Hillary Clinton Blasts 'Outlandish Trumpian Ideas' in Economic Speech

Donald Trump unveiled a more detailed economic policy plan on Monday.

ByABC News
August 11, 2016, 2:30 PM

WARREN, Michigan -- Hillary Clinton took aim at Donald Trump's economic plan during an address today on her own plans for the U.S. economy.

She slammed his "outlandish Trumpian ideas that even Republicans reject" and compared several of the policies he presented during a speech earlier this week with her proposals.

"I just wish my opponent in this election saw the same Michigan I do," she said at an event in Warren, Michigan, this afternoon. "When Donald Trump visited Detroit on Monday, he talked only of failure, poverty and crime. He’s missing so much of what makes Michigan great."

"He hasn't offered any credible solutions for the very real economic challenges we face," she said.

"If I am fortunate enough to be your president, I will have your back every single day," Clinton said.

She stressed her commitment to small-business owners, citing her father's drapery printing business. She used that as a way into discussing Trump's business history and instances when his corporation got into fights with smaller companies.

"There are companies that were left hanging because he refused to pay their bills," she said. "It wasn't because Trump couldn't pay them. It was because he wouldn't pay them, and that's why I take it personally."

PHOTO: Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton gives a speech on the economy after touring Futuramic Tool & Engineering, in Warren, Michigan, Aug. 11, 2016.
Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton gives a speech on the economy after touring Futuramic Tool & Engineering, in Warren, Michigan, Aug. 11, 2016.

She called on two of the best-known American Olympians to take a dig at Trump's position on trade. She accused him of trying to "hide behind walls" — a reference to his plan to build a wall along the southern border — and said, "If Team USA was as fearful as Trump, Michael Phelps and Simone Biles would be cowering in the locker room afraid to come out to compete. Instead, they're winning gold medals. America isn't afraid to compete!"

Clinton reiterated her opposition to the Trans-Pacific Partnership, which Trump is also against.

"I oppose it now, I’ll oppose it after the election, and I’ll oppose it as president," she said, though she did not mention her previous support of the trade agreement.

During his speech at the Detroit Economic Club on Monday, Trump called his economic plan "the biggest tax reform since [Ronald] Reagan" and called for making child care expenses tax-exempt, reducing the number of federal income tax brackets and abolishing the estate tax, which critics call the death tax.

"It will present a night-and-day contrast to the job-killing, tax-raising, poverty-inducing Obama-Clinton agenda," Trump said Monday.

Clinton — who has said Trump is simply trying to "repackage trickle-down economics" — targeted a provision in Trump’s tax plan that could deliver a tax cut to large corporations. She dubbed the proviso the "Trump loophole," suggesting his companies would benefit from it.

"He'd pay a lower rate than millions of middle-class families," she said.

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