Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton, D-N.Y., outlines her plan to help finance Americans' retirements, Tuesday, Oct. 9, 2007, in Webster City, Iowa. (AP Photo/Charlie Neibergall)
by Frank James
Reporters on the trail with Sen. Hillary Clinton are reporting that she has dropped her “baby bond” idea, the notion that the federal government would give each baby at birth $5,000 to be used later for college or to help purchase a first home.
Clinton, the front runner in national and many state polls among Democrats seeking the presidential nomination, caught a lot of flak from former Rudy Giuliani, the former New York City mayor and others for the idea, which her campaign is saying was only a concept, not a policy position.
As AP reports today:
… Clinton said she has given up another idea for a savings incentive — giving every baby born in the United States a $5,000 account to one day pay for college or a first home.
She made that suggestion last month before the Congressional Black Caucus, saying it was just an idea and not a policy proposal. The idea was criticized by Republicans, and she told The Wall Street Journal in an interview published Tuesday that it's off the table.
This development led to one of those I-wish-I-had-said-that quips from the campaign of John Edwards' campaign. According to AP:
The campaign of her Democratic rival John Edwards suggested it was an example of Clinton setting her positions by polls. "Apparently, new polling data seems to have pressured the Clinton campaign to throw out the baby bond with the bathwater," said Edwards spokesman Chris Kofinis.
This is an interesting turn of events for a few reasons. Often when presidential candidates float a trial balloon, someone other than the candidate does it so that if the idea explodes, the candidate is a safe distance away. White House’s do the same thing.
That Clinton herself floated it, and is now backing away is noteworthy.
Another reason it’s striking is due to Clinton’s well-known tendency towards hyper-caution and being tightly scripted.
This is the politician who in a recent debate couldn’t choose between the Cubs and the Yankees in a hypothetical World Series. (Fortunately for her, both teams’ abysmal post-season play saved her from having to decide.)
This would be a rare instance where Clinton took a flier, when she seemed not to have calculated the situation out to the nth degree, where she seemed actually to be spontaneous.
Of course, she may have calculated this whole thing in order to make herself appear more improvisational. But that would, admittedly, be a very cynical way of looking at it.
Meanwhile, Clinton has come back with an idea, nay, a policy that would whereby she would offer to annually match $1,000 in the 401(k) accounts of American workers with money from the federal treasury.
The federal government would get the money by raising taxes on wealthy families with a tax worth of at least $7 million.
According to the AP:
Clinton said she wants to create "American Retirement Accounts" in which everyone could put up to $5,000 annually in a 401(k) plan. The federal government would provide a tax cut to match 100 percent of the first $1,000 for anyone who makes less than $60,000 a year and 50 percent of the first $1,000 for those who make $60,000-$100,000.
She said she would encourage employers to have direct deposit from paychecks into the accounts.
Clinton said less than half the families in the United States have retirement savings accounts and those who have them aren't saving enough. She said she often meets people working even into their early 80s because they don't have enough savings.
• 
• 
• 
• 
Comments
Gee, a Clinton putting a finger up in the air to test which way the wind blows. Who woulda thunk it?? A Clinton saying one thing before one crowd and something else before another. Who woulda thunk it?
Still waiting for that Swamp item on Sandy Burglar.
Posted by: John D | October 9, 2007 2:10 PM
Blah, blah, blah and blah.
Hillary won't do any such thing. If, lord forbid, she gets ellected she will do exactly what her campaign contributors want her to do. She is a pander bear, pure and simple.
We won't get out of Iraq with Hillary as President. We won't reform campain finance laws with Hillary as President. We won't wean ourselves from our dependence on oil with Hillary for President.
Posted by: nisleib | October 9, 2007 2:15 PM
"The idea (5 grand for each baby) was criticized by Republicans?" No, it was criticized by ALL of us who remember
how the Great Society rewarded girls as young as 12 for getting pregnant and having babies, for which the government gave them $500 a month, a free apartment, health care and food...as long
as there was no husband! Is Hillary claiming faulty memory...again?
Posted by: Harrison | October 9, 2007 2:24 PM
Johnny D:
Still waiting on that Swamp article about all the Bush administration members that had to resign because of the Abramoff scandal.
Also about how the HUD Secretary is now under investigation for giving some of his buddies work in New Orleans.
