HRC at NH events

 Talks about importance of small businesses, “I come from a small business family,” talks about father’s drapery business.  We’re not producing as many small business as we used to—we are 46th in the world in the difficulty to start a new business  I want to embed what I propose as policies not in ideology but in the real daily lives and experiences in American workers and business owners, everybody who has a stake in the economy.  We have to do more for young people—we’re finding student debt interferes with young people taking certain jobs, starting a business (mentions Bowling guy from IA).  NH has the highest student debt numbers in the nation.  Talks about working across the aisle in the Senate.  Again plugs constitutional amendment for campaign finance.  “every society starts with our youngest citizens”—my whole adult life has been about children and families.  Talks up Clinton Foundation initiative she’s worked on to talk, read, and sing to children.  We need a much more broadly based universal pre-K program, I really applaud states, and they’re not always the states you’ll think of—praises Oklahoma.  “There is a hidden epidemic” of drug abuse—pills, meth, heroin, less visible than 30 years ago, striking in small towns and rural areas.  “I consider substance abuse part of mental health issues,” says mental health will be a focus of her campaign because people increasingly talk to her about how it affects them.  On drug abuse: “this is not something we can just brush under the rug…we need a concerted policy.”  American workers work harder and longer and more productively, but that productivity hasn’t led to better wages or benefits.  Some companies have the cash but make decisions to leave out their workers.  “There’s a lot of loose talk about social security, and I don’t know how people can make some of the arguments they make…people work hard for it, retire, postpone retirement” to maximize benefits, what do we do to make sure it’s still there, and not pretend that it’s a luxury.  My question to everyone who thinks we can privatize or undermine social security—what’s going to happen to people like you who work for 27 years?  We backed off vocational programs—we need to get back to job training.  We need to provide incentives for younger and older people to go into trades where jobs are more plentiful  On vocational training: we have to make these jobs attractive for young people.  Business owner worrying that capital write-off program now has a lower maximum.  HRC: “we have to look at the whole tax system and figure out what is an economic investment, and what is people playing games.” Capital gains was supposed to reward people making risky investments in businesses, “now it’s just being churned.”  “I would not support anything that makes your business more difficult to run.”  Hits “trading for the sake of trading,” hedge fund manager tax rate.  You can’t stop us from continuing to innovate, and we should be the leader in innovation.  I’m focused on seeing what we can do in federal/state/local government, public/private sector partnerships, to encourage people to go back and improve skills and get jobs in this highly competitive global economy.  We need to make being middle class mean something again, elevate work that is meaningful  We need to add prestige and distinction to the work that needs to be done in America  On student loans: “we’ve created these vicious circles of debt for our youngest citizens.”  Talks about campaign finance being made more difficult by SCOTUS decisions, saying “a president can appoint new justices”  Talks about cyberwarfare, all the advantages of technology having a “dark side.”  The US invented the community college, nobody else had done anything like it.

 It’s going to require community college to reinvent themselves, I support Pres Obama’s efforts to raise visibility of community colleges and make them more affordable  We know wages have stalled out—part of the challenge may be demonstrating that these (manufacturing) jobs are good jobs  We have something like 5 million young people 18-24 neither in school or in work, a huge strain on their families and on society.  Talks up ACA provision that kids can stay on parent’s plan, but doesn’t address cases where parents don’t have insurance.  Talks about difficulty of strict income caps affecting insurance, especially under Medicaid.