, please explain to me what part of America first leads Trump to make Trump dress shirts in Bangladesh, not Ashland, Pennsylvania. Or to make Trump furniture in Turkey, not Freeburg, Pennsylvania. Or Trump picture frames in India, not Bristol, Pennsylvania. In fact, my husband told me on the bus ride here that I was telling him that I just find it maddening that Trump goes around saying this and all the stuff he makes, he makes in other countries. And Bill says, well you know the shirt that he has one right now, he said that’s made in Reading, Pennsylvania.
And, look, you’re not going to believe this because it’s going to sound too coincidental – it’s made at a company called Bills.
Well, so Donald Trump says he wants to make America great again. Well, he could start by actually making things in America again. Now, if we’re serious about investing in America manufacturing, we have to be serious about defending American workers, and that means we’ve got to defend the right to organize and bargain collectively, which helped to build the American middle class in the first place.
That’s why I love coming to plants like this that work business and labor together. But, that’s not Donald Trump. He actually hires union busting firms to break up organizing campaigns. He did that at the hotel in Las Vegas. And then he says he wants to do to America what he’s done to his businesses. We can’t let that happen. We’re going to fight back against attacks on working families, against assaults on the right to organize and bargain collectively. Right to work is wrong for workers and it’s wrong for America.
And we’re going to say no to unfair trade deals. We’re going to stand up to China. We’re going to support our steelworkers, our autoworkers, our homegrown manufacturers. I feel strongly about this, and I need your help. I need your ideas about how we’re going to do this because I’m sick and tired of us having an open market where everybody gets to sell to us, and they often do it at lower costs, undercutting our workers, our businesses, that’s not fair and it’s not right. Now we’ve won a few cases, haven’t we Leo, in the International Trade Commission?
But we’re going to go after that much more aggressively. I will be the first President who has what I’m calling a trade prosecutor to prosecute cases that are undercutting and hurting American manufacturers. Third, we’re going to make America the clean energy superpower of the 21st century because there are millions of new jobs and businesses in that. Pennsylvania is doing some good work.
We owe to future generations to work together to combat climate change, not dismiss it as a Chinese hoax the way Donald Trump has. I love this – he dismisses it as a Chinese hoax when he’s standing on a stage running for president and then he goes and asks for help because he’s worried about some of his golf courses that are maybe going to be hurt by climate change.
I mean that is just hard to believe but we’ve got to take it for what it is. There is no other Donald Trump; you’ve got to look at it from both sides here. So we’re going to set bold goals. We’re going to install a half a billion solar panels and generate enough clean energy to power every home in America within 10 years.
And we are going to create more good-paying jobs, clean energy jobs like the ones that are being created here in Pennsylvania. Fourth, we’re going to support small businesses like the one that my Dad and Tim’s Dad ran, put their hearts and souls into them when we were growing up.
And it’s important for you to know this. Just as Tim told you, we don’t make this up. We actually try to tell you what is factually accurate. We go to a lot of trouble so we can tell you what is actually happening, not just pull it from the air. Just a few hours away in Atlantic City, you’re going to find a lot of hard-working contractors, small businesses, workers, painters, plumbers who lost everything because Donald Trump refused to pay his bills.
We’ve been meeting some of these people – painters, landscapers, plumbers, glass-installers, marble-installers – people who did the work and deserve to be paid and didn’t get it, not because he couldn’t pay them but because he wouldn’t pay them. That’s just not the way it works in America, Donald.
In America we make good on our promises and when somebody puts in the work you are supposed to pay them. You can’t go around bullying small businesses like the one Tim’s Dad ran or my father – if my father had done all that work to print those drapery fabrics and most of his customers were hotels and businesses, and he used to load them into a van and deliver them and then put them up – after all that work, Donald Trump had said, “We’re not going to pay you,” my father first of all would have been stunned.
And then he would have been furious. But what could he have done? Trump would have said, “Well you don’t like it? Sue me. Otherwise take 30 cents on the dollar.” That is so wrong, it just gets my blood boiling. I think about my Dad, I’m sure Tim thinks about his – small businesspeople who did not deserve to be treated like that and 98 percent of businesses in Pennsylvania are small businesses.
