President Clinton on President Obama

(Community Matters) Yesterday at Aspen Ideas Festival

“I think that the president will be reelected – I’ve always thought so. [heavy applause] I think, first of all, he can talk about what he DID do. He took steps which avoided a depression. He saved the automobile industry — by not just bailing them out, but by requiring a serious restructuring. … When he took office, we had 2 percent of the global market for the electric batteries that will power the next generation of all-electric cars and hybrid vehicles. And on Jan. 1 of this year, we had 20 percent of the global market. …

“It’s not like he doesn’t have a story to tell. I also think he’s done a good job in trying to harmonize America’s differences, trying to widen the circle of opportunity. I think he’s got a good record on gay rights. I think he’s got a good record on trying to promote diversity in a positive way. … I think that he’s gonna have a lot to say about America’s role in the world. He’s been very tough in fighting terrorists. Long before Mr. bin Laden was dispatched, we had redeployed and had more drone attacks on terrorists, where they were really a problem for us – the Pakistan-Afghanistan almost borderless region, and in Iraq. So I think he’ll have a good record on national security. I think he’ll have a lot of things to point to on the economy. And I think his work in education has been laudable. … He’ll be able to paint quite a [pretty] picture.”

Clinton on corporate taxes:

When I was president, we raised the corporate income-tax rates on corporations that made over $10 million [a year]. It made sense when I did it. It doesn’t make sense anymore – we’ve got an uncompetitive rate. We tax at 35 percent of income, although we only take about 23 percent. So, we SHOULD cut the rate to 25 percent, or whatever’s competitive, and eliminate a lot of the deductions so that we still get a FAIR amount, and there’s not so much variance in what the corporations pay. [ES: I’d support lowering the rate to this current effective rate if included closing loopholes but that’s a big if – don’t underestimate corp greed and lobbyists effectiveness]

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