Hillary Clinton: Good decisions based on ‘evidence,’ not ideology, gut feelings

Clinton defended raising the minimum wage saying “Don’t let anybody tell you that raising the minimum wage will kill jobs, they always say that.”
She went on to state that businesses and corporations are not the job creators of America. “Don’t let anybody tell you that it’s corporations and businesses that create jobs,” the former Secretary of State said.
Clinton’s comment will likely be used frequently to attack her as another big-government Democrat. She is seen by many as already running for president in 2016.

Hillary Rodham Clinton made a pitch to increase data-driven research and solutions with the end goal of improving the lives of women and girls around the world, saying good decisions in government, business, and life, are based on evidence rather than ideology or gut feelings.

Speaking at an event to highlight a 2012 partnership she launched to fill such “gender data gaps,” the possible 2016 Democratic presidential contender said she got tired seeing otherwise thoughtful people “smile and nod” when she broached issues concerning women and girls.

“I wanted to comb through all the data that had been collected by our own government, by institutions such as the World Bank and the IMF, to build a case strong enough to convince the skeptics, based on hard data and clear-eyed analysis, that creating opportunities for women and girls across the globe directly supports everyone’s security and prosperity, and therefore should be an enduring part of our diplomacy and development work,” she said.

“After all, good decisions in government, in business, in life are based on evidence, rather than ideology or gut feelings, or anecdotes,” she said. “And that is especially true…when it comes to policies that will affect millions of people. You have to do the research; you have to run the numbers - that’s how we minimize risk and maximize impact.”

She cited the research of Ela Bhatt, founder of the Self-Employed Women’s Association in India, and offered praise for Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, “who knows that Japan’s economy will be very significantly enhanced if women are in the formal economy.”
But she called those examples the “exceptions,” not the rule.

“When it comes to the lives of women and girls around the world, too much is not getting measured - that’s what we found at the state department when we started digging into the data,” she said. “Births aren’t always counted, which has particularly dire consequences for girls, the work of women outside the formal economy is not always counted, the participation of women at decision and even peace making tables is not always counted.”

She said that as the country’s top diplomat she launched a number of initiatives to close the gaps and in 2012 launched the “Data 2X” partnership calling for the collection and analysis of such data.
“There are so many data gaps that undermine progress, not just for women and girls, but for entire societies,” she said.