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Democratic U.S. presidential front-runner Hillary Clinton has moved to the left in key policy areas such as trade during her primary campaign against rival U.S. Senator Bernie Sanders of Vermont, who is known for his liberal stances.
Here is a look at what the former secretary of state has said she would do should she win the White House in the Nov. 8 election. These policies are drawn from white papers released by her campaign, stump speeches, debates and interviews.
IMMIGRATION
Clinton supports comprehensive immigration reform with a path to full citizenship. She has pledged to defend President Barack Obama’s executive actions on immigration and, if legally possible, expand on them. She has called for an end to deportation raids and family detentions.
Clinton has, however, disagreed with liberal Democrats about the best way to handle the influx of young people fleeing cartel violence and other issues in Central America.
Obama said in 2014 that the United States would send these youths back to deter others from attempting the same dangerous journey – a position that Clinton has defended, including in a recent presidential debate.
“The fact is that there was a great effort made by the Obama administration and others to really send a clear message, because we knew that so many of these children were being abused, being treated terribly while they tried to get to our border,” Clinton said. “I think now what I’ve called for is counsel for every child so that no child has to face any kind of process without someone who speaks and advocates for that child, so that the right decision, hopefully, can be made.”
TRADE
Clinton supports some free-trade agreements and opposes others, saying her decisions are based on whether she feels the specific agreement will adequately protect the interests of U.S. workers.
Clinton has had to deal with the legacy of the North American Free Trade Agreement reached by her husband’s administration during her own political career. She backed away from NAFTA when she ran for a U.S. Senate seat representing New York.
As a senator, she supported trade agreements with Australia, Chile, Morocco, Oman and Singapore. She opposed the Central American Free Trade Agreement. During her first presidential campaign in 2008, she criticized possible agreements with Colombia, Panama and South Korea.
But once she became Obama’s secretary of state, she worked to finalize agreements with Colombia and South Korea – a deal that in 2007 she had called “inherently unfair.” Clinton also worked on the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) as secretary of state, saying it would be the “gold standard” of trade agreements.
As a presidential candidate in 2015, she stalled on taking a position on TPP, saying she would wait until it was finalized by the administration. Clinton eventually said she would not support TPP because it does not adequately protect U.S. workers.
ECONOMY AND TAXES
Clinton has pledged to not raise taxes on the middle class in any way, in contrast to Sanders, her Democratic rival, who favors a nominal income tax premium to fund universal healthcare. Clinton has focused on “reforming the tax code so the wealthiest pay their fair share.” She has proposed ending the carried interest loophole that categorizes the bulk of a hedge fund manager’s income as return on investment and not compensation; enacting the “Buffett Rule” so the wealthy with investment income do not pay lower effective tax rates than “truck drivers or nurses;” and pushing back against “quarterly capitalism” and incentivizing long-term investment by Wall Street.
FOREIGN POLICY
Clinton has called for an “intelligence surge” to combat the Islamic State militant group, and diplomatic efforts feature prominently in most of her foreign policy plans. She does not believe there should be a surge in ground troops in the Middle East, including in Syria. She has said she supports increased “specialized forces” there and enforcing a no-fly zone. She believes Russia’s participation will be essential for any solution in Syria. Clinton has also called for stepped-up efforts by U.S. technology companies to combat terrorism. In a major foreign policy speech she said “social media companies can also do their part by swiftly shutting down terrorist accounts so they are not used to plan, provoke or celebrate violence.” She has not said how far she would go to compel the cooperation of private companies in this effort.
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