Hillary Clinton tax proposal aims to boost manufacturing in struggling communities

On Monday, the Clinton campaign recommended an “exit tax” as a way to stop these inversions by essentially charging companies that move headquarters outside of the U.S. Part of the revenue generated from that tax would be used for her domestic manufacturing proposal, the campaign said.

In a conversion deal, a company merges with a corporation in another country to lower its tax bill.

Clinton announced a $275 billion federal infrastructure investment plan last week, and has called for significant tax credits for middle class families. “It’s not clear whether or not Clinton would continue Democrats’ practice of appointing Wall Street veterans who did the same sort of behavior that we need the Treasury Department to fight”, said Jeff Hauser, project manager at the Center for Effective Government, a nonprofit that focuses on fiscal issues.

“Republicans may have chose to forget about the financial crisis that caused so much devastation – but I haven’t”, she wrote in the New York Times. Both of Clinton’s primary rivals – Bernie Sanders (I-Vermont) and former Maryland Gov. Martin O’Malley (D) – have made the case that the Glass-Steagall regulations should return, but Clinton argued that it would have done little to prevent the 2008 financial crash.

Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Rodham Clinton speaks during the Iowa Democratic Party’s Hall of Fame Dinner, Friday, July 17, 2015, in Cedar Rapids, Iowa.

“My plan will help spur reinvestment in communities … that have lost jobs because of factory closures”, Clinton said in a statement. “There’s these really deep problems in our financial system, and the dollar’s relative strength is making it more hard to produce things here in the U.S”.

Clinton also said she would robustly enforce the Iran nuclear deal, and emphasized that she would consider military action as an option should Iran violate the deal and advance toward a nuclear weapon. The Associated Press reported earlier on Clinton’s proposals.

Under Clinton’s plan, companies like Pfizer would be subject to the new tax on foreign earnings.

“We have to get [enforcement] right in the next months”, she said in a veiled plea to the Obama administration to maintain the pressure on Iran. Analysts estimate that USA companies overseas hold about $2 trillion worth of profits.

Speaking at the Saban Forum, which gathers at the Brookings Institution in Washington DC, the frontrunner for the Democratic presidential nomination sketched out a solution that involves technology companies.