Secretary of state Hillary Clinton strays into presidential politics with call for rich people around the world to do more

Hillary Clinton strayed into presidential politics on Monday with a call for the global elite to pay more taxes, a day after her husband re-ignited speculation she would seek the White House herself in 2016.

The barbed comments, made in a speech to the Clinton Global Initiative event, were widely seen as a dig at Mitt Romney. The Republican contender has been under attack – from Bill Clinton among others – for paying a relatively small portion of income tax despite his immense wealth.

The secretary of state's remarks on taxing the rich were directed at developing countries, and they included a disclaimer. "I am out of politics now," she said. But she said she had become increasingly convinced of the need for changes in tax structures around the world.

"One of the issues I have been preaching about around the world is collecting taxes in an equitable manner, especially from elites around the world," Clinton said. "It is a fact that around the world the elites of every country are making money.

"There are rich people everywhere, and yet they do not contribute to their growth of their own countries."

The remarks met with nods of recognition inside the room as a rebuke at Romney and earned a smattering of applause.

It was hard to escape the parallels with comments made by Bill Clinton on CBS Face the Nation on Sunday – that it would be hard for America to dig itself out of the recession with low tax rates on the rich. The former president's remarks were seen as a reference to the release of Romney's 2011 tax return on Friday, which showed the Republican candidate paid an effective tax rate of 14.1% on $13.7m in income.

"I don't think we can get out of this hole we're in if people at that income level only pay 13% or 14%," the former president said.

The secretary of state, in her remarks, also called for the rich to do more.

"They don't invest in public schools and public hospitals and other kinds of development internally," she said. "So it means for leaders telling powerful people things they don't want to hear. It means being transparent about budgets and revenues and bringing corruption to light."

The similarity of such comments from a former president and a serving member of the Obama administration was striking – and reminiscent of Bill Clinton's comments many years ago that he and his wife were a double act. The Bill-Hillary show was in evidence on Sunday, when the former president re-ignited speculation that his wife would make another run for the White House in 2016, having failed to secure the Democratic nomination in 2008.

Officially, the secretary of state plans to retire when she fills out her term. She has said that she does not want to serve in a second Obama administration, if the president is re-elected in November. She has spoken about taking time off after a grueling schedule, and about writing a memoir.

In July, Clinton racked up more distance traveled than any other secretary of state, with more than 27,000 miles on the road. There have been more trips since then.

Clinton also used her speech on Monday to deliver a message to protesters in the Middle East and north Africa that violent demonstrations would not improve their lives.

"If you look around the world today, countries that are focused more on fostering growth than fomenting grievance are racing ahead," she said. "Building schools instead of burning them; investing in their people's creativity, not inciting their rage; opening their economies and societies to have more connections with the wider world, not shutting off the internet or attacking embassies.

"The people of the Arab world did not set out to trade the tyranny of a dictator for the tyranny of a mob. There is no dignity in that."

Despite such exertions as secretary of state, speculation that Clinton may have enough energy for another run for the White House continues. On Sunday her husband, in his appearance on CBS, failed to offer a denial that his wife still had political ambitious.

"I have no earthly idea what she will decide to do," the former president said. "She wants to take some time off, kind of regroup. Write a book."

By the time the secretary of state turned up for her rapturous welcome at the CGI on Monday morning, however, that was seeming less and less likely.