Michael Tanner of the Cato Institute explains in his latest National Review Online column that Hillary Clinton’s campaign rhetoric offers little to suggest that she wants a return to the policies her husband employed as president.
If anyone thought Hillary Clinton’s presidential campaign was going to mean a replay of the 1990s, we were wrong. Instead, the campaign she relaunched on Saturday is much more of a return to the 1930s. The woman who, as First Lady, reputedly communed with the spirit of Eleanor Roosevelt now seeks to transform herself into the reincarnation of Franklin Roosevelt.
Of course, at a time when Rachel Dolezal can “identify” as black, Hillary Clinton is perfectly free to see herself as the new FDR. But in doing so, she not only delivers an economic platform designed to please people who think President Obama is too right wing, she also repudiates just about everything that Bill Clinton did as president.
Bill Clinton, after all, gave us the most significant reform of the welfare system since its inception. Hillary, on the other hand, has hinted at undoing such reforms. Bill believed in free trade, pushing through NAFTA among other trade agreements. Hillary has walked away from her support for free trade, including the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP), which she helped negotiate. Bill seriously explored entitlement reform and was even open to the idea of allowing small personal retirement accounts for younger workers. Hillary not only opposes any efforts to “cut or privatize the program,” she actually seeks to “enhance Social Security to meet new realities, particularly for women.” Bill supported business and financial deregulation, including repeal of Glass-Steagall. Hillary now blames that deregulation for the financial crisis.
And Bill Clinton is the president who, however reluctantly, declared, “The era of big government is over.” Hillary, on the other hand, is laying the groundwork for the most massive expansion of government since the Great Society.
