Democratic Presidential candidate, Hillary Clinton joined Chris to talk about world conflicts, controlling healthcare costs, and solving the problems of the middle class.
On the day after the Republican debate, Hillary Clinton gave a much different assessment of world affairs than all of her potential opponents. In her opinion, much of the world didn’t care for the Bush-Cheney foreign policy. In addition to Iran being on a fast track for developing nuclear weapons, we had alienated our allies in Europe and Asia, and we had 1000s of troops in Iraq and Afghanistan. Much has been done to build a relationship based on mutual respect with people around the world. She dismissed much of the criticism directed at her and President Obama by the Republicans with the remark that the world is more complex now, so old solutions might not work. She stated that the United States can not simply order other countries around. Hillary Clinton contends that the United States must assert its values, pursue its interests, and advance our security at the same time.
When she was asked about problems with the Affordable Care Act such as, rising deductibles and copays, Hillary Clinton offered several possible solutions. She pointed out that overall costs are down; but, unfortunately, individual costs keep going up. Mrs. Clinton suggested that ways could be found to defray costs, like a $5,000 tax credit for an expensive illness or injury. She is in favor of controlling the rising costs of prescription drugs. Clinton also believes that ways have to be found to promote more competition among the insurance companies. She also chided her principal Democratic opponent, Senator Bernie Sanders, who wants a single payer healthcare system which would require dismantling the Affordable Care Act. Clinton favors building on and improving Obamacare.
The former Secretary of State and US Senator from New York offered a multipoint program for revitalizing the middle class. Hillary Clinton’s overall goal would be to raise incomes to levels comparable to where they were when her husband left office in 2001. One way to grow the economy and create jobs would be to rebuild our infrastructure; and to bring back manufacturing jobs, especially in clean and renewable energy and medical research and development. Mrs. Clinton also favors raising the minimum wage and guaranteeing that there is equal pay for women. In addition, she considers the student debt problem to be an important issue for the middle class. She believes that ways need to be found to incentivize companies to offer profit sharing. She recognized The Market Basket Corporation for their good work in this area. Health care costs and problems such as mental health, substance abuse, Alzheimer’s were also identified as concerns for the middle class. Hillary Clinton proposes changes in the tax code which would increase revenues, bring back jobs from overseas, and close tax loop holes used by corporations and wealthy individuals. In short, Secretary Clinton wants to make the economy work for everyone without raising taxes on the middle class.
