Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton on Friday criticized Republican presidential candidates for their lack of attention to the economy during the most recent debate.
“There were so many insults flying back and forth, it was hard to keep track, but the biggest insult of all was to the American people,” she said at a campaign event in Detroit.
{mosads}The city hosted what Clinton called the “Republican presidential I-don’t-know-what-to-call-it I guess debate” the night before.
“The economy, which should be at the top of any list that anybody running for president has, was basically an afterthought,” she added. “Maybe that’s because all the Republican candidates support the same failed policies.”
Clinton pointed out that all of them have criticized the bailout of the auto industry.
“What was missing last night is an honest reckoning with the most important economic challenge we face: How do we raise incomes and create the good jobs of the future,” she said.
The former secretary of State noted that she and rival Bernie Sanders agree on some issues; however, she indirectly suggested that Sanders’s ideas are unrealistic.
“Anyone running for president owes it to you to come up with real ideas. Not an ideology, not an old set of talking points, but a credible strategy designed for the world we live in today,” she said.
Clinton’s speech focused on economic issues, saying the country needs a “new bargain for the new economy” to “ensure that the jobs of the future are good-paying American jobs.”
One part of the bargain is that corporations have to do right by their communities and the United States, she said.
“Corporations benefit in so many ways from being right here in the United States, but too often, this relationship feels like a one-way street,” Clinton said. She added that companies “don’t recognize that one of the biggest assets on their balance sheet is America.”
Clinton also mentioned her new proposal to have companies that outsource jobs return tax benefits.
“If you aren’t going to invest in us, why should taxpayers invest in you,” she said. “Let’s take that money and put it to work in the communities that are being left behind.”