Economic Policies

of Trump and Clinton

 

Vocabulary

turbine	shell out	wind turbine
motto	under (2)	infrastructure
bridge	roll off (2)	production line
sector	pocket	globalization
current	envisage	minimum wage
minor	campaign	at record levels
abolish	condition	to get under way
ardent	generate	enterprise
threat	opponent	enthusiastic
barrier	slowdown	vehement
tariff	obvious	proponent
erect	election	protectionist
policy	slap (2)	renewable
aim (2)	regulation	do away with

 
 
 

Video: Economic Policies

 
 
 
 

Transcript

Hillary Clinton wants to build wind turbines, roads, bridges, and schools. All together, she plans to shell out $275 billion in infrastructure investment in the coming years.

Clinton wants to create ten million new jobs with her investment program.

Donald Trump also wants to create jobs in America, especially those which are being done in Asia right now.

Under him, the next generation of iPhones won’t be rolling off Chinese production lines — they’ll be US made.

His motto is “Americanization; not globalization.”

Hillary Clinton wants to put more pay into workers’ pockets. She’s talking of raising the current minimum wage of $7.25 an hour by as much as 100% in some sectors.

For his part, Trump only envisages minor increases based on local conditions. As campaigning got under way, he though the current minimum was already too high.

But there’s certainly no more talk from Donald Trump of Americans working harder if they don’t earn enough. Despite a slowdown, global trade is at record levels, due also in part to US enterprise.

Twenty percent of the country’s GDP is generated through international trade.

Hillary Clinton was once an ardent proponent of free trade . . . now she’s a lot less enthusiastic about abolishing trade barriers, which she now sees as a threat to US jobs.

Donald Trump is a vehement global free trade opponent. He wants to slap import tariffs of 45% on Chinese products, if he wins the election, erecting trade barriers around the US, an openly protectionist policy.

But their differences are most obvious when it comes to the environment.

Clinton wants to continue President Obama’s policy of investing in renewable energies. She aims to make the US the cleanest energy producer in the world.

But Donald Trump isn’t having any trump with words like climate change and climate protection: he wants to do away with all climate protection regulations on US companies, because he says they’re bad for business.

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Questions

1. According to the video, Hillary Clinton wants to increase the size of the US Army, Navy, Air Force and Marines. True or false? Why does she plan on investing in infrastructure?

2. They both want to increase the national minimum wage. Is this right or wrong?

3. Is international trade vital to the US economy?

4. Trump, a Republican businessman is pro-free-trade. Is this correct or incorrect? Is this ironic? Why does he feel this way?

5. Has Clinton changed her stance on free trade? Why has she changed?

6. Is Clinton green? Is she an environmentalist?

7. What are Trump’s views on global warming?

 
 

A. Does your city and country need to rebuilt, upgrade and create more infrastructure?

B. What is the minimum wage? Is it too low, too high or about right? Should it be increased, decreased, remain the same or abolished?

C. What are the benefits or advantages of free trade? What are the disadvantages or drawbacks of free trade? How do people in your country feel? Do they have mixed opinions of free trade?

D. Should all trade barriers come down, should there be some quotas and tariffs, or should there be significant quotas, import taxes and barriers?

E. How do people feel about global warming, climate change and environmental protection?