Hillary Clinton, the surprise populist

[BlueMTexpat]

http://www.usatoday.com/story/opinion/2016/05/02/hillary-clinton-trump-sanders-free-trade-global-economy-column/83662854/

'Stay or pay' plan could make corporations think twice about moving jobs overseas.

Donald Trump and Bernie Sanders have made white working-class resentments over international trade central to their presidential bids. But neither takes the issue seriously. Ironically, the one who does is the candidate most identified with free trade.

Hillary Clinton.
...
Lost job growth isn't due to bad deals with China because the U.S. does not have bilateral trade agreements with that country. China and the U.S. are, however, members of the World Trade Organization, which writes the rules of commerce. A condition of membership was lifting trade barriers. To influence commerce rules, and to benefit from China's liberalized economy, the U.S. dropped tariffs on Chinese imports. Trump and Sanders may blame trade deals for the plight of the white working class, but the real issue is a global economy.
...
Her claim on this is a tax proposal that gives corporations incentives to invest in the USA. According to her "clawback" plan, firms relocating overseas must repay any taxpayer assistance they ever received. As she told the New York Daily News, tax relief is given in exchange for creating jobs. There was, she said, "an implicit bargain."

Elizabeth Warren, the progressive icon, invoked the same implicit bargain while running for the Senate in 2012. Corporations are part of communities with multiple stakeholders, she said: "Part of the underlying social contract is you take a hunk of that and pay forward for the next kid who comes along."

Clinton’s proposal to make firms stay or pay is good policy that is also good politics. Given how closely her views resemble Warren's, it's ironic that the candidate most identified with free trade could be the most progressive.