The consensus in the media is that Hillary Clinton got the better of the first presidential debate, and much of the attention will undoubtedly focus on Donald Trump’s characteristic post-debate antics, including his repeated justifications for calling a former beauty queen “Miss Piggy” years ago and blaming a “defective” microphone for SniffleGate 2016.

What will likely be overlooked is the discussion of over social safety net issues, including a claim by Trump that he largely agreed with his Democratic opponent on ways the government can provide economic security to working Americans.

In her opening statement in response to moderator Lester Holt’s question about how each candidate would stimulate job growth, Clinton ticked off a number of classic Democratic proposals, including investing more heavily in education and research, raising the minimum wage, and closing the gender-based pay gap.

In addition, Clinton referenced a number of ideas that gained prominence during her primary battle with Sen. Bernie Sanders, including paid family leave and “earned sick leave.” She added that the United States should have “affordable child care and debt-free college,” without going into specifics. Clinton unveiled a no-tuition college plan shortly after the conclusion of the primary in an apparent attempt to earn the support of Sanders and his supporters going into the general election campaign.

In what undoubtedly made many of his conservative critics smirk, Trump largely avoided debating safety net issues, even saying he agreed with his opponent.

“As far as child care is concerned and so many other things, I think Hillary and I agree on that. We probably disagree a little bit as to numbers and amounts and what we're going to do, but perhaps we'll be talking about that later,” he said.

Indeed, Trump unveiled a proposal recently to guarantee six weeks of paid maternity leave, paid by the through the existing unemployment insurance system that employers pay into. The plan was heavily criticized as antiquated and not inclusive.

Trump has also released a tax policy aimed at helping parents cover the cost of child care. According to his plan, parents would be able to deduct child care expenses from their taxes. It would also create tax-free savings accounts that people can put money into for child care, much in the same manner as health savings accounts.

At least one progressive think-tank has called Trump’s childcare plan “unserious,” pointing out that it will allow the wealthy to evade taxes on money that they will spend on babysitters, private schools and the like.

What they said on jobs

But while Clinton’s campaign has dismissed Trump’s child care plan and maternity leave plan in the past, the Democratic candidate did not engage him on the issue last night, and Trump soon returned to his favorite theme: American jobs being “stolen” by Mexico and China.

On the jobs front, Trump turned up the heat, referring to Bill Clinton’s signing of the North American Free Trade Agreement and accusing his opponent of only rethinking her position on the Trans-Pacific Partnership as a result of his criticism on such deals. While the United States is giving away its jobs, he claimed, other countries are luring employers with incentives.

“When we sell into Mexico, there’s a tax … When they sell into us, there’s no tax. It’s a defective agreement. It’s been defective for a long time, many years, but the politicians haven’t done anything about it,” he said.

Clinton responded that, “if we stick to the facts,” manufacturing jobs actually increased in the United States during her husband’s tenure, and she said the U.S. could not close itself off to the rest of the world. She said she would evaluate every trade deal closely, to ensure that it leads to jobs in the U.S. and protects U.S. national security, and highlighted instances of trade agreements she has opposed, as well as work she has done to promote U.S. exports as Secretary of State.

“(W)e actually increased American exports globally 30 percent. We increased them to China 50 percent. So I know how to really work to get new jobs and to get exports that helped to create more new jobs,” she said.

Entitlements and taxes

While recent presidential elections have often featured Democrats accusing Republicans of plotting to dismantle Social Security and Medicare, there was not one mention of either entitlement program during the first debate, nor has there been much talk about either throughout the campaign. That’s because, in contrast to most GOP candidates, Trump has run on a platform of defending the two programs and maintaining them in their current form permanently.

Nor did the two candidates give much attention to health care. There was no mention of the Affordable Care Act, which Clinton has said she wants to defend and expand and Trump has said he will repeal.

The traditional dynamic on taxes did come about, however, with Trump boasting that he would introduce the biggest tax cut since Ronald Reagan and Clinton responding that his tax breaks would only benefit the wealthy, would explode the national debt and lead to another recession.

Instant Insights /

Trump and Clinton talk jobs and taxes, but avoid health care, retirement

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