In Iowa City stop, Clinton says she wants to tax wealthy more

IOWA CITY - Calling the tax system a mess that favors the wealthy and corporations, Hillary Clinton wants to require millionaires to pay at least 30 percent of their income in taxes and promises not to raise taxes on middle class Americans.

'It so favors people on the top,” she said about the tax system during a rally Wednesday afternoon at Old Brick Church in Iowa City. 'It so favors the corporations and gives breaks to those who don't need them.”

Clinton, who met earlier Wednesday with Omaha investor Warren Buffett to call for changes that would discourage corporate inversion used to lower tax liabilities, said she would tax corporations and the wealthy more. That revenue would account for about $1.2 trillion in spending she has proposed, she said.

It's ironic she would appear with Buffet, who has been criticized for using corporate inversions to his benefit, Republicans said in responding to her plan.

'Campaigning with the third richest person on the planet is an odd way to communicate that she understands and cares about the needs of millions of Americans still struggling in the weak Obama economy,” said Republican National Committee spokesman Fred Brown.

However, Clinton endorsed the so-called Buffett Rule that would ensure millionaires pay a minimum tax rate at least equal to that of middle-class people. That's only fair given how much the very wealthy have increased their incomes while lowering their tax bills over the past 20 years, Clinton said.

'We're not against success in America. I'm going to be a president for the struggling and striving and the successful,” she said. 'But there is something profoundly wrong when during that time you have more people increase their income by sevenfold and cut their taxes by a third.

'We want to get tax system fair for everybody, working for everybody and make investments that will grow our economy,” she said.

Clinton also would cap tax deductions at 28 percent of income because the wealthy 'get a much bigger advantage.”

She said the changes she advocates will help pay for everything she is proposing - early childhood education, paid family leave, affordable college, advanced manufacturing tax credits, caregiver tax credits.

'Everything I'm proposing, I'm telling you how I will pay for it,” she said.

Clinton's call for $1.2 trillion in taxes and spending 'shows just how far left she has lurched to fend off avowed socialist Bernie Sanders,” Republican Party of Iowa spokesman Charlie Szold said.

Clinton is leading the Vermont senator by 24 percentage points in the RealClearPolitics.com poll average and 17.7 percentage points in Iowa polling.

It's not the polls or the tax plan that convinced Cassidy Shubatt, a University of Iowa freshman from Dubuque, to back the former secretary of state. She introduced Clinton as 'the woman more fit to be president than any man running.” Clinton, she said, will protect her pro-choice rights and make sure she's paid the same as a man for the same work.

'If we want to change the makeup of our government, we need to send a message that strong leaders come from all genders,” Shubatt said.

Clinton is excited about the prospect of being the first female president.

'That would be extraordinary, but that's not why I'm running,” she said. She's running to 'work hard for you, to make a difference in your lives, to handle the big problems and to help families deal with the problems that keep you up at night.

'I'm the best candidate, and the fact that I'm a woman adds to that,” she added.

The Clinton campaign expects to announce later this week that she will be back in Iowa before Dec. 22.