Sen. Hillary Clinton, D-N.Y., said that rising deficits in the budget and trade pose a threat to the global competitiveness of the United States, and rallied for policies that would restore fiscal discipline in the nation's capital.
According to reports, Clinton, the oft-rumored 2008 Democratic candidate for president, told the Economic Club of Chicago that the current economy is not serving the middle class -- evidenced by the fact that productivity has risen while wages have declined.
Clinton underscored the need for cooperation between business and government -- calling for a reduction in the partisanship fissure as a means to help drive down the deficit.
She also stressed that it was time to get back to fundamentals.
"We can do this," she said, "but we've got to forge a bipartisan consensus."
