Secretary of State Hillary Clinton used her Monday evening keynote speech at a Clinton Global Initiative event to push for a new global initiative: a tax on the world’s rich.
“One of the issues that I have been preaching about around the world is collecting taxes in an equitable manner, especially from the elites in every country,” Clinton said at the annual meeting of her husband’s global public policy organization.
“It is a fact that around the world the elites of every country are making money,” Clinton continued. “There are rich people everywhere. And yet they do not contribute to the growth of their own countries.”
Citing the need for public schools and public hospitals, Clinton said elites do not sufficiently “invest” in the public sector and restrict their countries’ development.
“And so it means, for leaders, telling powerful people things they don’t want to hear,” Clinton added, to laughter and applause.
Although left unmentioned in Clinton’s speech, President Barack Obama has been actively calling during his re-election campaign for the nation’s richest to pay more taxes.