That’s one million small businesses, creating jobs, strengthening communities. When you hurt small businesses, you hurt our economy. It’s time we gave small businesses a boost. Let’s cut the red tape, let’s make it easier to get credit. Way too many dreams die in the parking lots of banks these days and we’re going to change that too.
In America, if you can dream it, you should be able to build it. And I will tell you how we’re going to pay for everything that I’ve just proposed. That’s not complicated, either. Wall Street, corporations, and the super rich are going to start paying their fair share of taxes.
Now let me be absolutely clear here, we don’t resent success in America. But when more than 90 percent of the gains in income have gone to the top one percent, that’s where the money is. Remember that old movie? Follow the money! Well, that’s what we’re going to do. American corporations that have gotten so much from our country should be just as patriotic in return.
Many of them are. Johnstown Wire Technologies is, but too many aren’t. So under our plan, if companies try to move headquarters to another country to avoid paying their taxes, we will make them pay an exit tax. It’s wrong to take tax breaks with one hand and give out pink slips with the other. So we’re going to take back all the money that counties and cities and our governments have given to companies. We’ll make them pay it back. And we’ll put that money to work right here, creating good jobs.
The basic principle is simple. America thrives when the middle class thrives, and I will not rest until we get wages and incomes rising for all Americans, not just those at the top. Just yesterday, an economist who advised John McCain, the Republican candidate for President in 2008, just put out a new analysis. He analyzed what Trump has said. He analyzed what I’ve proposed. He said my plans would create millions more jobs than Trump’s. In fact, under my plans, the economy would create at least 10 million jobs in our first term.
As for Donald Trump? Well, his policies were found that they would actually cost us nearly three and a half million jobs. So what’s the difference between Donald Trump’s plan and my plan in terms of jobs created? The combined workforce of Pennsylvania and Ohio. In fact, the more you listen to Donald Trump, the more you realize he is not offering real change. He’s offering empty processes, and what little we know about his economic policies, from running up our debt, to starting trade wars, to letting Wall Street run wild, could devastate working families.
So here we are, my friends. Now I know we’ve got to fight for every single vote. And I’m ready to do that. That’s why we’re on this bus tour, that’s why Tim and I and Bill and Anne and our campaigns are going to cover the country. Because we want you to know the differences. We want you to understand what we’re proposing and why we think it will work, and to contrast that with what Trump is saying.
Now when I say things like this, like his plans would cost 3.5 million jobs, although I’m just quoting an economist, he lashes out. He loses his cool at the slightest provocation. Just yesterday, he went after retired general John Allen, who commanded our troops in Afghanistan. General Allen is a distinguished Marine, a hero and a patriot. Donald Trump called him a “failed general.” Why? Because he does not believe Donald Trump should be Commander in Chief.
Well I’d say that proves it. Our Commander in Chief shouldn’t insult and deride our generals, retired or otherwise. That really should go without saying, but I’m going to respond on behalf of General Allen to those kinds of insults. So, look, I know people are angry and frustrated. I think we just heard one. I understand that. I’m not going into this with some kind of rose-colored glasses. I know we’ve got work to do, but I’ll tell you this, when you’re President, and I know it, because I had a front row seat. I watched my husband as he struggled, and after eight years, we had 23 million new jobs, my friends. Incomes went up for everybody.
And then, unfortunately, the Republicans came back. They slashed taxes on the wealthy, I voted against that. I spoke against that. Then they took their eyes off of the financial markets and the mortgage markets and you know what happened. And then we elected another Democratic president, who inherited another mess from the Republicans. It’s our choice, America. We can grow together, we can have plans that will enable us to create more jobs, give more people a chance to live up to their own dreams.
Or we can go with demagoguery. We can go with insults. We can go with no plans and insofar as they are even understandable, that would cost us jobs. That’s the choice. And boy, is it a historic choice for America. I’m going to do everything I can in this campaign to make the case about what we can do, being stronger together. And I’m not going to respond to what Trump says about me, I don’t really care.
I’ve grown a pretty thick skin. But I’m going to respond when he insults Americans, when he insults workers, when he insults unions, when he insults people who work hard for a living every single day. So let’s go out, let’s make our case, let’s win the election! Thank you and God bless you!”
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Still4Hill 