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Clinton: Health-Care Plan Will Cover EveryoneSen. Hillary Clinton answers questions in our presidential mashup.


Updated Wednesday, Sept. 12, 2007, at 11:53 PM ET

The following is an unedited transcript and may contain typos or omissions. Click here for more on the presidential mashup.

(Continued from page 1)

Clinton: Well, I take from executives or people that work for them, just like I do from every part of the economy. And you know, I think it's a little inauthentic for people to say don't take money from lobbyists, but it's OK to take it from their spouses, their children, their associates, and from people that work for the companies that employ them. That is, you know, to me, kind of an artificial distinction. What's important here is, can you put together a strong enough political coalition to withstand the understandable efforts of interests in our government to try to turn the clock back? You know, one of the things about the American democracy is that everybody gets to express an opinion, and some unfortunately have a disproportionate opinion, and that's why it takes a lot of strength and experience to stand up to them and keep moving forward no matter what the incoming fire might be. And I think I have proven that.

Rose: Turning to education. Has the debate so far in this campaign paid enough attention to education? And what ought to be the debate?

Clinton: I don't think it has, Charlie. It's interesting to me, because in the debates that we've had—and we've had a lot of them so far—education is an afterthought. But when I go out and campaign all over the country, it's really on the minds of people. And I've outlined a very vigorous education agenda starting with universal prekindergarten, changing No Child Left Behind, which I think has really been an unfunded mandate on our schools, making college affordable, finding programs for training and apprenticeship for kids who don't go to college, which is the majority of kids in any age group. But we also have to take a hard look at what the role of family is, and the role of society. You know, a family is a child's first school, and I have a long history going back 35 years as a child advocate trying to help parents become their child's first teachers. And in society, I think we have to ask ourselves, is education working in the 21st century? I think if you and I walk into a classroom today, other than maybe a computer sitting there, it looks pretty much like it did when we were in school, yet everything else has changed. So, I think we have to ask ourselves some tough questions about how do we better prepare our children, who live in a very media-rich environment, who are much more tuned into the rest of the world than I certainly was at their age. How do we get them to have the education they need for the 21st century?

Rose: Just a quick follow-up before I take a user question. Why do you think that is, that education has not come along as fast as other changes in our society?

Clinton: Well, I think it's a combination of a lot of factors. I mean, one is frankly the fact that every one of us have gone through it, each person has opinions about it. You know, it's not like your doctor telling you what you need with health care. Everybody is an expert on education because we went to school. And therefore, local control means that there are millions upon millions of opinions in America about what we should do. And I don't think we have reached a consensus that, I think, reflects the reality today. Our public school system worked so well for America for so long. We've got to make sure it works as well for our future, and that requires people asking themselves, you know, just because I sat in a classroom with my hands crossed on my desk and with the teacher in the front of the room telling me what I was supposed to learn, that's how we need to keep doing it year after year after year? So, I think that there are other reasons that people could point to, but it really comes down to how personally people feel about this issue.

Rose: This is a user question coming from someone you know, I'm sure: Jonathan Kozol, teacher and education writer. And he says, "How do you feel about the testing mania forced upon our children by No Child Left Behind?" Quoting him, "It's driving out half the bright young teachers in our urban schools because they refuse to see their classrooms turned into robotic test-prep factories. Those of you in Congress, what do you plan to do to change it?"

Clinton: As I have often thought about Jonathan and his pioneering, passionate work on behalf of education, he has once again identified a real problem. Look, I believe in accountability. In 1983, I led the effort in Arkansas to improve our schools, and I do think there is a place for testing. But we should not look at our children as though they are little, walking tests, and we've gone way overboard. So I would like to see us do assessments, but understand we need a broad, rich curriculum that honors the spark of learning in every child. And I hope I can help bring that about.

Rose: Here is our final video user question on video from Bill Maher in Los Angeles.

Bill Maher: Sen. Clinton, all the senators here, except Sen. Obama, voted for the Iraq resolution in 2002, saying that their decision was based on intelligence that they believed to be accurate at the time. In other words, George Bush fooled you. Why should Americans vote for someone who can be fooled by George Bush?

Clinton: Well, Bill, it was a little more complicated than that. I sought out expert opinions from a wide variety of sources. People inside and outside the government, people in my husband's administration. And I think it is fair to say that, at the time, I made it very clear I was against a pre-emptive war. And I believed that giving the president authority to go back to the United Nations and put in inspectors was an appropriate designation of authority. That is not what we have seen him do, and I've said that had I known then what I know now, obviously, I would never have voted to give him the authority. But the real challenge for America is the challenge I'm trying to address: What do we do now? George Bush is still president, despite my best efforts to end his term in 2004. And I intend to do everything I can as a senator to force a change in course, which means getting Republican support. All of us are working toward that end together, and I look forward to, you know, getting that additional support in the Senate. But if President Bush does not change course and we are still in Iraq when he leaves office, that will be the first thing I do as president. End our involvement, bring our troops home, and start paying attention to all the other challenges we face around the world and in America.

Rose: Sen. Clinton, thank you. I look forward to continuing this conversation at my table or some table somewhere in America, perhaps Iowa or New Hampshire.

Clinton: Thank you, Charlie. Good to talk to you.

Rose: Thank you. We'll be right back. Stay with us.

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Remarks from the Fray:

The difference between Democrat and Republican comes out so well here.

The Republicans feel you can spend all your efforts on guns and bombs and that people will eventually then capitulate and become good civilized persons. The Democrats believe that you need many tools, and yes, that includes the military and its abilities-but it also means using the UN and our many diplomats to bring together the warring factions in the civil war-make them speak to each other without guns and car bombs, and make them come to agreements.

Bush basically says we asked them-they didn't stop fighting, so send more troops, they need to be killed and maimed some more.

Hillary says spend as much TIME and EFFORT on the diplomacy as you have on the bombs and guns-keep trying it even though it didn't work the first time. Surely if Bush can keep asking for 6 more months of war, we should invest at least that much time in a peace process at the same time-so the two forces can be applied in combination rather than seeing one as exclusive from the other.

That is hardly cut and run. It makes good sense.

As for health care-it takes up a HUGE amount of our money throughout our life and it can more than financially cripple an individual or a family. We spend our tax money to protect against crime (police) and fire/emergencies (fire/rescue) and these are less likely to directly impact us and less likely to have the same long term implications on our lives. It makes sense to make it part of the benefits we get as taxpayers.

The government should be working for us. Taxes should be treated as an investment in the protection of our society and of our lives as citizens. That is not limited to military and police-and it is not asking to do without them to ask that we have healthcare treated with equal urgency.

Not a single Republican sees it that way. They all seem to think we should pay for our own health care despite its known financial impacts. Yet a trillion dollar fiasco like Iraq makes perfect sense to them.

--RML

(To reply, click here.)

(9/14)

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