Posted by: BobinATL | October 9, 2007 2:26 PM
Yale Law had this course called Social Engineering 101. It taught Hillary to keep a list of all the things people do that the government can meddle in.
Posted by: Shifty | October 9, 2007 2:38 PM
Darn, and I wanted to do a Larry King and reproduce.
Seriously, Senator Clinton you can do better than the old "run it up the flagpole and see if it flies" routine. What's next? I'd say dodging last week's Iran vote.
Posted by: Next Idea | October 9, 2007 2:45 PM
It was just an idea. Like the idea of taking the emotions of the country after 9/11 and falsly building intel for an attack on a country that had nothing to do with 9/11.
Posted by: bill r. | October 9, 2007 2:52 PM
Her wardrobe is as bad as her politics. If you want to make a bad situation (G.B) worse, vote for hillary.
Posted by: Rob S | October 9, 2007 3:04 PM
[quote]
Her wardrobe is as bad as her politics.
Posted by: Rob S | October 9, 2007 3:04 PM
[/quote]
I'll bet that John "the Joseph Stalin of Streamwood" D knows how much she pays for her suits.
Posted by: BC | October 9, 2007 3:09 PM
Hillary Clinton is an "Empty Pants Suit."
Posted by: nilseib | October 9, 2007 3:29 PM
BC, ahem, you are the one who has the infatuation with how much anyone pays for a suit. I could care less if Hillary gets her clothes from Liz Claiborne or Sears.
Oh and BC, since I am "the Joseph Stalin of Streamwood," when Janet comes for her torturing, I am offering 2 for 1 deals right now! Come for the fun!
Posted by: John D | October 9, 2007 4:00 PM
Since someone else brought it up first...who picks out these outfits? The belts around the middle is an awful look for a middle aged woman unless you are very slim. It makes her look pudgy and dumpy.
Hillary you have enough money to do better
Posted by: Grace | October 9, 2007 5:14 PM
Well, well, another Clintonian promise down the tube. But at least THAT initiative was better than this latest one, the 401(k) for everyone. I mean, for a Democrat, could she have found a less suitable metaphor than making the government look like a Corporate employer? Shame on you, Mrs. Clinton, for betraying core Democratic values.
Posted by: Jorge | October 9, 2007 5:18 PM
What's the big deal here? If anything, this tells me that she's getting more confident out on the trail and is comfortable floating these off-hand ideas. You say she's either too scripted or too pandering; she can't win with some of you people.
Posted by: Steverino | October 9, 2007 5:26 PM
No way, i don't trust government with my 401K. How can she manage my 401K when government can't even manage my social security contribution.
No Hillary, i don't need your help. How do you intend to pay for it. Another politicians get sleeky with my money.
Posted by: Bee | October 9, 2007 5:45 PM
I have always distrusted Hilary Clinton as an appropriate candidate for President. Her present dropping and initiating all kinds of proposals is typical of her willingness to do whatever she thinks will get her the "moderate", vote that really stands for the status quo, which stinks. That she is dodging the Iran vote is typical of her lack of courage to take a stand. Her Iraq dance iis really disgusting.My grandson has served in Iraq in 2 deployments and describes the actual sitiuation on the groundd...that takes guts...Clinton does not have the gravitas to serve us as president.
Posted by: Sheila Nitze | October 9, 2007 6:21 PM
Dear "Bee",
But you DO trust your goerment to run a war? Wake up!
At last with the government managing my 401K I won't be always wondering when teh next corporate faliure wil evaporate my retirement. Wake UP!
For all the glory you Regan Worshippers heap on Corporate America and how THEY know how to run things you come short on remembering Enron, Whirlpool and Boeing. WAKE UP!!
Posted by: jon | October 9, 2007 6:32 PM
Hillary needs to stop pandering to big business and put the needs of the American families first. That means, she needs to stop saying she is for healthcare when she isn't, programs in healthcare for the elderly, when she knows they are scams. As far as trusting her with our kids money for the future? Hell No. Either run for the right reasons or get out of the game.
Posted by: Maria Torrini | October 9, 2007 7:18 PM
Posted by Bee:
"How can she manage my 401K when government can't even manage my social security contribution."
---------
Yet another clueless right-winger who swallows the Bush Social Security propaganda...
