It’s one of the typical questions that reporters tend to throw at presidential candidates if they run out of any scandal du jour type fodder: what do you hope to accomplish during your first 100 days in office? Every president in the modern era has provided a plan along these lines and, of course, most of the line items turn out to be pipe dreams which are good for rounding up a few votes but rarely produce results in a divided government situation. But in the era of expanding Executive Branch power and boundless executive orders combined with swollen cabinet level regulatory authority, ambitious schemes can get off the ground far more quickly.
So what does Hillary Clinton have on the menu if she’s elected? She answered that question recently and the response should set off some alarm bells. (Government Executive)
That’s a great question. From proposing a comprehensive immigration reform bill with a path to citizenship to introducing a constitutional amendment to overturn Citizens United I want to hit the ground running in my first 100 days—because there’s so much we have to do.
A critical part of that work is building an economy that everyone can be proud of and be a part of. We’ve come a long way since the Great Recession, but we’ve still got a lot of work to do to ensure everyone who wants to work can find a good-paying job—one that pays enough to support a family. That’s why I’ve pledged that in my first 100 days as president, we’ll make the boldest investment in good-paying jobs since World War II.
Clinton spends most of her time talking about jobs in this interview because God only knows she doesn’t want to talk foreign policy or terrorism right now. But even there you can see a few worrying signs. Most of her jobs related plans revolve around “investments” of one sort or another. Investments in infrastructure, in high speed internet access, in renewable energy and in manufacturing. The translation for all of this is fairly simple: it’s the equivalent of yet another “stimulus” plan. Assuming it could be driven through Congress, we’ll be looking at another huge pile of debt combined with more taxes to cover at least a portion of it, all to have the federal government stick its fingers into productivity in the private sector. (And that’s worked out so well in the past.)
But notice that right off the top she mentioned two other agenda items. One is a constitutional amendment. That’s beyond the power of the President to do anything beyond cheerleading, but it’s some lovely vaporware to feed to the Bernie Sanders crowd. The other, of course, is comprehensive immigration reform. Since that’s not going to go anywhere in Congress the translation on that one is fairly easy: more executive orders such as the ones Barack Obama tried, no matter how poorly they have fared in court.
If you enjoyed the Obama administration over the past seven years, fasten your seat belt for more of the same in a Hillary Clinton administration… except on steroids.
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