Former President Bill Clinton went to Waterbury, Connecticut on Sunday to campaign for U.S. Senate candidate Chris Murphy (D-WFP), as well as Elizabeth Esty (D-WFP), who is running for the state’s 5th congressional district seat.
Esty is the wife of Daniel Esty, the state’s Commissioner of the Department of Energy and Environmental Protection (DEEP).
Referring to the Republican plan to jump-start the economy as an “illusion,” Clinton reenacted his speech from the Democratic convention about the “math” related to the nation’s debt and budget deficits. The former president said that Murphy has a better plan on jobs and debt reduction than his opponent Linda McMahon (R-Independent).
As we have already seen, however, Murphy’s “jobs plan” relies heavily on raising taxes on small business owners who make $250,000 or more, and ending tax credits for business owners who can’t make a profit having their products made in this country because of onerous legislation.
Clinton said that McMahon’s jobs plan “is the same old, same old- more tax cuts for high income people and big cuts to pay for it in education, training, science, technology, and in the future of America.”
In 1997, however, then-President Clinton signed a tax relief and deficit reduction bill, initiated by the Republican-led Congress at the time, in which the top capital gains tax rate was lowered from 28% to 20%, and some new tax credits were created for middle income Americans. That tax cut boosted the economic boom of the decade.
Nevertheless, Clinton referred to the GOP plan to cut taxes as “a broken record and it’s out of tune.”
The former president also told supporters of Murphy and Esty that the two Democrats will protect health care access for women. However, as we have also seen, while ObamaCare will provide “free” birth control and abortion-inducing drugs, American women will likely be denied important medical treatments, surgeries, and screenings as a result of the president’s signature health care law.
While Clinton stumped for Murphy and Esty, McMahon held a rally of her own during which Sheila Bair, former head of the FDIC, endorsed her. An appointee of President George W. Bush, Bair was among the first people in Washington to call attention to the housing bubble.
In Watertown, Connecticut, Bair characterized McMahon as an independent candidate who, if elected, would ignore the special interests and work with lawmakers from both political parties.
Photo credit: Jessica Hill, AP
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