The Social Security program is solid. The trust fund contains treasury securities - enough to cover benefits until 2041, when many of the baby-boomers will already be dead. The surplus in the trust fund is real. Our SS benefits have been bought and paid for by workers and their employers. The only "issue" we face is that the Republicans want to renege on the bonds in the trust fund. This is typical Republican fiscal irresponsibility... typical lack of honor, courage, and integrity.
Don't swallow the Bush Republican propaganda regarding the Social Security program! It is their intent to undermine the SS program (to make you think the program isn't solvent) so they can renege on honoring the bonds in the trust fund that have ALREADY been bought and paid for by workers and their employers. In other words, the wealthy class is attempting to steal from working Americans. Republicans are led by liars and thieves. Don't buy into their lies.
Posted by: Bob Smith | October 9, 2007 7:28 PM
Poor Hillary! What a nut job!
Posted by: Sandy | October 9, 2007 7:44 PM
Hillary always was for health care and always will be. The Clintons have cared more about american families then any other fck that has been in office the last 30 years. American people are a funny bunch. The just can't see the nose before the face. That's why we are in Iraq. That's why we buy from China and have the biggest trade deficit. That's why they have to begg for money and declare bankrupcy when they have cancer. That's why their homes are now on the block. A funny bunch.
Posted by: Dee Enow | October 9, 2007 7:51 PM
Jon, please tell us what has happened to Whirlpool and Boeing. Seems to me both of those companies are doing well, their employees are doing well, etc.
And if anyone wants to discuss financial mismanagement, I'd be glad to discuss how Corporate America is run compared to Government America. It always kills me when the Left has a hissy fit over a corporate crook, yet on the federal, state and local level, politicians waste and pilfer hundreds of billions a year from the American people. Experts have said for years about 30 percent of federal monies are wastes and stolen. On the state level, the Boy Governor has been throwing billions down the drain. On the local level, Crooked County and the city of Chicago waste billions upon billions.
Posted by: John D | October 9, 2007 8:09 PM
Hillary...on the down low.
Posted by: April | October 9, 2007 8:11 PM
I was actually at the "Baby Bond" speech in D.C.
She definately proposed it and she was totally pandering to a small audience of Black teens and a few CBC members who were salivating all over her.
Shame on you, Senator. Pandergate continues!
Posted by: Major Man | October 9, 2007 9:27 PM
IT’S OFFICIAL.
DOZENS of Terrorists endorse Queen Hillary in '08. On the record, Mideast jihadi leaders say she's best hope for victory in Iraq.
QUEEN HILLARY GETS ENDORSEMENTS
With presidential primaries approaching, MUSLIN TERRORIST LEADERS in the Middle East have offered their ENDORSEMENT for America's highest office, stating in a new book they hope (QUEEN) Hillary Clinton is victorious in 2008. "I hope (QUEEN) Hillary is elected in order to have the occasion to carry out all the promises she is giving…," stated Ala Senakreh, West Bank chief of the Al Aqsa Martyrs Brigades TERRORIST GROUP. Senakreh is ONE OF DOZENS OF TERROR LEADERS FOR QUEEN HILLARY…in the new book, "Schmoozing with Terrorists, Jihadists Reveal their Global Plans – to a Jew!" by bureau chief Aaron Klein. Terror leader Hamed said: "(Queen) Hillary and the Democrats call for withdrawal. Her (Majesty’s) popularity shows… We just hope that she will go until the end…" The Brigades … TOOK RESPONSIBILBITY FOR EVERY SUICIDE BOMBING IN ISRAEL the past three years. The Brigades also has carried out hundreds of recent SHOOTINGS AND ROCKET ATTACKS.
MORE TERRORISTS WHO ARE QUEEN HILLARY’S BIGGEST FANS
Abu Ayman, an Islamic Jihad leader in Jenin, said he is "emboldened" by THE QUEEN’S calls for an eventual withdrawal from Iraq. Nasser Abu Aziz, the West Bank deputy commander of the Al Aqsa Brigades, declared it is "very good" there are "voices like COMRADE HILLARY and others who are now attacking the Iraq invasion."
DOZENS OF TERROR LEADERS WANT DEMOCRATS TO WIN
In "Schmoozing," every terrorist leader…stated they hope a Democrat becomes president in 2008…explained their endorsement of Queen Clinton… "All Americans must vote for the Democrat Party," stated Jihad Jaara, an exiled member of the Al Aqsa Martyrs Brigades terror group and the infamous leader of the 2002 siege of Bethlehem's Church of the Nativity.
