Clinton on the free market: She says disruptive, Giuliani hears destructive -- or disastrousRepublican Rudy Giuliani likes to quote Democrat Hillary Clinton's views on the free market. He used one of his favorite lines last night in the GOP debate in Michigan: "The leading Democratic candidate once said that the unfettered free market is the most destructive force in modern America. I mean, just get an idea of where the philosophy comes from."
Except Clinton didn't use the word "destructive."
In her 1996 book It Takes a Village, she quoted a line from author Alan Ehrenhalt's book about the decline of community life, The Lost City: "The unfettered free market has been the most radically disruptive force in American life in the last generation."
Asked about the idea in a March 1996 C-SPAN interview, Clinton said: "I believe that. That's why I put it in the book." She went on to call the market "the driving force behind our prosperity" but said "it cannot be permitted to just run roughshod over people's lives."
What's the difference? Judge for yourself. Here are Dictionary.com's definitions:
Destructive: "Tending to destroy; causing destruction or much damage. ... Tending to overthrow, disprove, or discredit."
Disruptive: "Causing, tending to cause, or caused by disruption."
Disruption: "To throw into confusion or disorder. ... To interrupt or impede the progress, movement, or procedure of. ... To break or burst; rupture."
Update at 11:15 a.m. ET: At a GOP debate back in May, Giuliani quoted Clinton this way: "We're looking at a race here in which the leading Democratic candidate for president of the United States has said that the unfettered free market is the most disastrous thing in modern America. That's a quote -- or that's a quote she agreed with."
Disastrous: "Causing great distress or injury; ruinous; very unfortunate; calamitous." USA Today
