Is it About the American People or is it All About Hillary?

Hillary Clinton is a lot different from other Presidential Candidates in that everyone already knows who Hillary is. Being First Lady for eight years in which she was a major voice in her husbands administration, she was a dividing force among her supporters and detractors. Even if you don't know where she stands, you probably already have a strong opinion on her. However, I tried to put my opinions aside regarding Hillary and look at her issues objectively.

Strengthening the Middle Class

I always find it ironic when various politicians talk about helping the middle class when they haven't been a part of the middle class for decades, or ever (and this is hardly isolated to Mrs. Clinton) but this is where we begin. Hillary begins by talking about how badly off the middle class have been under the Bush administration: CEO pay is up, corporate profits us, wages lagging, etc. This is a fairly solid point and she says that "When Hillary is in the White House, no American will be invisible to the president of the United States." When you visit the site, one thing becomes obvious, it is about Hillary. Statements like the above are fairly common where she references herself in the first person as "Hillary." She doesn't say something like, 'as president we will work together to make the middle class stronger' it's 'Hillary will do this, Hillary will do that.' Moving on, she makes a few blanket statements on what she would do as president, these include items that she gets into more detail later such as health care and energy, however, she also makes some statements that need to be explained in more detail. For example, she states that she will create good jobs with good wages and reward savings, protect pensions and provide greater retirement security. But how? How is she going to create good jobs? Besides, the president CAN'T create good jobs with good wages, unless you are a government employee. Our economy is so complex that the President shouldn't get nearly the credit for the economy nor the blame that they get when it goes bad. Also, what does she mean by rewarding savings? Does that mean there will be less taxes on my 401k? Or is she specifically talking about Social Security? The vaugness of these statements is easy to say on the campaign trail, but in greater detail can she actually achieve them? It is questionable and I would like to see her have more specifics on this topic to explain what she means.

At the end of each section she has a "Ready to Lead" section which explains what she achieved in her 6 plus years in the Senate. She mentions that she proposed a plan that would tie the minimum wage to congressional pay increases, so if Congress gives itself a pay-raise, it would give everyone earning minimum wage an increase. I see this as more symbolic because Congress will never pass this and even if they did, it wouldn't have that great of an impact. While there can be an entire article on the pro's and con's of the Minimum wage, if you support it, you would support Hillary on this issue, even if it isn't very effective. She continues to talk about her support for various tax relief measures for the middle class including ending the marriage penalty, extending the lower-income tax rates and a child tax credit. I think most people would be in favor of these issues, but we can talk about the impact on balancing the budget during that section.

Overall, she gets pretty specific in some of the programs she has supported and pushed for in congress and what she wants to accomplish as President. While some of her goals and statements are pretty broad and probably unachievable, if you support trying to increase the quality of life for the middle class, you probably won't disagree with a lot of what Hillary says, regardless of your political affiliation.

American's Health Choices Plan

For obvious reasons, this is going to be a major issue for Hillary. Being the lead on her husbands staff that pushed for a national health care system in the early 1990's, she is well established when it comes to discussing health care. On her Issues page however, she speaks in such generalities as to leave the person wondering what she is talking about. She mentions that it is your choice of the plan you want. How does this happen? Is Medicare going to cover everyone? Can we all pick the same coverage that Congress gets? What about private insurances? She is pretty quiet on this topic, at least on this page. She says that she will give tax credits to help pay premiums, which is okay I guess, but sometimes tax credits don't do nearly enough for those who cannot afford any health care now. Also, she states that small businesses will get tax credits to help pay the cost, and again, sometimes that is not enough. Beyond that, how is she going to pay for this? She talks later on balancing the budget, but how does this health care plan affect that? I would like to see some hard numbers regarding this issue. She continues by discussing how insurance companies won't be able to deny you coverage or drop you. This is all well and good, but for those who understand how insurance works, because you become part of a "risk pool" and if that risk pool is filled with people who have terminal diseases that increase the cost of their health care, then to off-set those prices, EVERYONE'S insurance will then increase, that is how it works. So what happens then? Do we all get an increase in tax credits? What about the budget? She continues to say that you won't lose your insurance if you lose your job. This is true now, you can continue to keep your insurance through what is called "COBRA" which is a lot more expensive because you pay all of the premiums. Realize that when you are at a job, the company themselves usually pay part of the premium (they used to pay all of it, but with increasing health care costs, this has changed) and when you are fired from a job, the insurance company doesn't drop you, you just can't afford that coverage anymore because your former company is no longer paying part of your premium.

She states that "HILLARY can get it done" because no one has worked harder on this. Unfortunately, she is not very specific in the details and that makes me question a lot of this issue. Maybe she gets into more specifics on another page or in her speeches, but on her website, it is woefully inadequate for those looking beyond blanket statements like "I can guarentee that all of us have afordable health care."

