In a presumptive sign of things to come in 2016, Jeb Bush is attacking recent comments made by Hillary Clinton.
While not mentioning her by name, the former Florida Republican governor castigated Clinton’s comments on job creation while stumping for Republican candidates in swing state Colorado.
“This last week I saw something that was breathtaking,” Bush said, according to CNN. “A candidate, a former secretary of state, who was campaigning in Massachusetts where she said that ‘don’t let them tell you that businesses creates jobs.'”
“Don’t let anybody tell you that it’s corporations and businesses that create jobs,” Clinton said Friday during a campaign stop in Massachusetts. She also added that trickle-down economic policies have “failed rather spectacularly.”
Though she walked back the remarks three days later after much criticism, Republicans — especially potential 2016 candidates — have been using the words in their favor.
Bush, who was in Colorado just one day after former President Bill Clinton and a little more than a week after Hillary visited, was then able to spin the shot at Clinton into an opportunity to express his economic vision.
“Well, the problem in America today is that not enough jobs are being created,” Bush said.
“They are created by businesses where people’s income rise where they can live a life of purpose and meaning independent of government. That should be the mission. And the only way that we do that is to create a climate of high sustained economic growth where everybody, everybody in this country has a chance at earned success,” Bush said.
Bush has consistently pushed that he has not made up his mind about running in 2016, though sources mostly point to yes.
His son George P. Bush said it’s “more than likely that he’s giving this a serious thought in moving forward” last weekend in an interview with ABC, noting he will make his decision around the holiday season.
A RealClearPolitics average of polls has Bush polling second among 2016 Republican candidates, less than a point behind Kentucky Sen. Rand Paul and just less than a point ahead of former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee.
