Would Clinton shrink government more than GOP rivals?

Surprising comments from GOP donor Charles Koch

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CHARLES KOCH'S COMMENTS SPARK DEBATE ON WHICH CANDIDATE WOULD SHRINK GOVERNMENT MORE?

Mike Ozanian: Certainly not Hillary Clinton, David. Trump would shrink government much more than Hillary would. As a businessman, Trump knows how erroneous taxes are. Hillary Clinton has never been in private business her entire adult life, but lived off the public trough. She's clueless.

Bruce Japsen: Well, what I do know, I’m, Charles Koch is like me in the fact he's taking a look at Trump's website and said how big policy positions are, not written in crayon, and let's face it, Trump's policies are so vague

Steve Forbes: There's no question of it, David, which is one reason we have the mess we have today. Made possible for the rise of Barack Obama and weakening of the U.S. dollar giving us the crisis of 2008. Hillary Clinton now is trying to be right now the Bernie Sanders mini me, but can she morph into the Bill Clinton mini me. Because she's an accomplished chameleon, she might do it, and Trump has to spell out more not just on taxes, but regulation and what he wants to do on trade. He's been over on that one, and he has to spell is out so there's reassurance to do what George W. Did not.

Sabrina Schaeffer: Well, David, a challenge for Trump is we don't know exactly what he would do, should he make it to the white house. What we know is what Hillary Clinton would do, and she has an absolute disregard for instead of the growth of the progressive state and for regulations, we know she was the mouthpiece for the Obama administration on many failed energy and environmental policies wrapped up in terrible regulations and would raise the minimum wage arbitrarily, try to pass a massive paid leave program, a horrible regulation strangling jobs and dampen economic growth. We know she would be bad for regulation and growth.

Bill Baldwin: Let me tell you what the Trump campaign motto is, make government big again, hire 1 million policemen to chase out immigrants he doesn't like, and when he’s through with the world trade war, he quadruples the size of the unemployment offices.

Rich Karlgaard: Yeah, look, both Clinton and Trump are meddlers by their nation. They're authoritarian by their personalities. Trump told Apple he wants what kind of privacy software they could put in their phones. He told Ford the only auto company that did not take a bailout where they will manufacture. You know, I don't see this libertarian spirit in trump whatsoever.

SENATE GETTING CLOSER TO VOTE ON MASSIVE CRIMINAL REFORM BILL

Steve Forbes: Fine to tweak the things, but a challenge, David, looking at the prisoner population is how many seemingly nonviolent criminals got there because of a plea bargain; take a plea to a lesser crime to avoid trial.

Rich Karlgaard: That's a very solid point. I think Steve is right that this is a very nuanced discussion. We have so much more power with, you know, from DNA to advanced analytics to new programs, and he's right. We should experiment because I think it's tragic. Let's not forget that, you know, lives are ruined. People can't get jobs. Families are torn apart. We have too many nonviolent people in prison.

Mike Ozanian: Well, David, look how successful broken windows was in New York. What i don't like about this legislation, early version of the bill, is someone who commits a violent crime with a gun; they have a reduced sentence 25 to 15 years even as a repeat offender.

Bill Baldwin: David, we can get the murder rate down without something as foolish and as rigid as a mandatory minimum set by a legislature. Example, there was a guy with a 15-year minimum federal sentence for doing nothing other than having shells in a drawer. He did not own a gun. This is 20 years after a felony conviction, which disqualified him from owning a gun. Absurd.

Sabrina Schaeffer: Steve was right, encourage the state level. I think there's a lot of room for some healthy change here. There's a lot of overlap of what conservatives and progressives believe in the issue. Everybody believes we need more rehabilitation before people reenter society, and they support minimum sentencing. There's rape, sexual abuse against children, murder, gang crimes, so I think that there is some wiggle room here, but I would also stand with Steve saying we have to start this at the state level.

Bruce Japsen: Well, I guess what i like about this when we talked about, you know, people want to know what the local states think or whatever, but the local district attorneys have said that they like this because it keeps the lower level offenders, giving them a chance of redemption. I'm not caring so much about what Washington says on this but the people trying to implement it and seem to like it.

MOST OF APPLE'S RECORD $233B IN CASH OVERSEAS

Steve Forbes: Yes, David. We have a double whammy from if, not only bringing money back home by getting rid of the stupid tax code, but you remove barriers to investing here at home. There's business investments that are not good. It's shrinking. So we got to have that tax reform, and you'll see we'll get money coming in and domestic money put to work.

Bruce Japsen: Well, certainly it could, but one of the things that the candidates are talking about is the repatriation plans or a tax holiday. They tried that with the jobs creation act signed into law by bush and it did not happen or create jobs from what i related. The shareholders got it, that's good, but it did not create jobs.

Bill Baldwin: I'm all in favor of cutting corporate taxes, but it's delusional to think that that tax change would create a plot of investment capital. It's just going to end the charade about where apple is locating its cash. It doesn't create anything.

Sabrina Schaeffer: Absolutely, David. Look, when our tax rate here is 39 percent and Ireland is 12 percent, it's a no-brainer why companies go abroad. Perhaps the bigger solution, though, is lowering the tax rate for individuals, families, for corporations so we can all apply our resources where they are best fit

Rich Karlgaard: And, you know, Steve makes a really great point here that this is a two-part thing. You get the cash back, but you want the cash invested to create future companies and future jobs, and that's why you have to lower the overall tax rate, lower regulations, all of that kind of stuff that we know goes into creating a vibrant economy.

Mike Ozanian: That's right, David. Trump understands fully that the corporate tax rate should be 0. It's a pass through tax. Cost burden goes on to workers. To lower the rate as much as possible, sorry, Bill, you think I’m delusional, but you will actually get a stronger economy, and companies want to stay in the United States.

STOCK PICKS

Mike Ozanian: Proshares (SH)

Bill Baldwin: Ste. Joe (JOE)