Why Clinton Is Wrong On Three Issues


There were a number of issues raised in the November 14, 2015 Democratic debate where Hillary Clinton was just wrong.

  1. Single Payer Health Care
  2. Tuition Free College
  3. Wall Street Reform

What Hillary says about many issues may sound reasonable if you don’t know anything else about the issue than what she says. However, if you have some knowledge about these issues from independent sources, then you can see that she is either very naive and taking advice from the wrong people, or she may be under the influence of her big donors. Of course the reasons why she is wrong may be different from any of the possible reasons I can imagine. Nevertheless, she is wrong.

Excerpts below from the debate are taken from Democratic debate transcript: Clinton, Sanders, O’Malley in Iowa

Part 1 – Candidates address Paris attacks, ISIS

Part 2 – Candidates spar on the economy

Part 3 – Candidates lay out vision for domestic agenda

Part 4 – Heated exchanges over Wall Street, gun control

Part 5 – Race, Clinton’s emails, Sanders’ electability

Part 6 – Crisis management and closing statements

  

Single Payer Health Care

NANCY CORDES:

Secretary Clinton, back in– (CHEERING) Secretary Clinton, back in 1994, you said that momentum for a single-payer system would sweep the country. That sounds Sandersesque. But you don’t feel that way anymore. Why not–

HILLARY CLINTON:

Well, the revolution never came. (LAUGHTER) And I waited and I’ve got the scars to show for it. We now have this great accomplishment known as the Affordable Care Act. And– I don’t think we should have to be defending it amount Democrats. We ought to be working to improve it and prevent Republicans from both undermining it and even repealing it.

I have looked at– (APPLAUSE) I’ve looked at the legislation that Senator Sanders has proposed. And basically, he does eliminate the Affordable Care Act, eliminate private insurance, eliminates Medicare, eliminates Medicaid, Tricare, children’s health insurance program. Puts it all together in a big program which he then hands over to the state to administer.

Bernie Sanders on Healthcare

The United States must join the rest of the industrialized world and
recognize that healthcare is a right of all, and not a privilege. Despite
the fact that more than 40 million Americans have no health insurance, we
spend almost twice as much per capita on healthcare as any other
nation*. We need to establish a Medicare-for-all, single-payer system.

FeelTheBern.org on health care says:

Medicare is a national social insurance program administered by the federal government. It provides health insurance for Americans aged 65 and older who have worked and paid into the system. It also provides health insurance to younger people with some disabilities like end-stage renal disease and amyotrophic lateral sclerosis.

This does not sound like Hillary Clinton’s description, Puts it all together in a big program which he then hands over to the state to administer. Let me repeat the relevant part of the excerpt above – Medicare is a national social insurance program administered by the federal government.

  

Tuition Free College

HILLARY CLINTON:

Governor, if I could just jump in. I– I believe that we should make community college free. We should have debt-free college if you go to a public college or university. You should not have to borrow a dime to pay tuition. I wanna use Pell grants to help defray– the living expenses that often– make a difference whether a young person can stay in school or not.

I disagree with free college for everybody. I don’t think taxpayers should be paying to send Donald Trump’s kids to college. It think it oughta be a compact (?), (APPLAUSE) families contribute, kids contribute, and together, we want to make it possible for our new generation of young people to refinance their debt and not come out with debt in the future.

Here is some basic math that explains why the issue of paying to send Donald Trump’s kids to college is just a diversion. Donald Trump and his children are part of the top 0.1% of income earners. If we pay to send his children to state colleges and universities, they will use up only 0.1% of the money allocated for making tuition free. The other 99.9% of the money would go to paying tuition for the not so rich. Hillary Clinton seems oblivious to the fact that if she makes it difficult for the 0.1% to get this tuition free benefit, she also makes it tough for the 99.9%. Donald Trump can afford to struggle a bit to get his kids through college. The 99.9% are having massive problems struggling with their college debt burden.

A minor point is that with Donald Trump’s money, he isn’t going to send his kids to state colleges and universities. He will pay, what is for him a trivial amount, to send his kids to the most expensive colleges.

