New Clinton Phrase for Tax Increases: "Revenue Enhancements"

Katie Pavlich | June 18, 2015 11:45 AM

Good catch by Patrick Howley at the DC. If Hillary Clinton becomes president, she wants funding for universal preschool and she's going to implement "revenue enhancements" to get it. What are revenue enhancements? They're a tax increase.

First, what Hillary wants via Philip Klein:

Hillary Clinton is trying to sell the idea that she's running a substantive policy campaign, but her initial proposal for universal preschool released at a campaign stop in New Hampshire on Monday left out important details: How much the plan costs and how she intends to pay for it.

In the run-up to her Saturday announcement speech, the media promoted the idea that she intended to run a campaign that offered serious policy solutions. Politico even ran a story titled "Wonk Warrior," in which Glenn Thrush wrote that, "she's far more interested in the how than the why of the presidency, and views her greatest assets as a willingness to engage all participants in a debate and a workmanlike capacity to hammer out policy solutions."

After her speech, many analysts remarked that she was unveiling a lot of substantive policy proposals in a State of the Union-like fashion. In the speech itself, Clinton vowed "In the coming weeks, I'll propose specific policies."

For her first effort, Clinton released a plan for universal preschool. A fact sheet released by her campaign explained that, "Her proposal would work to ensure that every four-year old in America has access to high-quality preschool in the next 10 years. It would do so by providing new federal funding for states that expand access to quality preschool for all four-year olds."

In addition, Clinton "called for doubling our investment in Early Head Start and the Early Head Start-Child Care partnerships."

There is a lot of background about the importance of early childhood education, but there is no reference to the cost or financing of the initiative.