Hillary's new spin: Obama lacks specifics, but where are your specifics Hillary:

[ProSense]

Analyses of Obama's policies and strategies:

Thoughts and reactions on Obama's bold new energy proposal

Barack Obama: immigration reform and Latino Voters

Barack Obama and Foreign Policy (non Iraq)

Barack Obama and technology

Barack Obama and Health Care

Obama on HIV/AIDS

Obama Announces Rural Poverty Summit (Updated)

Obama urges alumni to help fight poverty

2004 Report on Illinois Poverty (PDF)

Barack Obama and the 50 State Strategy

From Obama's campaign site:

Remarks of Senator Barack Obama: Changing the Odds for Urban America, Washington, DC | July 18, 2007

Plan to Combat Poverty

Obama on the issues

[Bread and Circus]

1. I applaud your work Prosense, you've earned all those hearts

:thumbsup:

[ProSense]

4. Thank you! n/t

[MagsDem]

19. Reading his "Changing the Odds for Urban America" for instance

Every Dem candidate for 30 yrs has said exactly those things. And I mean exactly. There is not a single bold, new, or dare I say transformational proposal in there. Do you not realize that? What you have cut and pasted is basically the DNC agenda.

The question he never answers is how is he going to do it? He says by working with rethugs. So we can't get enough votes to override the SCHIP veto, but rethugs are going to work with him on these things? I could maybe believe it if he had more than a few years federal govt experience, but he doesn't.

[Hutzpa]

2. I would like the answer to your

question too. All Hillary has done is send her attack dogs on Obama, has not
talked about any issues, but is attacking.

She is disorganize within her campaign, yet she wants specifics,

still playing the race card, but want specifics.

[ProSense]

10. I don't think an answer is forthcoming. n/t

[MagsDem]

27. The answer is right in this thread

[JKaiser]

3. HillaryClinton.com

[KittyWampus]

5. most of her policy proposal pages are very vague. She has nothing on Poverty or Telecommunicationsra

those are the 2 issue I took the responsibility to compare.

[MagsDem]

24. She calls it restoring the middle class

http://hillaryclinton.com/issues/middleclass/

What is Telecommunicationsra?

[rodeodance]

29. some folks just goggle the one or two words--Middle class to too complex for them

[crimsonblue]

6. I've been thinking the same thing myself

Everyone always attacks him as being all rhetoric and no substance, but his plans for the country are much more detailed than Hillary's. plus he thoroughly explains his position on each policy issue.

[Thrill]

7. No one is buying her crap

[rodeodance]

30. and yet another Broadbrush comment from the obamacamp~

No one is buying her crap
Posted by BrentTaylor

[NJSecularist]

8. Prosense: one of our best assets in the Obama Coalition

Good work!

[ProSense]

9. Thanks! n/t

[ProSense]

11. Obama's Economic Policy Address at the Janesville GM Assembly Plant

Obama's Economic Policy Address at the Janesville GM Assembly Plant

JANESVILLE, WI – Following a tour of the Janesville General Motors Assembly Plant this morning, Senator Barack Obama will deliver a major economic policy address where he will lay out his comprehensive agenda to restore economic balance and fairness, reclaim the American dream, and create millions of new jobs.

Obama’s comprehensive agenda to restore fairness and balance to the economy and restore our prosperity includes:

• Protecting Homeowners: Obama has proposed a fund to offer direct relief to victims of mortgage fraud and would ease the burden on struggling homeowners by offering a tax credit to low- and middle-income Americans that would cover ten percent of their mortgage interest payment every year.
  
  
• Combating Fraud: Obama would institute tough new penalties for those who commit mortgage fraud, and create a uniform HOME SCORE that would allow consumers to compare various mortgage products so that they can determine which mortgage best fits their needs and financial situation.
  
  
• Middle-Class Tax Cut – Obama is the only candidate to propose a middle-class tax cut that will provide relief to 95% of working Americans -- $1,000 per working family. He’ll also eliminate income taxes for any senior making less than $50,000.
  
  
• Affordable Health Care – Obama’s universal health care plan cuts costs more than any other plan in this race – it will save the typical family up to $2500 on their premiums.
  
  
• Making College Affordable – Obama will provide the middle class a fully refundable tax credit worth $4,000 for tuition and fees every year, which would cover two-thirds of the tuition at the average public college or university.
  
  
• Easing the Burden on Working Families – For mothers and fathers who are juggling work and parenting, Obama will expand the child care tax credit for people earning less than $50,000 a year, and he’ll double spending on quality afterschool programs. He will also expand the Family Medical Leave Act to include more businesses and millions more workers; and change a system that’s stacked against working parents by requiring every employer to provide seven paid sick days a year, so that they can be home with their child if they are sick.
  
  
• A Secure Retirement – Obama will require employers to enroll every worker in a direct deposit retirement account that places a small percentage of each paycheck into savings. Workers would be able to retain this account even if they change jobs, and the federal government will match the savings for working families.
  
  
• A Credit Card Bill of Rights – Obama will institute a five-star rating system to inform consumers about the level of risk involved in every credit card and establish a Credit Card Bill of Rights that will ban unilateral changes to a credit card agreement; ban rate changes to debt that’s already incurred; and ban interest on fees.
  
  
• Reforming Bankruptcy Laws – Obama will reform bankruptcy laws to make sure that those who can demonstrate they went bankrupt because of medical expenses can relieve their debt and get back on their feet.
  
  
• Rebuilding our Infrastructure – Obama would create a National Infrastructure Reinvestment Bank that will invest $60 billion over ten years. This investment generate nearly two million new jobs – many of them in the construction industry that’s been hard hit by this housing crisis.
  
  
• Trade that Works for Workers – Obama will end tax breaks for companies who ship jobs overseas and give breaks to companies who create good jobs with decent wages here in America.
  
  
• Millions of New Green Jobs -- Obama’s energy plan will invest $150 billion over ten years to establish a green energy sector that will create millions of new jobs over the next two decades – jobs that pay well and can’t be outsourced. He will also provide funding to help manufacturers convert to green technology and help workers learn the skills they need for these jobs.
  
  Senator Obama’s comprehensive agenda to restore fairness and balance to the economy and restore our prosperity can be viewed in full (PDF) HERE.
  
  Barack Obama has been fighting for the needs of working Americans for over twenty-five years. He began his career in the shadow of a closed steel mill on the South Side of Chicago, where he brought a community together to provide job training to the jobless and set up after school programs for children. In Illinois, he brought Democrats and Republicans together to expand health insurance for 150,000 children and parents, and he led the fight to provide $100 million in tax relief for working families and the working poor.
  
  As Prepared for Delivery:
  
  Keeping America’s Promise
  Remarks of Senator Barack Obama
  Janesville General Motors Assembly Plant
  
  February 13th, 2008
  
  It was nearly a century ago that the first tractor rolled off the assembly line at this plant. The achievement didn’t just create a product to sell or profits for General Motors. It led to a shared prosperity enjoyed by all of Janesville. Homes and businesses began to sprout up along Milwaukee and Main Streets. Jobs were plentiful, with wages that could raise a family and benefits you could count on.
  
  Prosperity hasn’t always come easily. The plant shut down for a period during the height of the Depression, and major shifts in production have been required to meet the changing times. Tractors became automobiles. Automobiles became artillery shells. SUVs are becoming hybrids as we speak, and the cost of transition has always been greatest for the workers and their families.
  
  But through hard times and good, great challenge and great change, the promise of Janesville has been the promise of America – that our prosperity can and must be the tide that lifts every boat; that we rise or fall as one nation; that our economy is strongest when our middle-class grows and opportunity is spread as widely as possible. And when it’s not – when opportunity is uneven or unequal – it is our responsibility to restore balance, and fairness, and keep that promise alive for the next generation. That is the responsibility we face right now, and that is the responsibility I intend to meet as President of the United States.
  
  We are not standing on the brink of recession due to forces beyond our control. The fallout from the housing crisis that’s cost jobs and wiped out savings was not an inevitable part of the business cycle. It was a failure of leadership and imagination in Washington – the culmination of decades of decisions that were made or put off without regard to the realities of a global economy and the growing inequality it’s produced.
  
  It’s a Washington where George Bush hands out billions in tax cuts year after year to the biggest corporations and the wealthiest few who don’t need them and don’t ask for them – tax breaks that are mortgaging our children’s future on a mountain of debt; tax breaks that could’ve gone into the pockets of the working families who needed them most.
  
  It’s a Washington where decades of trade deals like NAFTA and China have been signed with plenty of protections for corporations and their profits, but none for our environment or our workers who’ve seen factories shut their doors and millions of jobs disappear; workers whose right to organize and unionize has been under assault for the last eight years.
  
  It’s a Washington where politicians like John McCain and Hillary Clinton voted for a war in Iraq that should’ve never been authorized and never been waged – a war that is costing us thousands of precious lives and billions of dollars a week that could’ve been used to rebuild crumbling schools and bridges; roads and buildings; that could’ve been invested in job training and child care; in making health care affordable or putting college within reach.
  
  And it’s a Washington that has thrown open its doors to lobbyists and special interests who’ve riddled our tax code with loopholes that let corporations avoid paying their taxes while you’re paying more. They’ve been allowed to write an energy policy that’s keeping us addicted to oil when there are families choosing between gas and groceries. They’ve used money and influence to kill health care reform at a time when half of all bankruptcies are caused by medical bills, and then they’ve rigged our bankruptcy laws to make it harder to climb out of debt. They don’t represent ordinary Americans, they don’t fund my campaign, and they won’t drown out the voices of working families when I am President.
  
  This is what’s been happening in Washington at a time when we have greater income disparity in this country than we’ve seen since the first year of the Great Depression. At a time when some CEOs are making more in a day than the average workers makes in a year. When the typical family income has dropped by $1,000 over the last seven years. When wages are flat, jobs are moving overseas, and we’ve never paid more for health care, or energy, or college. It’s a time when we’ve never saved less – barely $400 for the average family last year – and never owed more – an average of $8,000 per family. And it’s a time when one in eight Americans now lives in abject poverty right here in the richest nation on Earth.
  
  At a time like this, it’s no wonder that the mortgage crisis was the straw that broke the camel’s back. The equity that people own in their homes is often their largest source of savings, and as millions upon millions have seen those savings and their home equity decline or disappear altogether, so have their dreams for a better future.
  
  I realize that politicians come before you every election saying that they’ll change all this. They lay out big plans and hold events with workers just like this one, because it’s popular to do and it’s easy to make promises in the heat of a campaign.
  
  But how many times have you been disappointed when everyone goes back to Washington and nothing changes? Because the lobbyists just write another check. Or because politicians start worrying about how they’ll win the next election instead of why they should. Because they’re focused on who’s up and who’s down instead of who matters – the worker who just lost his pension; the family that just put up the For Sale sign; the young woman who gets three hours of sleep a night because she works the late shift after a full day of college and still can’t afford her sister’s medicine.
  
  These are the Americans who need real change – the kind of change that’s about more than switching the party in the White House. They need a change in our politics – a leader who can end the division in Washington so we can stop talking about our challenges and start solving them; who doesn’t defend lobbyists as part of the system, but sees them as part of the problem; who will carry your voices and your hopes into the White House every single day for the next four years. And that is the kind of President I want to be.
  
  I didn’t spend my career in the halls of Washington, I began it in the shadow of a closed steel mill on the South Side of Chicago. We organized churches and community leaders; African-Americans, whites, and Hispanics to lift neighborhoods out of poverty; provide job training to the jobless; and set up after school programs so that kids had a safe place to go while their parents worked.
  
  Those are the voices I carried with me to the Illinois state Senate, where I brought Democrats and Republicans together to expand health insurance to 150,000 children and parents; where I led the fight to provide $100 million in tax relief for working families and the working poor.
  
  They’re the voices I carried with me to Washington, where the first bill I introduced was to make college more affordable; where I fought against a bankruptcy bill that made it harder for families to climb out of debt; and where I passed the most sweeping lobbying reform in a generation – reform that forced lobbyists to tell the American people who they’re raising money from and who in Congress they’re funneling it to.
  
  So when I talk about real change that will make a real difference in the lives of working families – change that will restore balance in our economy and put us on a path to prosperity – it’s not just the poll-tested rhetoric of a political campaign. It’s the cause of my life. And you can be sure that it will be the cause of my presidency from the very first day I take office.
  
  Now we know that we cannot put up walls around our economy. We know that we cannot reverse the tide of technology that’s allowed businesses to send jobs wherever there’s an internet connection. We know that government cannot solve all our problems, and we don’t expect it to.
  
  But that doesn’t mean we have to accept an America of lost opportunity and diminished dreams. Not when we still have the most productive, highly-educated, best-skilled workers in the world. Not when we still stand on the cutting edge of innovation, and science, and discovery. Not when we have the resources and the will of a decent, generous people who are ready to share in the burdens and benefits of a global economy. I am certain that we can keep America’s promise – for this generation and the next.
  
  So today, I’m laying out a comprehensive agenda to reclaim our dream and restore our prosperity. It’s an agenda that focuses on three broad economic challenges that the next President must address – the current housing crisis; the cost crisis facing the middle-class and those struggling to join it; and the need to create millions of good jobs right here in America– jobs that can’t be outsourced and won’t disappear.
  
  The first challenge is to stem the fallout from the housing crisis and put in place rules of the road to prevent it from happening again.
  
  A few weeks ago I offered an economic stimulus package based on a simple principle – we should get immediate relief into the hands of people who need it the most and will spend it the quickest. I proposed sending each working family a $500 tax cut and each senior a $250 supplement to their Social Security check. And if the economy gets worse, we should double those amounts.
  
  Neither George Bush nor Hillary Clinton had that kind of immediate, broad-based relief in their original stimulus proposals, but I’m glad that the stimulus package that was recently passed by Congress does. We still need to go further, though, and make unemployment insurance available for a longer period of time and for more Americans who find themselves out of work. We should also provide assistance to state and local governments so that they don’t slash critical services like health care or education.
  
  For those Americans who are facing the brunt of the housing crisis, I’ve proposed a fund that would provide direct relief to victims of mortgage fraud. We’d also help those who are facing closure refinance their mortgages so they can stay in their homes. And I’d provide struggling homeowners relief by offering a tax credit to low- and middle-income Americans that would cover ten percent of their mortgage interest payment every year.
  
  To make sure that folks aren’t tricked into purchasing loans they can’t afford, I’ve proposed tough new penalties for those who commit mortgage fraud, and a Home Score system that would allow consumers to compare various mortgage products so that they can find out whether or not they’ll be able to afford the payments ahead of time.
  
  The second major economic challenge we have to address is the cost crisis facing the middle-class and the working poor. As the housing crisis spills over into other parts of the economy, we’ve seen people’s entire life savings wiped out in an instant. It’s the result of skyrocketing costs, stagnant wages, and disappearing benefits that are pushing more and more Americans towards a debt spiral from which they can’t escape. We have to give them a way out by cutting costs, putting more money in their pockets, and rebuilding a safety net that’s become badly frayed over the last decades.
  
  One of the principles that John Edwards has passionately advanced is that this country should be rewarding work, not wealth. That starts with our tax code, which has been rigged by lobbyists with page after page of loopholes that benefit big corporations and the wealthiest few. For example, we should not be giving tax breaks to corporations that make their profits in some other country with some other workers. Before she started running for President, Senator Clinton actually voted for this loophole.
  
  I’ll change our tax code so that it’s simple, fair, and advances opportunity, not the agenda of some lobbyist. I am the only candidate in this race who’s proposed a genuine middle-class tax cut that will provide relief to 95% of working Americans. This is a tax cut –paid for in part by closing corporate loopholes and shutting down tax havens – that will offset the payroll tax that working Americans are already paying, and it’ll be worth up to $1000 for a working family. We’ll also eliminate income taxes for any retiree making less than $50,000 per year, because our seniors are struggling enough with rising costs, and should be able to retire in dignity and respect. Since the Earned Income Tax Credit lifts nearly 5 million Americans out of poverty each year, I’ll double the number of workers who receive it and triple the benefit for minimum wage workers. And I won’t wait another ten years to raise the minimum wage – I’ll guarantee that it keeps pace with inflation every single year so that it’s not just a minimum wage, but a living wage. Because that’s the change that working Americans need.
  
  My universal health care plan brings down the cost of health care more than any other candidate in this race, and will save the typical family up to $2500 a year on their premiums. Every American would be able to get the same kind of health care that members of Congress get for themselves, and we’d ban insurance companies from denying you coverage because of a pre-existing condition. And the main difference between my plan and Senator Clinton’s plan is that she’d require the government to force you to buy health insurance and she said she’d ‘go after’ your wages if you don’t. Well I believe the reason people don’t have health care isn’t because no one’s forced them to buy it, it’s because no one’s made it affordable – and that’s what we’ll do when I am President.
  
  If we want to train our workforce for a knowledge economy, it’s also time that we brought down the cost of a college education and put it within reach of every American. I know how expense this is. At the beginning of our marriage, Michelle and I were spending more to payoff our college loans than we were on our mortgage. So I’ll create a new and fully refundable tax credit worth $4,000 for tuition and fees every year, a benefit that students will get in exchange for community or national service, which will cover two-thirds of the tuition at the average public college or university. And I’ll also simplify the financial aid application process so that we don’t have a million students who aren’t applying for aid because it’s too difficult.
  
  With so many mothers and fathers juggling work and parenting, the next cost we have to bring down is the cost of living in a two-income family. I’ll expand the child care tax credit for people earning less than $50,000 a year, and I’ll double spending on quality afterschool programs. We’ll also expand the Family Medical Leave Act to include more businesses and millions more workers; and we’ll change a system that’s stacked against working women by requiring every employer to provide seven paid sick days a year, so that you can be home with your child if they’re sick.
  
  In addition to cutting costs for working families, we also need to help them save more – especially for retirement. That’s why we’ll require employers to enroll every worker in a direct deposit retirement account that places a small percentage of each paycheck into savings. You can keep this account even if you change jobs, and the federal government will match the savings for lower-income, working families.
  
  Finally, we need to help families who find themselves in a debt spiral climb out. Since so many who are struggling to keep up with their mortgages are now shifting their debt to credit cards, we have to make sure that credit cards don’t become the next stage in the housing crisis. To make sure that Americans know what they’re signing up for, I’ll institute a five-star rating system to inform consumers about the level of risk involved in every credit card. And we’ll establish a Credit Card Bill of Rights that will ban unilateral changes to a credit card agreement; ban rate changes to debt that’s already incurred; and ban interest on late fees. Americans need to pay what they owe, but they should pay what’s fair, not what fattens profits for some credit card company.
  
  The same principle should apply to our bankruptcy laws. When I first arrived in the Senate, I opposed the credit card industry’s bankruptcy bill that made it harder for working families to climb out of debt. Five years earlier, Senator Clinton had supported a nearly identical bill. And during a debate a few weeks back, she said that even though she voted for it, she was glad it didn’t pass. Now, I know those kind of antics might make sense in Washington, but they don’t make much sense anywhere else, and they certainly don’t make sense for working families who are struggling under the weight of their debt.
  
  When I’m President, we’ll reform our bankruptcy laws so that we give Americans who find themselves in debt a second chance. I’ll close the loophole that allows investors with multiple homes to renegotiate their mortgage in bankruptcy court, but not victims of predatory lending. We’ll make sure that if you can demonstrate that you went bankrupt because of medical expenses, then you can relieve that debt and get back on your feet. And I’ll make sure that CEOs can’t dump your pension with one hand while they collect a bonus with the other. That’s an outrage, and it’s time we had a President who knows it’s an outrage.
  
  Those are the steps we can take to ease the cost crisis facing working families. But we still need to make sure that families are working. We need to maintain our competitive edge in a global by ensuring that plants like this one stay open for another hundred years, and shuttered factories re-open as new industries that promise new jobs. And we need to put more Americans to work doing jobs that need to be done right here in America.
  
  For years, we have stood by while our national infrastructure has crumbled and decayed. In 2005, the American Society of Civil Engineers gave it a D, citing problems with our airports, dams, schools, highways, and waterways. One out of three urban bridges were classified as structurally deficient, and we all saw the tragic results of what that could mean in Minnesota last year. Right here in Wisconsin, we know that $500 million of freight will come through this state by 2020, and if we do not have the infrastructure to handle it, we will not get the business.
  
  For our economy, our safety, and our workers, we have to rebuild America. I’m proposing a National Infrastructure Reinvestment Bank that will invest $60 billion over ten years. This investment will multiply into almost half a trillion dollars of additional infrastructure spending and generate nearly two million new jobs – many of them in the construction industry that’s been hard hit by this housing crisis. The repairs will be determined not by politics, but by what will maximize our safety and homeland security; what will keep our environment clean and our economy strong. And we’ll fund this bank by ending this war in Iraq. It’s time to stop spending billions of dollars a week trying to put Iraq back together and start spending the money on putting America back together instead.
  
  It’s also time to look to the future and figure out how to make trade work for American workers. I won’t stand here and tell you that we can – or should – stop free trade. We can’t stop every job from going overseas. But I also won’t stand here and accept an America where we do nothing to help American workers who have lost jobs and opportunities because of these trade agreements. And that’s a position of mine that doesn’t change based on who I’m talking to or the election I’m running in.
  
  You know, in the years after her husband signed NAFTA, Senator Clinton would go around talking about how great it was and how many benefits it would bring. Now that she’s running for President, she says we need a time-out on trade. No one knows when this time-out will end. Maybe after the election.
  
  I don’t know about a time-out, but I do know this – when I am President, I will not sign another trade agreement unless it has protections for our environment and protections for American workers. And I’ll pass the Patriot Employer Act that I’ve been fighting for ever since I ran for the Senate – we will end the tax breaks for companies who ship our jobs overseas, and we will give those breaks to companies who create good jobs with decent wages right here in America.
  
  I believe that we can create millions of those jobs around a clean, renewable energy future. A few hours northeast of here is the city of Manitowoc . For over a century, it was the home of Mirro manufacturing – a company that provided thousands of jobs and plenty of business. In 2003, Mirro closed its doors for good after losing thousands of jobs to Mexico.
  
  But in the last few years, something extraordinary has happened. Thanks to the leadership of Governor Doyle and Mayor Kevin Crawford, Manitowoc has re-trained its workers and attracted new businesses and new jobs. Orion Energy Systems works with companies to reduce their electricity use and carbon emissions. And Tower Tech is now making wind turbines that are being sold all over the world. Hundreds of people have found new work, and unemployment has been cut in half.
  
  This can be America’s future. I know that General Motors received some bad news yesterday, and I know how hard your Governor has fought to keep jobs in this plant. But I also know how much progress you’ve made – how many hybrids and fuel-efficient vehicles you’re churning out. And I believe that if our government is there to support you, and give you the assistance you need to re-tool and make this transition, that this plant will be here for another hundred years. The question is not whether a clean energy economy is in our future, it’s where it will thrive. I want it to thrive right here in the United States of America; right here in Wisconsin; and that’s the future I’ll fight for as your President.
  
  My energy plan will invest $150 billion over ten years to establish a green energy sector that will create up to 5 million new jobs over the next two decades – jobs that pay well and can’t be outsourced. We’ll also provide funding to help manufacturers convert to green technology and help workers learn the skills they need for these jobs.
  
  We know that all of this must be done in a responsible way, without adding to the already obscene debt that has grown by four trillion dollars under George Bush. We know that we cannot build our future on a credit card issued by the bank of China. And that is why I’ve paid for every element of this economic agenda – by ending a war that’s costing us billions, closing tax loopholes for corporations, putting a price on carbon pollution, and ending George Bush’s tax cuts for the wealthiest 2% of Americans.
  
  In the end, this economic agenda won’t just require new money. It will require a new spirit of cooperation and innovation on behalf of the American people. We will have to learn more, and study more, and work harder. We’ll be called upon to take part in shared sacrifice and shared prosperity. And we’ll have to remind ourselves that we rise and fall as one nation; that a country in which only a few prosper is antithetical to our ideals and our democracy; and that those of us who have benefited greatly from the blessings of this country have a solemn obligation to open the doors of opportunity, not just for our children, but to all of America’s children.
  
  That is the spirit that’s thrived in Janesville from the moment that first tractor came off the assembly line so many years ago. It’s the spirit that led my grandmother to her own assembly line during World War II, and my grandfather to march in Patton’s Army. When that war ended, they were given the chance to go to college on the GI Bill, to buy a house from the Federal Housing Authority, and to give my mother the chance to go to the best schools and dream as big as the Kansas sky. Even though she was a single mom who didn’t have much, it’s the same chance she gave me, and why I’m standing here today.
  
  It’s a promise that’s been passed down through the ages; one that each generation of Americans is called to keep – that we can raise our children in a land of boundless opportunity, broad prosperity, and unyielding possibility. That is the promise we must keep in our time, and I look forward to working and fighting to make it real as President of the United States. Thank you.

Barack Obama's Foreign Policy Speech

[rinsd]

12. Hillary Clinton's plans - Overall Plan Healthcare

http://www.hillaryclinton.com/feature/healthcareplan/

http://www.hillaryclinton.com/feature/healthcareplan/americanhealthchoicesplan.pdf

[rinsd]

13. Hillary's plans - Healthcare Fighting Cancer

Hillary Clinton's Plan to Fight Cancer

Hillary Clinton released her plan to fight cancer today as she appeared at Lance Armstrong’s LIVESTRONG Presidential Cancer Forum in Cedar Rapids, IA.

Cancer is the leading cause of death in this country for people under age 85. One in two men and one in three women will get cancer in their lifetime. About 1.4 million new cancer cases are expected in the United States in 2007, and more than 1,500 people per day will die of cancer. NIH estimates the overall cost of cancer in the U.S. in 2006 was about $206 billion for direct medical costs and lost productivity due to illness and early death. As President, Hillary Clinton will invest the necessary resources so that our nation is on a path to achieve the National Cancer Institute’s goal of ending death and suffering from cancer by 2015 through:

Ending Insurance Discrimination. Today, insurance companies spend millions of dollars working to discriminate against those with expensive, pre-existing conditions by denying them coverage or treatment. Cancer patients are those most victimized by insurance company practices of trying not to cover care when it’s needed most. In order to end insurance discrimination, Hillary Clinton will:

* Create a guarantee issue system. A "guarantee issue" system, built on the concept of shared responsibility, allows anyone to join a health insurance plan. This system will end the days of relegating high-cost individuals to separate, more costly, plans or public programs. In addition, insurance companies will no longer be allowed to carve out benefits or charge higher rates to people with health problems or at risk of them.
* Reducing marketing costs and improving value for the premium dollar. Under a universal coverage plan with real insurance regulations, insurers would compete on low costs and high quality, not on successful underwriting and deceptive marketing practices. Hillary Clinton will create a structure of accountability for public and private insurance plans that provides transparency for consumers and allows us to wring out administrative costs that do nothing but add to the bottom line.

Ending Genetic Discrimination. Today, many Americans, especially those with a history of cancer in their family, are fearful of getting genetic tests, because they are worried they will be denied health insurance even though these tests could enable them to make changes in their lifestyle or obtain more regular screenings that could save their lives. Senator Clinton believes in the power and the promise of genetic testing to do good, but does not want to see these tests exploited to harm the very people who are at greatest risk for getting cancer. Hillary will prohibit health insurance companies from discriminating against individuals or their families on the basis of a genetic test. Insurance companies would not be allowed to require genetic tests or consider the results of any test when determining eligibility for or cost of health insurance.

Increased federal funding for cancer. Cancer research has made remarkable progress in prevention, detection, and treatment. According to the American Cancer Society, the absolute number of cancer deaths declined for the second consecutive year last year. Despite these advances, research funding is not keeping pace. During the Clinton Administration, the NIH budget more than doubled – from $8.9 billion in 1992 to $20.5 billion in 2001. It then grew to $27 billion by 2003. But adjusting for inflation, the NIH has not been increased over the past four years. Since 2003, funding has fallen behind medical inflation and in 2006, the NIH budget was cut for the first time in 35 years. Today, the National Cancer Institute has 12% less purchasing power than it had four years ago. The American Association for the Advancement of Science predicts that the percentage of NIH proposals receiving funds will be cut nearly in half by the end of 2007, compared with 2001 levels. As a result, cancer programs have stalled at major centers across the country; clinical trial accrual has slowed, and in some cases, clinical trials have been abandoned for lack of resources. Young researchers are turning to other career opportunities because of the uncertainty of future funding, and many of the best and brightest no longer see the promise of a career in science. In 1970, the average age of a first research grant was 34.2 years; today it is 41.7. If the current situation continues, there will be lasting damage, even if funding is increased in future years. As President, Hillary Clinton will:

* Double the NIH and NCI budgets. She has proposed to increase the NIH budget by 50% over five years and double the budget in ten. She will call for comparable increases to the National Cancer Institute’s budget.
* Expand the Cancer Centers program so that every American lives within the service area of an NCI Cancer Center. Today, there are 18 states with no Cancer Center, including large swaths of the country. As President, Hillary will expand this vital program so that it is in reach for every American living with cancer.
* Increase by fivefold the number of patients participating in cancer clinical trials. This will require expanding access to experimental cancer therapies at NCI Cancer Centers; increasing the Community Clinical Oncology Group, which places underserved populations in rural and urban areas in community-based clinical trails; increasing funding for the cancer clinical cooperative group; and increasing the Specialized Programs of Research Excellence (SPORES) program, which conduct research on different types of cancer.
* Preserve Medicare coverage of clinical trials. President Clinton issued an Executive Memorandum in 2000 requiring Medicare to cover the routine costs associated with participation in clinical trials. This policy has made it possible for many more Medicare cancer patients to participate in clinical trials - the number participating has grown from 25% to 38% of enrollees since the Clinton policy was adopted. This policy has been praised by researchers, as well as advocates for cancer patients and the elderly, and there is no evidence it has caused harm, raised costs or negatively impacted the quality of care patients receive. Nevertheless, the Bush Administration has proposed abandoning this simple system in favor of one that is much more complex and likely to deter researchers from using Medicare patients as part of their trials. Senator Clinton will maintain the successful Clinton-era set of rules for enrolling Medicare participants in clinical trials.