  

Wall Street Reform

HILLARY CLINTON:

Oh, wait a minute, senator. (LAUGH) You know, not only do I have hundreds of thousands of donors, most of them small, I am very proud that for the first time a majority of my donors are women, 60 percent. (APPLAUSE) So I– I represented New York. And I represented New York on 9/11 when we were attacked.

Where were we attacked? We were attacked in downtown Manhattan where Wall Street is. I did spend a whole lot of time and effort helping them rebuild. That was good for New York. It was good for the economy. And it was a way to rebuke the terrorists who had attacked our country. (APPLAUSE)

So, you know, it’s fine for you to say what you’re gonna say. But I look very carefully at your proposal reinstating Glass Steagall is a part of what very well could help but it is nowhere near enough. My proposal is tougher, more effective and more comprehensive because I go after all of Wall Street not just the big banks. (APPLAUSE)

(OVERTALK)

JOHN DICKERSON:

Hold on, hold on, he was attacked. Go–

(OVERTALK)

BERNIE SANDERS:

Here’s– she touches on two broad issues. It’s not just Wall Street. It’s campaigns, a corrupt campaign finance system. And it is easy to talk the talk about ending– Citizens United. But what I think we need to do is show by example that we are prepared to not rely on large corporations and Wall Street for campaign contributions.

And that’s what I’m doing. In terms of Wall Street I respectfully disagree with you, Madame Secretary in the sense that the issue is when you have such incredible power and such incredible wealth, when you have Wall Street spending five billion dollars over a ten year period to get re– to get deregulated the only answer that I know is break them up, reestablish Glass Steagall.

JOHN DICKERSON:

Senator, we have to get Senator O’Malley in. But no– along with your answer how many Wall Street– veterans would you have in your administration?

MARTIN O’MALLEY:

Well, I’ll tell you what, I’ve said this before, I– I don’t– I believe that we actually need some new economic thinking in the White House. And I would not have Robert Rubin or Larry Summers with all due respect, Secretary Clinton, to you and to them, back on my council of economic advisors.

HILLARY CLINTON:

Anyone (UNINTEL PHRASE).

MARTIN O’MALLEY:

If they were architects, sure, we’ll– we’ll have– we’ll have an inclusive group. But I won’t be taking my orders from Wall Street. And– look, let me say this– I put out a proposal– I was on the front line when people lost their homes, when people lost their jobs.

I was on the front lines as the governor– fighting against– fighting that battle. Our economy was wrecked by the big banks of Wall Street. And Secretary Clinton– when you put out your proposal (LAUGH) on Wall Street it was greeted by many as quote/ unquote weak tea. It is weak tea. It is not what the people expect of our country. We expect that our president will protect the main street economy from excesses on Wall Street. And that’s why Bernie’s right. We need to reinstate a modern version of Glass Steagall and we should have done it already. (APPLAUSE)

KATHIE OBRADOVICH [actually HILLARY CLINTON]:

Well, you know, governor I know that when you had a chance to appoint a commissioner for financial regulation you chose an investment banker in 2010. So for me it is looking at what works and what we need to do to try to move past what happened in ’08.

And I will go back and say again AIG was not a big bank. It had to be bailed out. And it nearly destroyed us. Lehman Brothers was not a big bank. It was an investment bank. And its bankruptcy and its failure nearly destroyed us. So I’ve said if the big banks don’t play by the rules I will break them up.

BERNIE SANDERS:

The big bank–

KATHIE OBRADOVICH [actually HILLARY CLINTON]:

And I will also go after executives who are responsible for the decisions that have such bad consequences for our country. (APPLAUSE)

BERNIE SANDERS:

Look, I don’t know– with all due respect to the secretary, Wall Street played by the rules. Who are we kidding? The business model of Wall Street is fraud. That’s what it is. And we– we have– (APPLAUSE) and let me make this promise, one of the problems we have had I think all– all Americans understand it is whether it’s republican administration or democratic administration we have seen Wall Street and Goldman Sachs dominate administrations. Here’s my promise Wall Street representatives will not be in my cabinet. (APPLAUSE)

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JOHN DICKERSON:

Sorry, I’m gonna bring in Nancy Cordes with a question from Twitter about this exchange.