PALESTINIAN TERROR LEADERS HOPE FOR QUEEN HILLARY
Some Palestinian terrorist leaders stated their support of QUEEN CLINTON…"I hope also she will maintain her husband's policies…" stated Brigades chiefton Senakreh. I hope (Queen) Hillary will move a step forward…
ANOTHER TERROR LEADER FOR THE QUEEN OF MEAN
Ramadan Adassi, leader of the Al Aqsa Brigades in the Anskar refugee camp in the northern West Bank, said he, too, backs QUEEN Hillary…and hopes she will continue the "legacy of her KING husband"… But the terror leader…claiming White House intern Monica Lewinsky really was an Israeli Mossad implant sent to destroy KING Clinton's career…
ONE MORE TERROR LEADER FOR QUEEN HILLARY
Abu Abdullah, a senior operational member of Hamas' so-called "military wing" stated he wants a DEMOCRAT in the White House…"
Posted by: Preston Hansonn | October 9, 2007 9:37 PM
Posted by: Preston Hansonn | October 9, 2007 9:37 PM
Hey Preston, quit cutting and pasting from Rush Limpdong's web site.
Posted by: John E | October 9, 2007 10:29 PM
"Muslin terrorists", preston?
Who are they, the extremists of the fabric industry?
Posted by: jules | October 9, 2007 10:47 PM
Bob,
It seems to me that you might actually be the clueless one here. Those “treasury securities” in the trust fund are nothing but IOUs. After paying off the current Social Security payments, the treasury exchanges any excess FICA and SECA contributions for a special treasury bond which is backed by only by the government’s promise to pay. The treasury then transfers the money to another account to make it available to pay for congressional appropriations. In other words, the government makes a loan to itself, and the bonds represent a “secure” IOU to the Social Security trust fund.
While it is true that these bonds will be paid off, they will be paid off from the receipts of future payroll taxes paid by American taxpayers. What the American public has already paid for, it will have to pay for again. In other words, contrary to your assertion, it is not “already bought and paid for.” If someone told you this, they were lying.
We have more people on social security than before, and that will remain the trend for a some time to come as the population gets older. This has altered the worker to beneficiary ratio to such a degree that, unless things drastically change soon: 1) payroll taxes will have to be increased, 2) benefits of today's workers will be reduced by the time they retire, or 3) other revenues will have to be generated to support the Social Security system. Either that, or the system will go belly up.
And you think that is “solid?” Would you like to buy a CTA “L” line you can call your very own?
Posted by: John W. | October 10, 2007 6:00 AM
Please people. If you read these boards , just remember, GRAIN OF SALT. We haave all been taught (or force fed) what we are meant to believe(P'S, F's) Whatever bottom line is, Take all of it for wwhat it is. If it reallly matters to you then do your homework. You just maay be suprised.No way to now my views cuz I don't blog this shit. Again LOOK INTO IT before you vote
Posted by: Leslie | October 10, 2007 6:21 AM
Posted by: Preston Hansonn | October 9, 2007 9:37 PM
And Osama bin-Laden wanted Bush to be re-elected in 2004.
Posted by: BC | October 10, 2007 11:44 AM
Nsilib,
I'll bet come next March when Hillary is the democratic nominee, you are singing her praises.
For a person of you accomplishment, that was great insight.
For those of you that are complaining about her pant suit - be greatful its not a mini-skirt.
Jon - look at the ROI's for the stock market as compared to Social Security. For every EnRon, etc...; there are plenty of MicroSofts, Googles, etc....
Bob Smith - how is Al Gore's lockbox doing?
Dee - if you equate caring with big gov't programs - you are correct.
BC,
Here's bin Laden's statement - read it again
http://www.cnn.com/2004/WORLD/meast/10/29/bin.laden.transcript/
Posted by: Terry | October 10, 2007 10:41 PM
Hillary Clinton will say anything if she thinks it will get her to the White House. she is power hungry,please America do not vote this lady into office. no more of the same!
Posted by: s4watson | October 13, 2007 9:29 AM
Maybe Hillary and Laura Bush shop at the same store! Love MOM
Posted by: Connie | November 9, 2007 8:07 PM