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Clinton Pushes Health Care, Education Reform In Fayetteville
 
Thursday, Mar 27, 2008 - 04:00 PM Updated: 06:37 AM
 
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Attendees waiting to see Hillary Clinton in Raleigh. Photo by NBC17
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By Kerry Hall & Jennifer Turk, NBC17 Reporters
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FAYETTEVILLE, N.C. -- Hillary Clinton highlighted her ideas for job security and health care in Fayetteville Thursday afternoon. Earlier she pushed her economic plans in Raleigh.

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After sitting on bleachers for over an hour the crowd in the Terry Sanford High School gym welcomed Senator Hillary Clinton chanting HILL-A-RY!!!
 
Clinton finally walked through the blue curtain hung in the gym at 3:20 and immediately grabbed the attention of the weary crowd. Greeting supporters as she made her way to the stage, she immediately apologized for her tardiness, but that didn’t seem to sway the crowd of all smiles and cheers.
 
She started off with a thanks to the military families who their sacrifices. Clinton then told the crowd, that was set in a town hall forum setting, that she wanted to share a few words but also wanted to hear from them on their ideas for a better America.
 
“When you look at the many challenges that face our country it’s obvious we are going to have to do some work,” Clinton said
 
Job security, health care, education and global alliances were among the topics Clinton spoke about Thursday afternoon.
 
She criticized President Bush’s handling of the budget. 
 
She said 209,000 manufactured jobs have been lost since George W. Bush was elected president. Clinton referred back to her husband, Bill Clinton and his administration and the economic situation the country was in during the 1990s and promised she would bring the U.S. budget to a surplus.

Clinton said she wanted to build a more effective manufacturing industry and more clean renewable energy.
 
She compared the job growth to the way America led the way in space exploration.
 
Clinton then moved to health care reform by telling the crowd with a story of a woman in Ohio with no insurance. She said she wants to give every American the option of having the same health care plan as federal employees. She said with that option American’s will have the same choices as the members of congress have with tax payer dollars.
 
“We need to make sure every American teenager can live up to his or her potential,” Clinton said.
 
Clinton said she wants to give more Head Start, more Pre-K and will end the under-funded mandate known as “No Child Left Behind."
 
“The program was never funded the way it was promised and the federal government is trying to turn our children into little test takers and nothing else,” Clinton said.
 
Her plans include:
 
1) Make Pell Grants year-around.
 
2) Make the G.I. Bill a 21st century bill.
 
3) Crack down on the student loan companies and the high interest they are forcing college graduates to pay.
 
Earlier in the day she spoke to a crowd in Raleigh.

Clinton spoke at Wake Technical Community College.
 
"I wanted to come to a community college for my first stop in the primary campaign," said Clinton, who will be crossing the state in coming weeks.
 
Supporters cheered and snapped pictures with cameras and cell-phones as she reached the podium to begin her address on economic policy.
 
"I wish we could start every day with such enthusiasm," Clinton said. "I'm excited about what we can do together to take our country back."
 
Clinton is scheduled to visit three communities in the Tar Heel state today to discuss economic policy.
 
"I want you to know what I would do if I was so fortunate to be the American President. We need to know what it is we're voting for, what it is, we will get," she said.  "We just need to start acting like Americans again."

Clinton said she is calling on Americans to vote for change in the 2008 Presidential election during her "Solutions for the American Economy" tour.
 
"We have been stalled, I would say for at least seven years," she said.
 
"I read a speech that Sen. McCain gave the other day that set forth his plan that does virtually nothing to ease the credit crisis, or the housing crisis. I think we've had enough of a President that didn't know enough about economics."
 
Clinton said she has an economic strategy that would save $55 billion a year, which she thinks could be invested in Americans.
 
"We're going to fight for every single job and create millions of high paying jobs that can't be outsourced," Clinton said. 
 
New jobs would be created, she said, through creativity and ingenuity.
 
"No companies will be able to use your tax dollars to send your jobs overseas."
 
According to her campaign, she will speak at "Solutions for the American Economy" events in Fayetteville and Winston-Salem later today.
 
She comes on the heels of Illinois Senator Barack Obama, who campaigned yesterday in Greensboro in his run for the Democratic nomination.  
 
Clinton and Obama are to face off in North Carolina's May 6 primary. Right now, Obama is leading the race to win over the 2,024 delegates needed to secure the party's nomination.
 
Friday, former President Bill Clinton campaigned on the New York senator's behalf in Cary. He is expected to make several stops in a tour of the state tomorrow.
 
Saturday, Chelsea Clinton is to stump for her mother at the Young Democrats of North Carolina Convention in Research Triangle Park, according to Associated Press reports.
 
NBC17 has crews in Raleigh and Fayetteville. Check back at nbc17.com for updates throughout the day.
 

 
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