Debate Check: Hillary’s Disingenuous Class Attack

Hillary Clinton dusted off the Democratic Party’s well-worn class warfare playbook at Monday’s debate and tried to tar Republican Donald Trump as a greedy billionaire who would serve the interests of the wealthy elite.

She launched the attack on the very first question, claiming Trump’s plan “would be trickle-down economics all over again. In fact, it would be the most extreme version … I call it Trumped-up trickle-down.”

“Our jobs are fleeing the country,” he said. “They’re going to Mexico. They’re going to lots of other places … We have to stop our jobs from being stolen from us.”

Clinton reached for the class warfare jugular. She even accused him of rooting for the housing collapse.

“Donald was very fortunate and that’s to his benefit,” she said. “He started his business with $14 million borrowed from his father. And he really believes that the more you help wealthy people, the better off we’ll be.”

A version of that line of attack has served the Democrats well in past elections. But in this one, the facts make it harder for Clinton’s charge to stick. When it comes serving the interests of the wealthy, it is Clinton who enjoys the support of people capable of writing large checks.

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Of the nation’s 100 largest companies, 11 CEOs have donated to Clinton. None has contributed to Trump. Clinton also has sucked up all of the campaign contributions handed out by members of the debate commission hosting Monday’s face-off.

The candidates’ campaign finance reports also paint a vivid picture. Trump has raised less than half Clinton’s $373.3 million total through the end of August. And Trump, himself, contributed about a third of his total from his personal fortune.

Of Trump’s individual contributions, 29 percent have come from small donors, with 16 percent coming form large donors. Clinton, meanwhile, has the opposite profile. Only 19 percent of her individual contributions have come from small donors, while 59 percent have come from big donors.

Meanwhile, although Clinton does not match Trump’s personal wealth, the daily struggles of millions of Americans could hardly be more remote. The website moneynation.com used public disclosure forms to estimate Clinton’s personal net worth at $31.3 million, about 459 times larger than the average American.

Add in husband Bill Clinton’s $80 million net worth, and the couple’s combined fortune stands at about $111 million.

The Clintons’ tax returns, made public last month, show that they made $10.6 million in 2015. Together, they earned $6.7 million in speaking fees and another $3.1 million in book royalties. Bill Clinton hauled in another $1.7 million in consulting fees.

Trump went back to the populist well in his rebuttal.

“Our jobs are fleeing the country,” he said. “They’re going to Mexico. They’re going to lots of other places … We have to stop our jobs from being stolen from us.”

According to the Center for Responsive Politics, which tracks campaign contributions, Clinton has been the top recipient of any candidate for federal office this election cycle from hedge fund owners and employees. Her haul, through Sept. 12, was $631,853. Including pro-Clinton groups engaged in the campaign bumps the total to more than $47 million.

Trump’s take from the hedge fund set? Just $33,544.

When it comes to policies benefiting the corporate elite, the monied interests probably prefer Trump’s proposed tax cuts to Clinton’s massive tax increases weighted toward the upper end of the spectrum. But there is little doubt those favoring globalist trade deals feel more comfortable with the Democrat.

Trump has been an unwavering critic of America’s trade policies dating back to the North America Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) signed by Bill Clinton. Hillary Clinton, as secretary of state, called the proposed Trans-Pacific Partnership trade deal the “gold standard.” She reversed course under pressure from Sen. Bernie Sanders in the primaries and nominally has the same position as Trump.

But Virginia Gov. Terry McAuliffe, a longtime Clinton family confidant, committed a classic Washington gaffe during the Democratic National Convention when he let slip that Clinton’s opposition was a bow to electoral politics.

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“Once the election’s over, and we sit down on trade, people understand a couple things we want to fix on it but going forward we got to build a global economy,” he said.

Then there is Clinton’s well-documented problems with certain groups of workers, law enforcement officers and coal miners, for instance. Clinton’s statement during the primaries that she wanted to put coal workers “out of business” was revealing. Her environmental policies would, in fact, shrink the fossil fuel industry in America. It’s no coincidence that she is so toxic in West Virginia that the Democratic candidate for governor said earlier this year he won’t vote for her.

Trump also has own endorsements from the Fraternal Order of Police and the unions representing both border patrol officers and Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers.