The Obama administration doesn’t think it’s just wealthy Americans who aren’t paying enough taxes. Rather it’s a worldwide problem, says Secretary of State Hillary Clinton.

"One of the issues that I have been preaching about around the world is collecting taxes in an equitable manner, especially from the elites in every country," she said at the Clinton Global Initiative Monday, according to The Weekly Standard.

"You know I’m out of American politics, but it is a fact that around the world, the elites of every country are making money. There are rich people everywhere, and yet they do not contribute to the growth of their own countries."

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The wealthy need to get involved with the development of their societies — schools, hospitals, and the like, Clinton said.

The tax increases won’t come at the snap of her fingers, Clinton acknowledged, The Standard reported. “It means leaders telling powerful people things they don’t want to hear," she noted.

"It means being transparent about budgets and revenues and bringing corruption to light. … [W]e shouldn’t punish countries for uncovering corruption. We should reward them for doing so.”

It could be that Clinton was just using the world as a smokescreen to express her opposition to Republican presidential nominee Mitt Romney’s support for the continuation of Bush-era tax cuts for all income levels.

Clinton clearly wasn’t referring to Europe, where many countries have higher tax rates than in the United States.

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