55 Promises Hillary Clinton won't Keep

“If you can't dazzle them with brilliance, baffle them with bullshit.” — W.C. Fields

Throughout 2009 and 2010, Obama was in the White House with a Democratic House and a Democratic Senate. After the bank bailouts, Congress passed the Dodd-Frank bill and Obamacare. They also extended the Bush tax cuts for two more years.

Then in the 2010 mid-term elections, the Democrats lost the House to the Republicans. Two years later when Obama was reelected, the Democrats also lost the Senate. Since then Obama and the Democrats have blamed the Republicans for "obstructionism" as their reason for not getting anything done.

But in 2009 and 2010, the Democrats could have done many other things, such as raising the minimum wage, reforming the tax code, lifting the cap for Social Security or putting some bankers in jail. But they did none of that.

When Hillary Clinton announced she was running for President in 2016, she said she wasn't running for Obama's (or her husband's) third term — but in all the Democratic primary debates she has praised Obama and promised to continue with Obama's polices — excluding the ones she flip-flopped on, such as the TPP trade agreement (etc.) She also defended her husband's past policy decisions.

Since she first began her campaign, Hillary Clinton has moved farther and farther to the left (some say, America's true center), and has been vigorously competing with Senator Bernie Sanders's more progressive positions — including calling herself a "progressive" after proudly proclaiming she was "moderate".

During her campaign, Clinton, her surrogates, media pundits and the political insiders have all been accusing Bernie Sanders of "making promises that he can't keep" — so let's have a brief look at some of Hillary Clinton's promises.

Below are exact quotes from Hillary Clinton's web site on the issues. These are just a few examples of the promises that Hillary Clinton has been making — where her web site always states that "Hillary will". When someone claims they "will" do something, that is an implied promise. So below are 55 promises that Clinton has made to voters while campaigning for president, with a few of my comments in brackets.

These are 55 promises that Hillary Clinton made that she can't keep...

Campaign finance reform

Hillary will:

• Promise #1) Overturn Citizens United [Will Clinton be sitting on the Supreme Court?]
• Promise #2) End secret, unaccountable money in politics. [After using secret, unaccountable money for her own campaign?]
• Promise #3) Establish a small-donor matching system to amplify the voices of everyday Americans. [WTF?]

Climate change and clean energy

Hillary will:

• Promise #4) Create good-paying jobs by making the United States the clean energy superpower of the 21st century. [How many good-paying jobs? This is very under defined, and thus is meaningless.]
• Promise #5) Set national goals to have 500 million solar panels installed; generate enough renewable energy to power every home in America; cut energy waste in homes, schools, and hospitals by a third; and reduce American oil consumption by a third. [Anyone can create a "goal". This is very under defined, and thus is meaningless.]
• Promise #6) Lead the world in the fight against climate change by bringing greenhouse gas emissions to 30 percent below what they were in 2005 within the next decade—and keep going.

College

Hillary will:

• Promise #7) Ensure no student has to borrow to pay for tuition, books, or fees to attend a four-year public college in their state. [Her "plan" offers a very convoluted explanation.]
• Promise #8) Enable Americans with existing student loan debt to refinance at current rates. [This is very under defined, and thus is meaningless.]
• Promise #9) Hold colleges and universities accountable for controlling costs and making tuition affordable. [An empty threat. This is very under defined, and thus is meaningless.]

Criminal justice reform

Hillary will:

• Promise #10) End the era of mass incarceration, reform mandatory minimum sentences, and end private prisons. [A very big promise.]
• Promise #11) Encourage the use of smart strategies—like police body cameras—and end racial profiling to rebuild trust between law enforcement and communities. [This is very under defined, and thus is meaningless.]
• Promise #12) Help formerly incarcerated individuals successfully re-enter society. [This is very under defined, and thus is meaningless.]

