NEW YORK, NY — Democratic Presidential candidate Hillary Clinton told supporters at New York University Friday afternoon she thought “the heat was getting to everybody” over the classified email controversy she is currently embroiled in.
“There’s been a lot of inaccuracies as Congressman Cummings made very clear this morning. Maybe the heat is getting to everybody. We all have a responsibility to get things right. I have released 55,000 pages of emails and said repeatedly that I would answer questions before the House committee. We are all accountable to the American people to get the facts right. And I will abide by that. And I will also stay focused on The issues particularly on The big issues that really matter,” she said at the beginning of her speech.
Following these remarks about the issue Clinton went on to talk about her tax plan that would penalize wealthier investors who look to profit from the stock market from short term gains. She took no questions from reporters afterward.
“The profits earned by the sale of stock and other assets to promote and reward far sighted investments–the current definition of a long term full length period of just one year is woefully in adequate,” she said, noting that she wants to hike the capital gains tax rate and end “quarterly capitalism.”
Clinton said that as president she would replace the current top capital gains tax of 20 percent for investments held for at least one year.
She explained, “I would move to a six-year sliding scale that provides real incentives to long-term investments. The taxpayers in the top bracket and families that are earning more than $465,000 a year with any gains in selling stock in the first two years would be taxed.”
If the investment is less than two years it would be taxed at 39.6 percent, which is the current income tax rate. After two to three years, 36 percent of the investment would be taxed and, after three to four years, 32 percent. After an investment of six years is in the market, Clinton’s capital gains tax would be as low as today’s top tax of 20 percent.
She took shots at short-term investors who ruin the market for everyone else saying, “The founder of the investment management company Vanguard put it, ‘the culture of short term speculation has run rampant.’ One other concerned business leader calls it quarterly capitalism.”
Clinton went further, “Now I understand that most CEOs are simply responding to very real pressures, not shareholders, and the market to turn in good quarterly numbers and investors are always looking for strong reliable returns. But it is clear that the system is out of balance.”
She added, “The deck is stacked in many ways and powerful pressures and incentives are pushing it even further out of balance. Quarterly capitalism has developed in recent decades and is neither legally required nor economically sound.”
The Republican National Committee spokesman Michael Short went after Clinton’s plan. saying in an email statement, “Whether it’s getting to the truth about potential criminal activity involving her secret email server or the substance of her proposed tax increases, Hillary Clinton only offers more smoke and mirrors. One thing is clear: a Hillary Clinton Administration would mean higher taxes for American families, even though economists from her husband’s administration say her proposals will have little impact on trading practices.”
Clinton took shots of her own at Republicans running for the presidential nomination accusing them of “crony capitalism.”
“Republicans running for president seem totally unconcerned about the problem of crony capitalism. In fact, their policy would make it worse. It would mostly eliminate capital gains for wealthy investors with no incentives for long-term holdings. It would wipe out the new rules on Wall Street imposed after the prices of course they would further strip worker rights and weaken bargaining power,” she said.