A Smart Approach to Prevention and Early Detection. According to the National Cancer Legislation Advisory Committee, we could prevent up to two-thirds of all deaths from cancer if Americans consumed a healthy diet, got their cancer screenings, used sunscreen and minimized sun exposure, exercised, and refrained from smoking. Timely and regular mammograms can prevent 30 percent of all deaths from breast cancer in women over 40. If all adults over 50 were screened for colon cancer, we would cut the death rate in half and save 30,000 lives each year. Almost a third of all cancer deaths are the result of tobacco use. Early detection and treatment not only saves lives; it saves money. Treating a precancerous lesion found in Pap smear costs $1,000 to $2,000. Treating a cancerous lesion costs 30 times that. Hillary will promote a five-tiered approach to preventing and detecting cancer early:

* Require all insurers participating in federal programs to cover prevention priorities: Hillary will make it a condition of doing business with the Federal government that health plans cover high-priority preventive services. Covered services would be based on recommendations from the U.S. Prevention Services Task Force. Insurers would provide both individuals and providers with the financial incentives, such as eliminating copays for high-priority prevention services.
* Target prevention by coordinating and pooling public funding: She will also ensure the government coordinates public spending on prevention across federal programs in the Department of Health and Human Services to maximize high-priority prevention. This public-private collaboration would ensure that prevention is pushed outside of the boundaries of the health care system and into schools, workplace, supermarkets and communities through free provision of preventive benefits. It would enlist a new prevention workforce including pharmacists, church leaders and others who can best use funds to ensure 100 percent use of cost-effective prevention.
* Increase access to screening tools that have been shown to work. In 2006, the biggest decrease in cancer deaths was instances of colorectal cancer in men and women. This decrease occurred because of increased screening and early treatment. Hillary will:
o promote a national education campaign to increase awareness about effective screening, such as mammograms, colorectal screening, and the HPV vaccine;
o require group and individual health plans to cover colorectal cancer screenings;
o authorize a colorectal cancer early detection and treatment demonstration program to serve at least 2 million low-income, uninsured individuals ages 50-64;
o remove Medicare co-pays for colorectal and breast cancer screenings and extend the Welcome to Medicare visit time limit from six months to one year;
o fully fund the National Breast and Cervical Cancer Early Detection Program; and
o invest in research aimed at identifying the molecular and genetic combinations that make people more or less susceptible to different types of cancer. Knowing more about the risks will enable people to alter their lifestyles in ways that could lower their risk of attaining cancer or increase their chances of catching it early.
* Help smokers quit and decrease the chances of young people starting to smoke. Most smokers want to quit, but quitting is hard and they need more support. Yet states aren’t dedicating the necessary funds to anti-smoking programs - even though they received substantial funding from the tobacco settlements - and the federal government is still hamstrung in regulatory efforts. Senator Clinton will:
o Enable the FDA to restrict advertising of tobacco products to children and stop illegal sales of tobacco products to children by finally enacting the Family Smoking Prevention and Tobacco Control Act. Most smokers try their first cigarette at age 13 and by 15, are smoking daily even though it is illegal for them to be purchasing cigarettes. By empowering the FDA to regulate tobacco advertising and sales, we can reduce the number of children becoming addicted to this deadly substance.
o Promote smoking cessation programs and fund them by increasing the federal excise tax on cigarettes. When the federal tax was implemented in 1960, it accounted for one third of a pack of cigarettes. Today, it makes up only 10 percent. Evidence strongly demonstrates that a higher cigarette tax discourages children and adults from smoking.
o Provide coverage for comprehensive smoking cessation in Medicaid.
* Put physical education and sports programs back in schools and take the junk food out. Fighting cancer starts with instilling healthy habits in our children. We want the next Lance Armstrong to have access to a bike, a pool, a track, and the time and encouragement to discover his potential. Unfortunately, schools are cutting physical education and recess, cutting back on team sports, and relying increasingly on junk food vending machines to supplement their budgets as a result of inadequate education funding and an intense focus on raising reading and math scores. As President, Hillary will:
o increase funding for the Carol White Physical Education program, the only federal program aimed at improving physical education programs in schools, by 50% - $36 million - and ensure that this funding gets to underserved communities with the highest rates of childhood obesity;
o implement a healthy schools program that will provide funding for schools that commit to replacing all unhealthy food in schools with healthy food by the year 2012.
* Improved Quality of Care for Americans Living with Cancer. One of the greatest challenges facing cancer survivors and their loved ones is the complexity of the system they must navigate in order to obtain the care they need. Survivors often interface with a variety of specialists, face challenging decisions with limited information, and feel enormous stress throughout the treatment process. In order to improve the quality of care for cancer patients, Hillary will:
o Provide funding for demonstration programs for comprehensive care and communication models. She will propose $50 million to support the development of comprehensive care and communication plans (plans that let patients know what to expect with respect to their treatment) for patients in underserved areas and those enrolled in Medicare. The plan should outline the care the patient will receive in clear, concise language, and should be revisited at each major transition point in treatment, and when transitioning from active treatment to survivorship. She will fight for Medicare to reimburse health care providers who adopt this type of plan.
o Develop patient-friendly decision aids to promote informed patient choice. She will provide $25 million in federal funding to encourage the development of new programs that ensure that patients have access to up-to-date information and tools to help them understand their treatment options and make decisions that reflect their values. Cancer is complex and cancer patients often lack access to basic information about their disease.
o Reduce racial and ethnic disparities in care. She will provide $50 million in federal funding for the development of culturally and linguistically competent clinical care programs, to ensure that our healthcare providers can communicate with their patients and have training and skills to fully understand and respect cultural differences in the patients they serve.
* New "Paperless" Health Information Technology System. Standardized electronic medical records will make possible significant advances in research, detection, treatment, and care over the long-term while empowering doctors and other healthcare providers to communicate electronically, reducing waste and redundancy, and improving safety and quality by reducing medical errors.
* Environmental Health Tracking. Hillary will expand the Centers for Disease Control biomonitoring work, establish a nationwide tracking network to help identify connections between disease and environment and develop a response system for addressing public health threats. This plan will enable us to identify the linkage between cancer and other chronic diseases and environmental factors.
* Enhanced Support for Survivors. Cancer treatments save lives, but they often have serious side effects and long-term impacts that we don’t yet fully understand. In addition, adolescent and young adult survivors face unique physical and emotional challenges, and there is a paucity of research on how to best treat and support them. As President, Hillary will undertake a federal survivorship initiative to:
o Increase our Understanding of Survivor Health. By developing a survivorship study – an epidemiologic tracking of cancer survivors - with a particular focus on adolescents and young adults, we will be able to better understand the long-term health impacts of cancer treatments. We can then factor this information into approach to treating cancers so that we not only save lives, but also improve the quality of life during and after treatment.
o Improving Access to Support Groups. The CDC will provide $25 million to community-based groups, in conjunction with the health care institutions providing cancer treatment, to run survivorship support groups that allow cancer survivors to meet with other survivors in their communities and gain the support and information that would not necessarily be provided by health care professionals.
o Special focus on young people. Adolescent and young adults diagnosed with cancer face different challenges than older individuals: they may feel more isolated; wrestle with body image and fertility issues; they are more likely to lack health insurance; and they have not yet lived out their dreams. In addition, these are the only age categories that are not experiencing an increase in five year survivor rates. Hillary will dedicate 10% of the funding within the survivorship study to analyzing the long term impact of cancer on adolescents and young adults.

