Clinton lays out vision for easing income inequality

New York, June-14 Hillary Clinton laid out a vision of an activist government focused on easing income inequality and boosting the middle class in the first campaign rally of her 2016 presidential bid.

Clinton, addressing thousands of supporters on Roosevelt Island in New York City, cast herself as a seasoned politician unbowed by decades in the public arena and determined to ensure that more Americans get a piece of the financial rewards that have flowed to corporations and wealthy families.

“I’ve spent my life fighting for children, families and our country, and I’m not stopping now,” Clinton, the front-runner for the Democratic nomination, said in a 45-minute address at the Franklin D. Roosevelt Four Freedoms Park.

With many voters disillusioned with Washington and looking for fresh leadership, Clinton sought to turn her long experience in public life into an asset. “You know by now I’ve been called many things by many people,” she said. “Quitter is not one of them.”

After her remarks, she was joined on stage by her husband, former President Bill Clinton, who did not address the crowd but watched from the audience in a bright red polo shirt.

Clinton aligned herself with a list of policy ideas at the forefront of the liberal Democratic agenda, including paid family leave, paid sick leave, equal pay for women and universal preschool—a continuation of her effort to endear herself to the party’s energized left flank.

Yet she offered no clear stance on an issue that has created one of the biggest rifts in the Democratic Party in years: a 12-nation Pacific trade deal that is a top goal of President Barack Obama and bitterly opposed by many liberals, who say it would harm U.S. workers. The opponents include Sen. Bernie Sanders of Vermont, Clinton’s only rival for the Democratic presidential nomination now in Congress.

Source: Marketwatch