Hillary Clinton will never "topple" the wealthiest 1 percent of Americans — but she could spark class warfare and hurt economic growth, Steve Forbes, chairman of Forbes Media, tells
Newsmax TV.
"What she can do if she got in and had supreme powers is make it impossible for people to rise up whether they're in the 1 percent or the 99 percent," Fobes said Thursday on "The Steve Malzberg Show."
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"The people on top, she can put them on the sidelines, so the capital doesn't get put to work … But it's not toppling the 1 percent; it's toppling the American people."
In a profile of Clinton,
The New York Times reported the former secretary of state believes strengthening the middle class and easing income inequality will require "toppling" the wealthiest 1 percent of Americans.
That's dead wrong, according to Forbes, who is also editor-in-chief of Forbes.com and a former GOP presidential candidate.
"Put aside the fact that the 1 percent constantly changes in this mobile society … put aside the fact that the Obama administration's been practicing trickle-down economics having the Fed try to prop up the market and have a trickle-down effect from the wealth effect," Forbes said.
"Put all of that aside, if you don't have investment, you don't have a growing economy. You want to encourage people to invest, you want to encourage people to save.
"She's spoken out against the Federal Reserve and 0 percent interest rates. What that does to senior citizens, capital creation, hello!"
When Malzberg mentioned that renowned economist referred to Clinton as economically "bipolar," Forbes shot back, "Bipolar? It's quadruple polar and totally disconnected with reality."
"She's promoting policies that crush small businesses … On the one hand, she's a doctor saying to the patient, I feel your pain. On the other hand, prescribing snake oil," Forbes said.
"The American people want growth and opportunity. They don't want this class warfare and stagnation. We've seen how well that works in Europe. They want a chance to get ahead. As Abraham Lincoln put it, improve your lot in life. She's pursuing the policies to make that impossible."
Asked about his thoughts on the growing crop of GOP presidential candidates, Forbes said he was still at the "look-see stage."
"I'm excited that people like [Sens.] Rand Paul and Ted Cruz are putting flat tax ideas out there … Carly Fiorina says she likes a flat tax," he said.
"So I want to see specifics that they put on the table, like Ronald Reagan when he ran, came out in favor of 30 percent across-the-board income tax."
In separate interview with Ed Berliner on Newsmax TV's MidPoint, Forbes said a Clinton presidency would mirror President Barack Obama's two terms.
"If you loved the last eight years, you'll love another four more of it. She truly believes what the current incumbent, President Obama, believes. Very left wing," Forbes said.
"I don't think she has those centrist tendencies of her husband who exhibited those … somewhat when he was president back in the 1990s. She was the one who, after all, came up with Hillary Care which morphed into Obamacare.
"So if you want four more years of this stuff, she's your candidate and if you don't like her, you can go with [Massachusetts Sen.] Elizabeth Warren who's even worse or just the same. That's why the Republicans have got to get their act together and we this time finally, we will."
Forbes, co-author with Elizabeth Ames of "Money: How the Destruction of the Dollar Threatens the Global Economy
— and What We Can Do About It," published by McGraw-Hill, told Berliner that Obama "truly believes that the Constitution is an antique document."
"He buys into this so-called progressivism that arose in the United States 100 years ago that the Constitution is an antiquated document, that we need a powerful executive, that you need experts and efficiency at the top of government overriding the traditional barriers to quick action," Forbes said.
"And so he treats Congress with disdain, he issues executive orders the way Louis XIV, the Sun King of France, used to issue decrees, and so we see it playing out today.
"Congress is beginning to get a few things done, but most of the laws as you know in this country as passed by these so-called independent agencies that just make it up as they go along, especially the Environmental Protection Agency, which, as we know has been waging war against coal, natural gas, and oil for at least six years."
Forbes also dismissed the notion that conservative billionaire businessmen David and Charles Koch, who recently through their weight and money behind Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker, have the power to buy the 2016 presidential election.
"You can't buy an election certainly on the national scale on this country and while the media loves to focus on the Koch brothers, [billionaire Democratic donor] George Soros spends as much or more than the Koch brothers do," he said.
"The left has a lot of people spending tons of money but they get ignored or played down, whereas on the conservative side, if you get somebody putting up dollars like Sheldon Adelson or the Koch brothers, oh boy, evil, got to stop them, harass them.
"You see it happen all the time. It's hypocritical, it's unfair and all of that but that's one reason why you got to keep fighting. You can't let the other side run you off the field."
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