O’Malley: GOP’s take on the economy is ‘bulls—‘

Possible presidential contender Martin O’Malley (D) on Monday mocked Republican arguments that federal regulations keep poor and middle-class people from moving up the economic ladder.
 
“It is not true that regulation holds poor people down, or regulation keeps middle class from advancing,” O’Malley, the former governor of Maryland, said Monday in an interview with NPR’s Steve Inskeep. “That’s kind of patently bulls—.”
 
“That’s quite a last word, by the way, on that subject. … I’m just going to leave it right there,” Inskeep responded.
 
{mosads}O’Malley said working-class people are hurt by a tax code that is riddled with special interest loopholes. He said “the concentrated wealth and accumulated power and the systematic deregulation of Wall Street” is responsible for an economy that “isn’t working for most of us.”
 
O’Malley is considering challenging Hillary Clinton (D) for the Democratic presidential nomination. In recent weeks, he’s become increasingly aggressive in attacking the former secretary of State.
 
He has sought to frame her as a flip-flopper who is not committed to liberals ideals, arguing that she only recently came out in support of illegal immigrants obtaining driver’s licenses and gay marriage as a “constitutional right.”
 
In the NPR interview, O’Malley touted his executive experience as an attribute that sets him apart from Clinton.
 
“I think that Secretary Clinton and I bring different backgrounds and different experience to the task of getting things done,” he said. “I have been a big city mayor and I have been a governor. In other words, I’ve been an executive and a progressive executive with a record of accomplishments.”
 
O’Malley also argued that he has more appeal to young voters.
 
“And I think that, in addition to the experience difference, I think you just have a perspective difference,” he said. “I see, having spoken to younger people, people under 40, where our country’s headed.”

Still, he trails Clinton badly in the polls. According to a CNN/ORC poll released Monday, O’Malley took just 1 percent support, coming in behind Clinton at 69 percent, Vice President Biden at 11 percent, Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) at 5 percent and former Sen. Jim Webb (D-Va.) at 3 percent.