Economy

Hillary will:

• Promise #13) Give working families a raise, and tax relief that helps them manage rising costs. [This is very under defined, and thus is meaningless.]
• Promise #14) Create good-paying jobs and get pay rising by investing in infrastructure, clean energy, and scientific and medical research to strengthen our economy and growth. [This is very under defined, and thus is meaningless.]
• Promise #15) Close corporate tax loopholes and make the most fortunate pay their fair share. [This is very under defined, and thus is meaningless. Who are the most fortunate, the top one percent of wage earners who make $250,000 a year or more? Congress write tax laws, and Democrats have been no better than Republicans for giving tax breaks to the rich and large corporations, not to mention allowing tax havens and promoting crony capitalism with government subsidtities for big multinational corporations that dodge taxes. So this is a HUGE Clinton whopper.]

Gun violence prevention

Hillary will:

• Promise #16) Strengthen background checks and close dangerous loopholes in the current system. [This is very under defined.]
• Promise #17) Hold irresponsible dealers and manufacturers accountable. [This is very under defined.]
• Promise #18) Keep guns out of the hands of terrorists, domestic abusers, other violent criminals, and the severely mentally ill.

Health care

Hillary will:

• Promise #19) Defend the Affordable Care Act and build on it to slow the growth of out-of-pocket costs. [This is very under defined, and thus is meaningless.]
• Promise #20) Crack down on rising prescription drug prices and hold drug companies accountable so they get ahead by investing in research, not jacking up costs. [This is very under defined, and thus is meaningless.]
• Promise #21) Protect women’s access to reproductive health care, including contraception and safe, legal abortion. [She will veto any Republican abortion bill. A promise that's easy to keep.]

Immigration reform

Hillary will:

• Promise #22) Enact comprehensive immigration reform to create a pathway to citizenship, keep families together, and enable millions of workers to come out of the shadows. [By executive order like Obama?]
• Promise #23) End family detention and close private immigrant detention centers. [With a snap of her fingers.]
• Promise #24) Defend President Obama’s executive actions to provide deportation relief for DREAMers and parents of Americans and lawful residents, and extend those actions to additional persons with sympathetic cases if Congress refuses to act. [In a case before the Supreme Court?]

Labor

Hillary will:

• Promise #25) Strengthen unions and protect worker bargaining power. [How, by executive order to enact RICO laws for union busting by States with "right to work" laws?]
• Promise #26) Raise the minimum wage and strengthen overtime rules. [Clinton will "support" $12 an hour, but won't index this to inflation. We also "support" world peace.]
• Promise #27) Support working families through equal pay, paid family leave, earned sick days, fair schedules, and quality affordable child care. [Again, we "support" world peace, but no one can promise this. This is a very meaningless pledge.]

Manufacturing

Hillary will:

• Promise #28) Strengthen America's investment in manufacturing. [This is very under defined, and thus is meaningless, especially since she supported so many trade deals that offshored jobs.]
• Promise #29) Create tax incentives to encourage investment in the hardest-hit manufacturing communities. [Where will the revenue or lost revenue come from? And we "encourage" people to be polite as well. Another meaningless pledge.]
• Promise #30) Crack down on trade violations to level the global playing field for American workers. [Again, this is one of Clinton's biggest whoppers. She supported almost very trade deal, and thus is totally meaningless.]

National security

Hillary will:

• Promise #31) Keep America safe and secure by defending our core values and leading with principle. [This is very under defined, and thus is meaningless.]
• Promise #32) Defeat ISIS and global terrorism and the ideologies that drive it. [That would be a promise worth keeping, but can she?]
• Promise #33) Strengthen our alliances and nurture new relationships to tackle shared challenges such as climate change, cyber threats, and highly contagious diseases. [We're back to world peace again. This is very under defined, and thus is meaningless.]

Paid family and medical leave

Hillary will:

• Promise #34) Guarantee up to 12 weeks of paid family and medical leave. ["Guarantee"? That is a promise that a Republican Congress might not agree with; but just like all of Clinton's promises, she will do as Obama has done for the past 8 years — and pass the blame to Congress for all her broken promises; whose Democrats just happen to support Clinton. So she would be a "progressive" who CAN'T get things done.]
• Promise #35) Ensure at least a two-thirds wage replacement rate for workers. ["Ensure" is a stronger promise than "I will" — which means "make certain".]
• Promise #36) Pay for paid leave by making the wealthiest pay their fair share—not raising taxes on working families. [This is again very under defined, and thus is meaningless. Who are the wealthiest and who are working families? The top one percent of wage earners makes $250,000 a year or more, but Clinton believes this is "middle-class".]

