Healthcare: Mrs. Clinton has been very vocal about her belief in a national healthcare system. So much, that Obamacare that was put in place in 2012 was largely considered a ripoff of her previously proposed 'Hillarycare'. She had proposed a plan in the 1990's when her husband was President calling it the Clinton Healthcare Plan, then brought it up again in 2008, naming it Hillarycare, and has advocated the healthcare cause ever since. Her plan focused primarily on nondiscrimination, care whether you could afford it or not, and forming something that was "uniquely American."
Her plans and policies have focused much on working with taxpayer money to help pharmaceutical companies produce generic drugs cheaper, so they can sell them cheaper. Also she wanted to make healthcare more affordable and efficient in general, offering things like electronic medical records to help offset costs, She wished to make chronic diseases a priority; as well as making it possible for kids no matter what tax bracket they are in to receive the care they needed. Also she wanted to make it impossible for people to be exluded from insurance by preexisting conditions.
Welfare and Social Security (including Medicare and Medicaid): It is well known that in the case of Hillary Clinton she leans very far to the left on almost every issue. Welfare is no exception. She says that the systems are flawed, but they were a very critical step in insuring the future of Americans. She has advocated equal pay for equal work policies in respect to women and minorities, and has advocated raising the minimum wage. She has said that community responsibility will only take you so far, and you must have intervention on the federal level to make the most of welfare. In this line of thought, she is up for reform, but she says (as she does with healthcare) that it has to be big, and all or nothing, or it won't make any difference.
Education: The new Common Core system was on Mrs. Clinton's agenda from 1994, and she has pushed it heavily in the last couple of years. She strongly championed the bills instituting national testing, and national standards.
Environment: Environmnetaly, Hillary Clinton is strongly for clean alternative energies, as long as they are not nuclear. She has opposed nuclear energy staunchly. However she does say that we need a comprehensive energy plan as soon as possible. She wants to institute a cap and trade policy that essentially taxes those who have a larger carbon footprint and putting that money to use researching alternative fuels. She also very much wants to limit toxic material coming into the country attached to things like children's toys and other objects around the household. She stands for clean air, and wishes to fund the EPA in order to reduce pollution and make air safer for people to breath. She says this would reduce childhood asthma, as well as allergies. She has supported numerous bills cleaning lakes, and rivers of sludge and toxic chemicals.
Illicit Drug Use and Regulation: Clinton stated that marijuana use should be left up to individual states to decide. She also has advocated for non-violent drug users to be 'diverted' away from regular prisons and given lighter sentences like parole. She says that we should still be against hard drugs like meth and cocaine and do everything we can to keep it from being available.
Pro Choice/Pro Life: Mrs. Clinton is decidedly Pro Choice. She states that abortion should remain legal but "it needs to be safe and rare." She concedes the point that life may begin at conception, but she believes that the lives of the other people in question should be considered as well, and put at a higher priority. She has spoken out against China's One Child Law, but on the other hand has been very outspoken about her disagreement with Romania's forced pregnancy laws. She wishes to have an increase in access to birth control in an effort to reduce unwanted pregnancies and therefore reduce abortions. Recently she has stated that it is necessary to separate abortion from religious ideals. She believes it is not a religious or moral issue, but a healthcare one. In this case she follows closely with the feminist agenda.
Gun Control: Clinton has been outspoken on her views about gun control, saying that while she concedes the fact that American's have the right to own firearms, the right has gone to our heads and has fallen out of balance. She says we must 'reign in' what we have overdone in terms of the right to bear arms. She says it would be better to amend that statement to something like 'we have the right to bear arms in certain circumstances'; citing the fact that some recent shootings have been over silly things like playing music too loud or texting. She claims that local governments should take this issue, and create their own regulations according to their populace, but also says that we should do everything we can to keep the firearms out of the hands of criminals.
Foreign Affairs: She wishes to take a hard line on countries like Russia and China in terms of their violent acts toward other countries like Georgia and Tibet. Diplomacy is her main pedestal and she does not wish to use the military for her ends. She has stated that extending NATO to countries like Ukraine and Georgia would be a good idea, and advocates highly peacekeeping missions.
Immigration: Mrs. Clinton is strongly in favor of immigration reform, but she says like healthcare, education, and welfare, it has to be comprehensive. Halfway measures will not hold up in the long run. She said that things like offering illegal immigrants diver's licenses was a start, but something even bigger would have to be done. She is in favor of making the strenuous process of entering the United States as a new citizen easier, and wants to "Introduce a path to earn citizenship in the first 100 days".
Altogether Hillary Clinton has a very liberal approach, although she has in recent years moved more towards the middle, possibly in preparation for the upcoming election. She is a very experienced candidate to say the least, and is very outspoken, opinionated, and passionate about a variety of subjects.
Most information about this candidate has been found at www.ontheissues.org and I encourage you to visit the website to learn more about Mrs. Clinton and the other candidates on these issues. I have given simply a summary of all the issues here, just to give an idea of what they are like as legislators.
Next week I will be analyzing Ted Cruz, so stay tuned!
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