Obama rails against Donald Trump's "crazy" economic plans
In his most blistering denouncement of Donald Trump yet, President Obama railed against the presumptive Republican nominee's "crazy" economic policy proposals Thursday, directing his ire at Trump's promises to tear down financial regulations.
"The Republican nominee for president has already said he'd dismantle all these rules that we passed," Mr. Obama, citing Trump's views on Wall Street reform, said at a high school in Elkhart, Indiana. "That is crazy."
"Sometimes I just don't get it," the president went on. "How it is that somebody could propose that we weaken regulations on Wall Street. Have we really forgotten what just happened eight years ago? It hasn't been that long ago."
Making an appeal to the general electorate, he added: "The notion that you would vote for anybody who would now allow them to go back to doing the same stuff that almost broke our economy's back makes no sense. I don't care whether you're a Republican, or a Democrat or an Independent. Why would you do that?!"
In fact, Trump has indeed promised that he would deregulate Wall Street firms, telling Reuters in an interview last month that "Dodd-Frank has made it impossible for bankers to function," referencing the large financial overhaul passed in 2010.
"It makes it very hard for bankers to loan money for people to create jobs, for people with businesses to create jobs. And that has to stop," Trump told the news outlet. Asked how much he would change the regulations, Trump said "it will be close to dismantling of Dodd-Frank."
Of the billionaire's tax plan, which the campaign released in March, the president delivered a scathing criticism, trashing it as a policy that would give the "top one-tenth of one percent" a bigger tax cut "than the 120 million American households at the bottom."
"It would explode our deficits by nearly ten trillion dollars," Mr. Obama said. "That will not bring jobs back. That is not fighting for the American middle class. That will not help us win. That is not going to make your lives better. That will help people like him."
"When I hear working families thinking about voting for those plans, then I want to have an intervention," the president joked, to loud laughter from the audience. "I want you to just take a look at what you're talking about here."
Beyond Trump's plans on the economic front, the president also blasted the presumptive nominee's plans to deport the over 11 million undocumented immigrants in the United States.
"Not only is that a fantasy," Mr. Obama said, it "just logistically would be impossible." And, to top it off, kicking immigrants out would do nothing to "seriously help the middle class."
The president was in northern Indiana Wednesday to tout his administration's economic achievements, seven years after he first visited the city's failing manufacturing sector.
He stressed that for Elkhart, a drop in unemployment, 90 percent graduation rates for high schoolers, and record production rates for RVs (Elkhart is often called the "RV capital of the world") are all proof positive that his policies are working. And nationally, the president noted that the federal deficit has been reduced almost 75 percent on his watch.
The president laid out future goals to right the economic course of the country as well, including proposals to raise the minimum wage, create job training and community college opportunities, and expand social security benefits.
The federal government should ensure, Mr. Obama said, "if someone's working full time, they're not living in poverty."
"Some states, some cities have done it," he pointed out. "But we need a national law."
Of expanding retirement benefits, the president said: "Not only do we need to strengthen its long term health, it's time we finally made Social Security more generous and increased its benefits so today's retirees and future generations get the dignified retirement that they have earned."