Ending the War in Iraq

Clearly a major issue with every candidate and especially the Democrats is the War in Iraq. Basically, if you are for a withdrawl in Iraq you are going to agree with Hillary and other Democrats. Hillary however doesn't just say "lets get out" but also puts out a plan to get our forces out. She states that her first objective will be to discuss with the Joint Chiefs of Staff and her Secretary of Defense and her National Security Council to draw up a plan to begin withdrawing troops within her first 60 days in office. This is a pretty tall order and I'm not sure if it can be done. Also, what will this do to the security of Iraq? She continues by saying that she would direct aid to entities to get money into the hands of the Iraqi people. What does this mean? What entities? The UN or the WTO or NGO's? What? I would like to see a lot more clarification on this issue. Saying your going to direct aid to whichever entity is fairly ambiguous and doesn't really solve any problem at all. Having the UN involved is an interesting proposition. While it has done some good, it is usually hamstrung by something which can prevent a timely resolution to the problem. Before we start pulling out troops, maybe we need to have the UN representative broker a peace agreement first. She then discusses a "New Intensive Diplomatic Initiative in the Region." She says that she will convene a regional stabilization group with allies and other global powers and the states that are bordering Iraq. This is easy to say will be done and harder to actually achieve. While her goals are admirable, again, acievement is something else. While I applaude her ideas of achieving non-interference, mediation and reconstruction funding for Iraq, it is little more than wishful thinking without more concrete details.

Overall, she has some highly idealistic ideals that are going to be extremely difficult to achieve. I think her plan is a little flawed and based on some huge assumptions and good will from people who have not been showing much of that over the past few years.

Energy Independence and Global Warming

Again "Hillary has a bold and comprehensive plan" shows that it is all about Hillary. I only say this because it seems like it is not about the people or a plan, but about "Hillary's" plan. However, here is where she finally starts talking about more specific ideas on how to fix the problems that she expresses on this topic. While this is nice, she also continues to put forth ideas that don't have a lot of substance, but a lot of rhetoric. First off, her plan to promote energy independence and work on global warming includes raising fuel standards to 55 miles per gallon. This clearly would help us decrease our consumption of oil, but we are still going to be reliant upon it until we start developing cars that don't run on oil. She states that she will "urge all of the nation's stakeholders to contribute to the effort" regarding clean and renewable energy. That's some good rhetoric, telling people that you will urge them...not force companies to develop alternative energies or even have a concrete plan, but urge them. There needs to be more substance here and less rhetoric. She states that by setting targets she can reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 80% from the 1990 levels. But what about today's levels? How much of a decrease are we going to see. That 80% number is pretty high, but how much of a decrease will it be from today. I am sure it is not nearly that high, which is also why she didn't use it. While I am being quite critical, she does have some good ideas, such as funding 50 billion dollars for a "Strategic Energy Fund" to research alternative fuels, which will definatly help as well as putting a plan together to move our energy consumption to more renewable sources. One of the best is the requirement that all federal buildings designed after Jan 20, 2009 be zero emissions buildings. While this won't affect the private sector right away, the technology and development of such buildings from the federal level will spill downward towards the private buildings.

Overall, Hillary puts forth some genuinely good ideas, but still spends too much time talking in generalities and using tough rhetoric and not enough substance on this issue. However, I am glad to see that her energy policy won't be written by former oil tycoons.

Fullfilling our promises to our Veterans

Here Hillary begins by championing what she has done in the Senate to help those veterans and their families who have served in the armed forces. She states that as president she will continue to fight for them. She starts by talking in generalities, but then gets very focused on this issue. She begins by discussing a "GI Bill of Rights" that she would put forth that would be in the same spirit as the 1944 bill. This bill would include funding education and training for those in the guards and reserves when they are called up to serve overseas. She also talks about a low-interest, no-fee loans to those serving to repair or build a home and a microloan for starting a business. These are all good ideas, if she can get it passed through congress, it seems like an excellent step.

Regarding Health Care, she talks about ensuring health care for all veterans and making the VA system is adequately funding and have the proper capacity for those needing care. Her next point is a little iffy however. She says that she will ensure that all veterans filling for a disability claim will get a timely response. While I found this statement ludicrous at first, she does a nice job of describing what she would do to help the current system and it actually is a pretty good step. She also talks about various programs that she plans on expanding to help with the transitions from war back to the private sector, and is pretty good about being specific.

Her next point deals with reducing the homelessness among veterans. While I find this an admirable task, shouldn't we by trying to reduct homelessness for everyone? We're one of the richest nations in the country and we have millions of people homeless each year, shouldn't that be a focus too? I like her idea about various programs for veterans, but this is more of a national problem than just a military one and I would like to hear her discuss this on a more national level.

Overall, she spends a lot of time discussing Veterans and it pays off. She has a lot of specifics and less rhetoric than on previous issues, which makes this one of her better issues at the moment.

Supporting Parents and Caring for Children

Hillary begins this section by talking about how fighting for children has been at the core of who she is since her first years as a lawyer for the Children's Defense Fund. She mentions quite a few issues that she will fight for and make a priority as president. First off, she states that she will get more outstanding teachers and principals and pay them like the professionals they are. This is a pretty broad statement and needs a lot more information regarding how before we can even begin discussing if it would work or not. Way too much rhetoric and no substance in that statement. She also wants to reform NCLB, but how? How is she going to reform it and what parts? Again, she is mum on this and needs more specifics on this issue. She continues on this trend of stating that she supports things like early head start, protecting children from violence and sex, providing help to households and giving new parents training to promote development of their children with now means on how she is actually going to do this. It would be nice to see more specifics on this topic. She finally talks more about specifics when discussing passing the family and medical leave act as well as promoting programs such as the Home Instruction for Parents of Preschool Youngsters (HIPPY, which I think is hilarious). While these final two areas are a good start, she needs to add more specifics instead of talking in such generalities.

To continue discussion of Hillary Clinton's webpage, look for my next article: Part 2 of examining Hillary Clinton's Issues Page.