My Primary Source: N/A
POV: N/A
Bias: N/A
Reason for Source: I'm choosing to omit reference, as I'm sure it won't be used and isn't worth the time I put into reading it.
Health Care: Sources:
Health Care Costs Agenda and
American Health Choices Plan (PDF)There's a lot ton ingest with Clinton's health care plan, and I'm not expert on health care. Honestly I've had trouble understanding my own health plan. However, I've read the documents above and can give some outline to their content and in doing so provide a summary of what has been coined HiliaryCare.
One major reform HilliaryCare plans to initiate is enforce and help subsidize the implementation of a paperless electronic record system. This will bring patients medical history up to the modern age and provide saving over the paper version estimated at $77 billion (I assume this is after the cost of implementation have been spent, or before they are taken into account). HilliaryCare also plans on reducing the bloated Medicare costs given to HMOs which will reduce overall costs of health care making the costs much more manageable (by about $10 billion). HC also has plans to reduce the need for health care by investing in adding incentives (such as removing co-pays) for preventative measures (such as colorectal screening and getting doctor advice on weight, nutrition, or exercise). This might not only make economic sense, but will improve the wellbeing of America overall.
Individuals, or heads of the household will be able to choose from health plans that members of Congress enjoy. However, responsibility of choosing the health plan that best fits their situation is placed on the individual to figure that out. To help compensate that, tax breaks will be given to working individuals to better deal with the affordability of Health Care
One key advantages of national health care worth mentioning is that it gives stability in the form of a health plan not dependent on employment status or a change of employment.
Iraq War: Summarized
from Clinton's website, her Iraq plan is as follows. Her plan has been broken down into three parts: Bring the troops home, within the first 60 days of her administration, then focus "redeployment on stabilizing Iraq, not propping up the Iraqi government" and lastly stabilize Iraq by asking Iraq's neighbors not to intervene, provide deplomatic mediation between factions, and also provide reconstruction funding. Also
during a conversation over a cup of coffee with a group of Iowans, she states, "unless they do the political work, they are going to be on their own."
Economy & Budget: I certanly picked the right time to write this analysis. Four days ago Clinton released an economic stimulus plan. The plan focuses on assisting on the crisis in housing, energy assistance, and unemployment insurance as well as other things.
A blogger for the Clinton team already as given a pretty good summary of the plan. I recommend checking that out.
Environment: Again,
taken from her website, regarding Global Warming and Energy Independence, Clinton plans include:
"setting ambitious targets, the plan would reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 80 percent from 1990 levels by 2050 to avoid the worst effects of global warming, and cut foreign oil imports by two-thirds from 2030 projected levels, more than 10 million barrels per day.
"increase fuel efficiency standards to 55 miles per gallon by 2030, but would help automakers retool their production facilities through $20 billion in "Green Vehicle Bonds.
"transition our economy toward renewable energy sources, with renewables generating 25 percent of electricity by 2025 and with 60 billion gallons of home-grown biofuels available for cars and trucks by 2030
"A requirement that all federal buildings designed after January 20, 2009 will be zero emissions buildings."
Globalization: I had a very difficult time roping this one and frankly I can't grab a good answer. Much of the internet's debate on Clinton and Globalization focuses on her opinion of President's Free Trade act. However, I found many sources that seemed to express their opinion on wither she would support or not support her husband's work. I just can NOT find a straight answer to this question though.
Abortion: Clinton has been statically pro-choice. A record of her
voting since 2004 on the issue of abortion can be found here. One particular item of note from this page is "Voted NO on notifying parents of minors who get out-of-state abortions. (Jul 2006)"
Immigration: Clinton adds an interesting dimension of the immigration debate, family. Her otherwise fairly generic policy of identify who is in our country illegally, and securing our boarder (not badly generic in any way by any means) is offset by supporting families of legal immigrants to not be separated. Other points include: "strict penalties for those who exploit undocumented workers, and a path to earned legal status for those who are here, working hard, paying taxes, respecting the law, and willing to meet a high bar."
Read more about Clinton's stance on Immigration here.
Education: Analysis omitted for my own sanity. Here is the long version:
http://www.hillaryclinton.com/issues/education/
Civil Rights: Analysis omitted for my own sanity. Much of Clinton's focus on Civil rights focuses on women. Here is the long version:
http://www.hillaryclinton.com/issues/women/
Other Notables: Clinton has a strong focus on women's rights. Attending the United Nations Conference on Women in Beijing in 1995, and introducing the
Paycheck Fairness Act are just a few of the things Clinton has done to benefit women in general.
See a more comprehensive list here.Personal Opinion (section to extract my emotional commentary out of the above as best as I can):
This review was a long time coming and its very much tied to why I didn't make a reference to a Primary Source this time. I did read a book on Clinton, called
The Case for Hillary Clinton , which the first time I've ever considered burning a book. I'm only linking it because I'm mentioning it and I just can't not mention how bad this book was. The argument the author makes for Clinton is vote for her because she is a woman. She even takes it one step further to say, "I have always believed that there is a special place in hell for woman who turn their backs on other women." When I read that I was surprised my glare didn't set the book on fire alone. Damn my persistence though, I decided to give the author a fair shot to clarify her point to be made of something less ignorant, but that never happened. This is however purely my opinion, and if this opinion appeals to you, please feel free to pick up this book and give it a good read.
I want to stress though, that the author makes it clear that her opinion is her own, and NOT that of Senator Clinton.
That being said, what do I think about Clinton, reading as much as I can to recover from the monstrosity of that book? I like her, but I like her in a way that focuses more on not disliking her. First off, as much as I have tried to shrug off reading that book, it didn't work and I currently am trying to patch up this post having not completed the sections on Globalization, Educations and Civil Rights, while feeling very burned out on politics. From what I did research, I saw nothing I disliked and as such I think she'd do well as Commander in Chief.