(OFF-MIC CONVERSATION)

NANCY CORDES:

(IN PROGRESS) –about guns but also about your conversation on campaign finance. And Secretary Clinton, one of the tweets we saw– said that I’ve never seen a candidate invoke 9/11 to justify millions of Wall Street donations until now the idea being that, yes, you are a champion of the community after 9/11. But what does that have to do with taking big donations?

KATHIE OBRADOVICH:

Well, I’m sorry that whoever tweeted that– had that impression because I worked closely with New Yorkers after 9/11 for my entire first term to rebuild. And so yes, I did know people. I had a lot of folks give me donations from all kinds of backgrounds, say, “I don’t agree with you on everything. But I like what you do. I like how you stand up. I’m going to support you.” (LAUGH) And I think that is absolutely perfect.

BERNIE SANDERS:

Well, I– if I might– I– I– I think the issue here is that I– I applaud Secretary Clinton. She did. She’s the senator from New York. She worked– many of us supported you in trying to rebuild that devastation. But at the end of the day Wall Street today has enormous economic and political power. Their business model is greed and fraud. And for the sake of our economy they must– the major banks must be broken up.

HILLARY CLINTON:

But–

MARTIN O’MALLEY:

John, I think somewhere between the–

(OVERTALK)

NANCY CORDES:

Senator Sanders, I’m sorry, so what is it in Secretary Clinton’s record– that shows you that she’s been influenced by those donations?

BERNIE SANDERS:

Well, there–

(OVERTALK)

BERNIE SANDERS:

The issue right now is whether or not we reestablish Glass Steagall. I led (UNINTEL PHRASE) unfortunately unsuccessfully against deregulation because I knew when you merge large insurance companies and investment banks and commercial banks it was not going to be good. The issue now is do we break them up? Do we reestablish Glass Steagall? And Secretary Clinton unfortunately is on the wrong side.

HILLARY CLINTON:

Well, I’ll tell you who’s on my side, Paul Krugman, the Nobel prize winning economist who said my plan for what we should do to reign in Wall Street was more comprehensive and better. Paul Volcker, one of the leading (UNINTEL) of trying to reign in the excesses has also said he does not support reinstating Glass Steagall.

So I mean, this may seem like a bit of an arcane discussion. I have nothing against the passion that my two friends here have about reinstating Glass Steagall. I just don’t think it would get the job done. I’m all about making sure (APPLAUSE) we actually get results for whatever reason.

JOHN DICKERSON:

That’s– a final word– the final word, Governor O’Malley, before we go to commercial.

MARTIN O’MALLEY:

John, there is not– a serious economist who would disagree that the six big banks of Wall Street have taken on so much power and that all of us are still on the hook to bail them out on their bad debts. That’s not capitalism, Secretary Clinton– Clinton, that’s crummy [crony?] capitalism.

That’s a wonderful business model if you place that bet– the taxpayers bail you out. But if you place good ones you pocket it. Look, I don’t believe that the model– there’s lots of good people that work in finance, Secretary Sanders. But Secretary Clinton, we need to step up. And we need to protect main street from Wall Street. And you can’t do that by– by campaigning as the candidate of Wall Street. I am not the candidate of Wall Street. And I encourage–

With respect to Hillary’s statement, Well, I’ll tell you who’s on my side, Paul Krugman, the Nobel prize winning economist who said my plan for what we should do to reign in Wall Street was more comprehensive and better. Paul Volcker, one of the leading (UNINTEL) of trying to reign in the excesses has also said he does not support reinstating Glass Steagall. Neither Paul Krugman nor Paul Volcker are forensic economists. The forensic economist William K. Black thinks that breaking up the big banks is essential.

You will See Black’s name mentioned in the article Failing to Break Up the Big Banks is Destroying America.

The following top economists and financial experts believe that the economy cannot recover unless the big, insolvent banks are broken up in an orderly fashion:

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  • Economics professor and senior regulator during the S & L crisis, William K. Black

You can make all the rules you want, Hillary Clinton, but the crooks on Wall Street will find a way to get around them. If you break up the big banks, then when they innevitably break the rules, they will be too small to do as much harm as they did the last time. So Bernie Sanders’ plan is, in fact, tougher than Hillary Clinton’s plan.

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