Americans are optimists. That's why they hope the economy will start doing better than the tepid economic recovery of the past six years.

Unfortunately, Hillary Clinton's economic plan rests on pessimism. In her bid for the presidency, she's looking more to ward off Democratic opponent Bernie Sanders and his class-warfare platform than offering what the country really needs. She has called for boosting the top capital gains tax rate to 43.4 percent from 23.8 percent.

As the Wall Street Journal explained, she "wants to apply the normal top income tax rate of 39.6 percent plus the 3.8 percent (Obamacare) surtax to investments that are sold in less than two years." States then add their own percentage to the rate. For example, in California, which has the highest state capital gains tax rate at 13.3 percent, the top rate would hit a staggering 56.7 percent.

Hillary Clinton is attacking what she calls "quarterly capitalism," which supposedly means CEOs are working more for short-term gains in stock prices than the long-term health of their companies. Her plan would discourage short-term investments, while encouraging long-term investments. But this should be a decision left to companies and their boards of directors, not politicians.

Hillary Clinton seems to have forgotten her family history. President George H.W. Bush won election in 1988 on his pledge, "Read my lips: No new taxes" — then broke his pledge. Bush lost in 1992 to Bill Clinton, who promised a "middle-class tax cut." Bill Clinton then raised taxes in 1993, slowing that year's economic recovery. In 1994, he was punished when voters put Republicans in charge of both houses of Congress for the first time in 40 years.

Bill Clinton then worked closely with new Republican House Speaker Newt Gingrich. They cut the capital gains tax three times, including lowering the top rate to 20 percent from 28 percent — and balanced the budget to boot. The economy took off with the dot-com boom for the rest of the decade.

Taxing capital gains at high rates is foolish because it confiscates the "seed corn" needed to create new businesses and jobs. Bill Clinton understood that. Hillary Clinton, judging by her economic plan, doesn't.

REPRINTED FROM THE ORANGE COUNTY REGISTER