Kirk Laughlin
U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, in an speech today in Washington D.C., applauded countries in the Americas for sustaining economic growth during the global recession, expressed her vision of the Western Hemisphere becoming “a model” for cooperation around the world and singled out Brazil for its long-term commitment to closing wide economic inequalities.
The wide-ranging speech provided another indication of the growing closeness between the U.S. and countries in Latin America and the Caribbean and the leadership Clinton has shown in understanding the deeper challenges and issues with individual countries.
Clearly economic inequality was a major theme. “We’re really trying to work with governments and the private sector to increase economic opportunity,” she said.
She also underscored a longstanding talking point for her which reasserts the principal that many Latin America countries are failing to raise tax revenues, and as a result continue to falter. “Too many other countries, you look at the tax revenue to GDP percentage, it’s among the lowest in the world. That is unsustainable,” said Clinton.
Contrasting that approach has been Brazil, which has followed through on a decades-long plan to raise sufficient tax revenue to lift up the neediest in their society. Clinton praised these efforts.
Finally, Clinton signaled that free trade pacts with Panama and Colombia are still in a holding pattern, which was not good news for either country. To read the full text of the speech, visit the State Department website.
Hillary comes across as totally clueless. While it's true that taxation is at or above Swedish levels, the return is African, and actually widens the income gap. Income tax is fixed and most taxation is on goods and services, so the poor pay proportionally more than the rich for the same amount of goods.
A lot of the taxes are spent on paying fabulous salaries to top government officials and even more is squandered on corruption and graft. If all the tax money went where it's supposed to, we'd (yes, I'm Brazilian) have a top class health service and excellent road net. As it is, they're abysmal.