Racial Justice

Hillary will:

• Promise #37) End the era of mass incarceration. [This is very under defined, and thus is meaningless.]
• Promise #38) Protect immigrants’ rights and keep families together. [This is very under defined, and thus is meaningless.]
• Promise #39) Defend every American’s right to vote. [Except for "independents" and "no party affiliation" in Democratic primaries; otherwise people such as Clinton couldn't win primaries.]

Social Security and Medicare

Hillary will:

• Promise #40) Fight any effort to privatize or weaken Medicare and Social Security, and expand Social Security for today’s beneficiaries and generations to come by asking the wealthiest to contribute more. [Not enact a law, but "ask" the very rich to be more generous? Both Obama and Bernie Sanders advocated for lifting the cap for Social Security; Clinton has refused. So this "promise" is also very under defined, and thus is meaningless.]
• Promise #41) Reform our health care system to incentivize and reward quality care. [This is very under defined, and thus is meaningless.]
• Promise #42) Demand lower prices for prescription drugs for seniors receiving Medicare. [Not enact a law with GOP Congress, but "demand" that big pharma to do so. This is totally absurd!]
• Promise #43) Expand Social Security benefits for widows and those who took time out of the paid workforce to care for a child or sick family member. [Only widows, not low income men?]

Veterans, the armed forces, and their families

Hillary will:

• Promise #44) Put our veterans needs first by ensuring access to timely and high quality care and blocking efforts to privatize the VA.
• Promise #45) Ensure that the men and women who risk their lives for our country have access to a good education and good jobs when they come home by solidifying services and programs that connect veterans to jobs after their service.
• Promise #46) Strengthen services and support for military families who serve alongside our service members.

Voting rights

Hillary will:

• Promise #47) Restore the crucial provisions of the Voting Rights Act.
• Promise #48) Implement universal, automatic voter registration for eligible 18-year-olds.
• Promise #49) Set a new national standard allowing early voting to begin 20 days or more before an election. [Why not also same-day registration, so Independents and those with no party affiliation can vote in primaries? Is it keep the two-party system firmly entrenched?]

Wall Street reform

Hillary will:

• Promise #50) Veto Republican efforts to repeal or weaken Dodd-Frank. [What about the efforts by some Democrats to weaken this bill?]
• Promise #51) Tackle dangerous risks in the big banks and elsewhere in the financial system. [By breaking up the big banks?]
• Promise #52) Hold both individuals and corporations accountable when they break the law. [Such as sending the CEO of Goldman Sachs to prison for fraud?]

Women's rights and opportunity

Hillary will:

• Promise #53) Ensure equal pay for women. [If "Hillary will", that's another big promise.]
• Promise #54) Defend women’s health and reproductive rights against attacks. [By overriding Republican state laws with executive orders?]
• Promise #55) Fight for paid family leave and affordable child care. [Clinton is not promising to "ensure" that she will get this passed in a Republican Congress, only that she will "fight for" it -- So we'll give her a pass on this one promise that she won't be breaking.]

Of course, there are many more promises she made that she can't keep ... but you get the point. She only wants us to know about Bernie Sanders's promises. I will bet you one $225,000 speech that Hillary Clinton will break almost every single promise she has ever made if she becomes our next President. And I can take that $225,000 to the bank today.

Congress currently has a 17% approval rating — and most of the Democrats in Congress have been there for the past 8 years — and most of them support Hillary Clinton. So a vote to put her and Bill Clinton back in the White House again is really a vote for no change at all. It will be a wasted vote for more broken promises.

But people will vote for her anyway. It's no wonder the rest of world either laughs at us or hates us.