Guaranteed, high quality health care coverage for all. Nearly 45 million Americans lack health insurance and about 16 million more are underinsured. Studies consistently show that those who lack insurance or who are underinsured have higher cancer mortality rates than those with high quality coverage, yet for cancer patients, or those at high risk of obtaining cancer, securing and maintaining high quality insurance can be an uphill battle. One out of every four cancer patients with insurance use up all or most of their life savings while treating their cancer because of the extraordinary costs of cancer drugs. Universal health care with a high quality meaningful prescription drug benefit will help those without insurance and those with underinsurance obtain the treatment they need.

[rinsd]

14. Hillary's plan - Healthcare Autism

Hillary Clinton’s Plan to Help Children And Families Affected By Autism

Hillary Clinton today unveiled her plan to help children and families affected by autism, vowing to dramatically boost research funding and support services for families caring for an autistic loved one.

Over the last 15 years, the number of autism diagnoses has skyrocketed, from 1 in 10,000 in 1993 to 1 in 150 in 2007. About 25,000 children are diagnosed with autism each year, and 1.5 million Americans and their families are affected by autism today. Autism affects people from all racial, ethnic, and social groups though it is four times more likely to strike boys than girls. This national health crisis is costing the United States at least $35 billion each year.

"Driven by their love and devotion to their children, mothers and fathers across the country have raised awareness, demanded funding, and opened our eyes to the needs of so many of our children living with autism," Clinton said. "It’s time we had a government and a President that recognized the seriousness of autism and addressed it head-on. It’s up to us to reclaim the future for our children, and ensure that every child can live up to his or her God-given potential."

Hillary has long been a strong advocate for individuals and families impacted by autism. As Senator, she cosponsored the Combating Autism Act and introduced the Expanding the Promise for Individuals with Autism Act, in order to ensure that Americans living with autism could have access as quickly as possible to evidence-based treatments, interventions, and services. She has a record of supporting full funding for the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act, through which children with autism and other disabilities are eligible to receive special education services.

As President, Hillary Clinton will provide approximately $700 million a year to address autism through the following initiatives:

* Expanding research to identify causes of autism and monitoring its impact across the country
* Creating an Autism Task Force charged with investigating evidence-based treatments, interventions, and services
* Providing planning and demonstration grants for services for adults
* Improving access to post-diagnosis care
* Providing teacher training
* Creating a National Technical Assistance Center
* Guaranteeing quality, affordable health care

What Autism Experts Are Saying About Hillary’s Plan

"The Autism Society of America welcomes Senator Clinton's integrated plan to support Americans with autism and their families throughout their lives. The United States is facing ballooning annual costs for a medical condition that is identified too late and treated incompletely. The investment our nation makes today in early identification, services and support will create opportunities for these individuals to contribute meaningfully in our society--as is their right. Senator Clinton's plan is a very important step in that direction.- Lee Grossman, President and CEO, Autism Society of America.

"Senator Clinton’s proposal is a comprehensive plan that will help children and adults living with autism and their families today and in the future. It’s not enough to support research aimed at finding the cause and cure for autism spectrum disorders. We must also increase the availability of services to help meet the needs of people with autism today." -James E. Williams, Jr., President and CEO, Easter Seals

"Recognizing the autism epidemic as a national public health priority deserving of Presidential attention, Senator Hillary Clinton today endorsed and detailed a number of policy positions long-supported by Autism Speaks and its predecessor organizations and long-needed by the many American families facing the challenge of autism." - Autism Speaks

###

Hillary Clinton’s Plan to Help Children and Families Affected by Autism

Today, Hillary Clinton unveiled her plan to help children and families affected by Autism Spectrum Disorders, commonly known as autism, which are complex neurobiological conditions. The number of children with autism has grown from 1 in 10,000 in 1993 to 1 in 150 in 2007. About 25,000 children are diagnosed with autism each year, and 1.5 million Americans and their families are affected by autism today. Autism affects people from all racial, ethnic, and social groups though it is four times more likely to strike boys than girls. This national health crisis is costing the United States at least $35 billion each year.

Hillary has long been a strong advocate for individuals and families impacted by autism. As Senator, she cosponsored the Combating Autism Act and introduced the Expanding the Promise for Individuals with Autism Act, in order to ensure that Americans living with autism could have access as quickly as possible to evidence-based treatments, interventions, and services. She has a record of supporting full funding for the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act, through which children with autism and other disabilities are eligible to receive special education services.

