Government affairs

Legislative Updates

NALC’s observations from the first presidential debate

On Sept. 26, the first debate between presidential candidates Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump took place. While the candidates had much to say about the middle class, here are some of the highlights.

Hillary Clinton, the Democratic nominee, wasn’t shy about how she would help working families if she is elected. “We need new jobs, good jobs, with rising incomes,” Clinton said. ”We also have to make the economy fairer. That starts with raising the national minimum wage and also guarantee, finally, equal pay for women’s work.” In addition to promising to do more for the middle class, Clinton promised to invest in paid family leave and earned sick days.

“And the kind of plan that [Republican nominee] Donald has put forth would be trickle-down economics all over again,” Clinton said. “In fact, it would be the most extreme version, the biggest tax cuts for the top percent of the people in this country than we’ve ever had.”

Trump said that, if he is elected, he would help the middle class by “reducing taxes tremendously, from 35 percent to 15 percent for companies.” When Clinton noted that similar proposals were responsible for causing the Great Recession and that Trump had “rooted for the housing crisis,” Trump responded, “That’s called business, by the way.”

Clinton also highlighted the thousands of workers that Trump refused to pay after their hard labor. Trump simply responded, “I take advantage of the laws of the nation because I’m running a company.”

The second presidential debate is scheduled to take place on Oct. 9.

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