Hillary's Speech

Here is a bit of what Sen. Clinton said. 

The prepared part of her talk was mostly about agriculture.  She began by speaking about the farm bill just passed yesterday by the House.  She appears to be a big supporter of the bill and chided Pres. Bush and Sen. McCain for arguing for a veto of the bill.  She said that saying "no" to the farm bill was saying "no" to farmers and rural communities.  She also praised the bill for having permanent disaster relief and for including country of origin labeling provisions.  She got in a good populist line by saying that we deserve to know if our apple came from New York or from China.  I guess she knows that China is a convenient whipping boy right now.  She also spoke in favor of ethanol, particularly investing in research for cellulose ethanol.  She said that the sun is the ultimate energy source, so anything that grows can be used for energy. 

She also spoke in favor of farmer's markets, high speed internet for rural communities, nutrition programs (a majority of the spending in the farm bill, she noted) and in favor of programs to get food to the hungry around the world. 

Somewhere within this discussion she mentioned that George Bush took us to war without paying for it. 

She also discussed energy policy.  I won't go into detail here.  She basically endorsed the Consumer First Energy Act that I discussed here.  She did talk about her support for relieving consumers of the federal gas tax for the summer.  She said that she'd use a windfall profits tax on the oil companies to pay for it.  She mentioned that she has gotten criticism over this proposal.  But, she said, if you don't like this idea come up with one of your own, a subtle jab at Obama. 

Next she discussed affordable health care.  She said that she endorses allowing everyone to get the same plan federal employees get, including Senators.  She said that when her Republican colleagues complain that this is socialized medicine she asks them if their own health insurance constitutes socialized medicine.  She claims this program will give better service for a lower price.  Here was another dig at Obama.  She said that people will not be easy to persuade on this issue and on other issues.  Essentially she seemed to be saying that you can't just engage in pretty talk and expect people who have vested interests in the status quo to roll over for you.  She also criticized the Obama proposal for not being universal.   

She then took some questions.  One question was from a local member of the Disable Veterans.  She said she supports fulling funding the Veterans Administration. She also mentioned that we need more work done on traumatic brain injuries, which many Iraq vets suffer from.  She brought up the body armor issue and the lack of supplies for our soldiers.  I found her quite eloquent and knowledgeable on this subject.

Another question was on illegal aliens.  She favors "comprehensive immigration reform."  Here she pretty much sounded like John McCain (or McCain sounds like her).  She is in favor of tightening the boarders and making sure that those who come legally don't overstay their welcome (my words, not hers).  She also argued for greater supervision of employers to make sure they are not hiring illegals and she said the federal government should pick up the tab when local governments must deal with illegals.  She also favors a process of getting legal status for those currently here illegally.  We can't possibly deport them all, so what should we do?  They should be made to pay a fine and back taxes. In the biggest applause line of the day she said that immigrants should be made to learn English if we are to remain "one nation under God" (her line). The main idea here was that we need to get these immigrants a legal status so they can be treated fairly by employers rather than being exploited. 

A last questioner asked something about feeding the world (he didn't have a microphone, but that appears to have been the gist of the question).  Without going into detail, Sen. Clinton expressed a desire to fund such programs at a greater amount. 

I have skipped a thing or two, but this is the important stuff she talked about today.