Clinton talks trade, mortgages in Iowa

Hillary Rodham Clinton fleshed out her economic platform Monday, rolling out proposals to toughen U.S. trade policy and help homeowners facing higher adjustable-rate mortgage payments.

Sen. Clinton (D-N.Y.) discussed her presidential proposals as she set out on a two-day campaign road trip -- the “Middle-Class Express Bus Tour” -- across rural Iowa.

Appearing at a veterans memorial hall in Cedar Rapids, she ticked off a litany of statistics -- on stagnant wages, higher costs for college and healthcare, softening housing prices, higher household debt -- and said the nation had “a trapdoor economy.”

“Too many families are standing on that trapdoor, just one diagnosis, one pink slip, one missed mortgage payment away from falling through and losing everything they’ve worked for,” Clinton said.

Clinton called for revisiting U.S. trade deals every five years to make sure they worked as intended -- and said she’d start with the North American Free Trade Agreement, signed into law by her husband. The deal, which was anathema to organized labor, has “serious shortcomings,” she said, citing the trouble New York growers were having exporting apples to Canada as one example.

She also called for the appointment of a federal trade- enforcement officer and doubling the size of the enforcement unit within the office of the U.S. trade representative, a nod to concerns that trade agreements have undermined the nation’s manufacturing sector.

In addition, Clinton proposed changes to federal lending policies to throw a lifeline to homeowners with adjustable-rate mortgages facing ballooning payments. Under her proposal, Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac -- the government-sponsored mortgage-finance giants -- would have greater leeway to work with lenders and state housing agencies to move those homeowners to stable fixed-rate mortgages.

Much of what Clinton presented in her 50-minute speech was familiar, including proposals to expand the availability of healthcare, roll back President Bush’s tax cuts, promote stem-cell research and bolster organized labor.

She also reiterated her call for a $50-billion strategic energy fund to finance research into alternative forms of energy, such as biomass and biofuels “grown right here in Iowa.” She said that the program, which would be financed by repealing oil industry tax subsidies, could create thousands of jobs while lessening U.S. dependence on foreign energy sources. “It’s time for them, finally, to do their part,” Clinton said of the oil companies, which have reaped record profits as energy prices have surged.

Clinton sits atop the latest poll of likely Iowa Democratic caucus-goers, published Sunday in the Des Moines Register. Her tour -- in a blue bus with “Rebuilding the Road to the Middle Class” plastered across the sides -- was intended to bolster her support in small-town Iowa, where she has been less visible than some of her Democratic rivals.

mark.barabak@latimes.com

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Republican debate

The Republican presidential candidates will debate economic issues today at the Ford Community and Performing Arts Center in Dearborn, Mich. The two-hour event will be broadcast on CNBC at 1 p.m. and on MSNBC at 6 p.m.