Bill and Hillary Clinton spent the summer in the Hamptons where they would "field thoughts on policy" with Wall Street’s wealthiest as they attended lavish fundraising events. Wall Street seems to have gotten to them.
Hillary used her time among Wall Street executives to get the political pulse of the wealthy Democratic donors who could provide the financial backbone of her likely 2016 presidential campaign.
One issue she focused on was finding out "what they thought of Mr. Obama’s efforts to eliminate inversions," according to a report in the New York Times.
It appears the Clintons are taking what they heard in the private Hamptons talks to the public stage.
Speaking at the Clinton Global Initiative conference in New York City, Bill Clinton expressed the point of view of corporations that "feel duty bound to pay the lowest taxes they can pay," according to the New York Times.
"Like it or not, this inversion, this is their money," said Clinton on Tuesday, speaking of companies that have been called "unpatriotic" by President Barack Obama.
"We have the highest overall corporate tax rates in the world, and we are now the only [Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development] country that also taxes overseas earnings," said Clinton. "A lot of these executives, even if they wanted to bring the money home, they think this is crazy."
Clinton also took some blame for creating a tax system that is forcing companies to seek out lower tax rates in other countries.
"I should make full disclosure here, I signed and supported the bill that raised the corporate taxes in America to the level they are now," said Clinton.
These statements by former President Clinton reflect the type of message that Hillary Clinton may adopt for her presidential run, according to insiders who say that her message would stress corporate tax reform above the need to restrict corporate inversions.
It is also a message that clearly contrasts the rhetoric coming from the Obama administration, which has called inversions an "abuse of our tax system" and attempted to enact legislation that would restrict them.
"We should not be providing support for corporations that seek to shift their profits overseas to avoid paying their fair share of taxes," wrote Treasury Secretary Jacob Lew in a July letter to lawmakers.
The administration announced new measures to crack down on companies that choose to move their headquarters overseas on Monday, saying that inversions "erode the U.S. tax base, unfairly placing a larger burden on all other taxpayers, including small businesses and hardworking Americans."
Critics of the measures say that they will be ineffective, and that there is no stopping inversions as long as the United States has the highest corporate income tax rate in the developed world.