Clinton: Trump would cause an 'economic catastrophe' 'Liberals and conservatives say Trump’s ideas would be disastrous.'

Just as Donald Trump shouldn’t have his finger on the nuclear button, the real estate mogul shouldn’t have his hands on America’s economy, Hillary Clinton said Tuesday, warning that Trump would drive the U.S. economy into a recession, default on the national debt and give the biggest tax breaks to the highest earners.

“A few weeks ago, I said his foreign policy proposals and reckless statements represent a danger to our national security. But you might think that because he has spent his life as a businessman he would be better prepared to handle the economy,” Clinton said Tuesday in a speech on the economy she delivered in Columbus, Ohio.


“Well, it turns out he’s dangerous there, too,” she said. “Just like he shouldn’t have his finger on the button, he shouldn’t have his hands on our economy.”

Clinton said her views of Trump’s economic policies aren’t just the typical partisan clash.

“Liberals and conservatives say Trump’s ideas would be disastrous,” she said. “The Chamber of Commerce and labor unions. Mitt Romney and Elizabeth Warren. Economists on the right and the left and the center all agree: Trump would throw us back into recession.”

The former secretary of state praised President Barack Obama and his leadership in shepherding the recovery from the 2008 financial crisis but stressed that a Trump administration would take America back to that time by loosening Wall Street regulations that were enacted to prevent another crisis.

She also blasted the businessman for his willingness to gamble with the faith and credit of the U.S. by suggesting he would allow America to default on its debt.

“That could cause an economic catastrophe, and it would break 225 years of ironclad trust that the American economy has with Americans and with the rest of the world,” Clinton said. “Alexander Hamilton would be rolling in his grave. You see, we pay our debts.”

But she didn’t stop there. She highlighted Trump’s bombastic rhetoric and gaffes on everything from claiming that wages were too high to hoping the housing market would crash to saying America couldn’t default on its debt because it prints its own money.

“And finally, the Trump campaign said that if worst came to worst, we could just sell off America’s assets,” Clinton added. “Really? Even if we sold all of our aircraft carriers and the Statue of Liberty, even if we let some billionaire turn Yosemite into a private country club, we still wouldn't even get close. That's how much debt he’d run up. Maybe this is what he means when he says ‘I love playing with debt.’ Someone should tell him our nation’s economy isn’t a game.”

Clinton slammed Trump’s immigration policies, ripping his “wrong-headed and unachievable” plan to deport some 11 million undocumented immigrants as “really bad economics.”

“Kicking out 11 million immigrants would cost hundreds of billions of dollars, and it would shrink our economy significantly,” she said. “Some economists actually argue that just this policy alone would send us into a Trump recession. So instead of causing large-scale misery and shrinking our economy, we should pass sensible immigration reform with a path to citizenship.”

She also ridiculed Trump and his “America First” policy, especially given that many of his branded products are produced overseas.

“Interestingly, Trump’s own products are made in a lot of countries that aren’t named America: Trump Ties are made in China, Trump Suits in Mexico, Trump Furniture in Turkey, Trump Picture Frames in India, Trump Barware in Slovenia, and I could go on and on, but you get the idea,” she said. “And I’d love for him to explain how all of that fits with his talk about ‘America First.’”

And she needled the reality star for refusing to disclose his tax returns, insisting that his reluctance to do so shows that he either doesn’t pay his fair share in taxes, isn’t as rich as he claims to be or doesn’t donate as much money to charity as he says he does.

“You have to ask yourself, what’s he afraid of?” Clinton asked. “Whatever the reason, Americans deserve to know before you cast your votes this November.”

Trump has boasted that his business acumen would make him a good president, arguing that he would do for America what he’s done for his businesses. But Clinton mocked him for that, too.

“He’s written a lot of books about business. They all seem to end at Chapter 11,” Clinton said in an implicit shot at Trump’s bankruptcies. “Go figure.”

Clinton accused Trump of intentionally running up companies' debt and defaulting, burdening workers, small businesses and shareholders while Trump emerged unscathed.

“Everything seems to be a game with him. Well, it isn’t for a lot of us, is it?” Clinton said.

“Now he’s trying to say he’s changed — somebody’s told him he needs to say that — that he’s not in it for himself anymore, he’s really now in it for America,” she continued. “But he’s doing the exact same thing that he’s been doing for years. This is his one move: He makes over-the-top promises that if people stick with him, trust him, listen to him, put their faith in him, he’ll deliver for them, he’ll make them wildly successful and then everything falls apart and then people get hurt.”

Clinton’s speech comes on the heels of a Moody’s Analytics analysis released Monday that determined that a Trump presidency would “significantly” weaken the economy, driving the U.S. into a “lengthy” recession with nearly 3.5 million job losses and a 7 percent unemployment rate. Clinton sought to use that report to her advantage on Tuesday.

Chief economist Mark Zandi, the lead author of the analysis, is a former John McCain adviser who donated to Clinton’s primary campaign last year. Clinton herself pointed to Zandi's Republican ties to buttress her argument that Democrats are not the only ones who have expressed alarm.

Trump’s rapid response team sought to discredit the report, blasting out emails to reporters calling Zandi an Obama adviser and Clinton donor. A separate email highlighted the falling income and increased poverty and entitlement spending under the Obama administration, while another boasted that Trump’s economic policies would create millions of new jobs and trillions in new wealth.

Another email tore into Clinton’s advocacy of the Iranian nuclear deal, highlighting Boeing's agreement Tuesday to sell aircraft to IranAir, the Islamic republic's largest airline.

Additional emails hit Clinton on her role in the loss of more than a quarter of American manufacturing jobs dating back to 1993, when former President Bill Clinton signed into law the North American Free Trade Agreement and normalized trade relations with China; accused the Clintons of laundering money through Bill’s for-profit Laureate Education and touted Trump’s eponymous yet defunct “university.”

Clinton asked Americans to imagine Trump in the Oval Office the next time the country faces a crisis — “if you can,” she said.

“Imagine him being in charge when your jobs and savings are at stake. Is this who you want to lead us in an emergency?” she asked. “Someone thin-skinned and quick to anger? Who’d likely be on Twitter attacking reporters or bringing the whole regulatory system down on his critics when he should be focused on fixing what’s wrong? Would he even know what to do?”

She framed a Trump presidency as a step back for America, arguing that he would undo much of the progress the country has made under Obama and put the economy at risk.

“Donald Trump believes in the worst of us. He thinks we’re fearful, not confident; that we favor division, not unity; walls, not bridges; and yesterday, not tomorrow,” she said. “He thinks the only way forward is to go back, to a past prosperity that left a lot of people out. In fact, the only way forward is forward toward a 21st century version of the American dream with a modern economy and a shared prosperity where no one’s left out or left behind.”