As President, Hillary Clinton will provide approximately $700 million a year to address autism through the following initiatives:

Expanding Research- As President, Hillary will increase funding to help families affected by autism through research, surveillance, awareness, and early identification. She will fully fund the Combating Autism Act, which became law in 2006 but has not been funded by President Bush. The major elements of that law are:

* Identifying the causes of autism- Hillary will double investments in the National Institutes of Health’s (NIH) efforts to identify the causes of autism, including possible environmental causes. Hillary has long been a supporter of increased research to determine the links between environmental factors and diseases, and she believes we should increase the NIH’s ability to engage in this type of research. Hillary has an initiative to increase the NIH budget by 50 percent over five years and to double it over 10 years.
* Providing funds for surveillance- The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention funds an Autism and Developmental Disabilities Monitoring Network to determine the prevalence of autism in the United States. Hillary would expand this network and create Centers of Excellence in Autism Spectrum Disorder Epidemiology. Hillary wants to ensure that we have the best data possible on the prevalence and impact of autism in different groups of children, in different areas of the country.
* Increasing autism education, early detection, and intervention- Hillary will require the Secretary of Health and Human Services to disseminate information about signs of autism, early screening, and training for professionals who deal with young children through federal programs that reach children and families - such as the Child Care and Development Block Grant, Head Start, the Children’s Health Insurance Program - and will disseminate this information to pediatricians. The American Academy of Pediatrics recently called for universal autism screening for all children under age two, an initiative that will improve early detection.

Creating an Autism Task Force Charged with Investigating Evidence-Based Treatments, Interventions, and Services- The limited amount of credible evidence-based research on treatments, interventions, and services for children and adults with autism is a major impediment to the development and delivery of quality care. Without this base of research, parents may not know what services and supports for autism are most helpful for their family members impacted by autism. As President, Hillary will create a task force that would include significant representation from the autism community and would be charged with identifying gaps in evidence-based biomedical research, behavioral treatments, and services for children and adults with autism. This task force would present these findings to Congress and the Executive Branch and would make recommendations on how to make evidence-based treatments, interventions, and services available at the state and local levels. Once the task force has completed its work, Hillary will provide funding to establish state-based demonstration grants to provide evidence-based autism treatments, interventions, and services, as identified by the task force.

Providing Planning and Demonstration Grants for Services for Adults- Many individuals with autism need assistance in the areas of education, employment, transportation, housing, health, and recreation. Hillary will provide funding for a one-time, single year planning grant for states and a multi-year service provision demonstration grant program to increase access to appropriate services to adults living with autism, including job training, housing, and transition services for young people leaving school. With access to these types of services and supports, individuals with autism can live full, rich, productive lives. With the autism prevalence rate among children now at 1 in 150, the need to identify and provide services for adults with autism will grow rapidly over the next few years.

Expanding Access to Post-diagnosis Care- Hillary will expand access to treatments, interventions, and services to children with autism, with the goal of providing and coordinating multi-agency, intensive, comprehensive, and evidence-based treatments, interventions and services so that no child will experience a delay in receiving services that can improve his or her quality of life. There is strong consensus within the research community that intensive intervention started as soon as possible following diagnosis yields the most positive outcomes for children with autism. Yet too often, children have to wait for months after receiving a diagnosis in order to receive care.

Providing Teacher Training- Hillary will provide funding for school districts to ensure that teachers responsible for educating children with autism receive specialized teacher training, including ways to engage in appropriate interventions. The number of children with autism in public schools has soared nationally, doubling in just three or four years in some states. Many teachers are unable to access the specialized training and information to help them meet the special needs to individuals along the spectrum. As a result, there is an ever-increasing need for teachers with expertise in this area.

Creating a National Technical Assistance Center- Hillary will establish and maintain a national technical assistance center to gather and disseminate information about autism treatments, interventions, and services, and provide technical assistance. The information would accessible to the public through the Internet.

Guaranteeing Access to Quality, Affordable Health Care- Hillary will ensure guaranteed, affordable, quality health care for all Americans, including those with autism. Her American Health Choices Plan would enable individuals with autism and other developmental disabilities to have access to quality, affordable health care for their conditions. It would ensure that no American is denied coverage, refused renewal, unfairly priced out of the market, or forced to pay excessive insurance company premiums, and it would improve coordinated care services for people with autism and other chronic diseases.

[MagsDem]

15. All candidates have people write policy positions for them

But he almost never communicates anything about them when he speaks. I'm not even sure if he is familar with them all. At the very least he doesn't talk at all about how he plans to accomplish anything. I truly have never seen so much rhetoric and so little substance about issues come from a candidates mouth.

[rinsd]

16. Hillary's plans - Healthcare Fighting AIDS/HIV

Clinton Announces Plan to Fight HIV/AIDS At Home And Abroad
Will Double Research Funding & Support Evidence-Based Prevention Programs

The Clinton campaign unveiled its plan to fight the HIV/AIDS epidemic in the U.S. and around the world. The comprehensive approach addresses the multiple challenges that HIV/AIDS has presented for over 25 years and includes investments for increased research, prevention and education, and access to treatment and other services. Hillary’s plan would especially help groups in the U.S. that have seen HIV infection rates rise over the past several years, including African Americans and gay men, and address the continued risk in Latino communities and among women. In addition, Clinton has pledged to increase funding for the global HIV/AIDS fight to at least $50 billion by 2013.

"In many ways, our fight against HIV/AIDS is at a crossroads. While we have made progress in education and developing medicine that keeps those living with HIV/AIDS healthier, we need to be vigilant in ensuring that people are getting the information and care they need,” said Clinton. “I believe with leadership and smart investments we can significantly reduce the number of new infections, develop treatments that turn HIV/AIDS into a chronic but manageable condition, and expand toward an eventual vaccine."

On the domestic front, Clinton proposes doubling the HIV/AIDS research budget within the National Institutes of Health (NIH) to $5.2 billion annually, including the U.S. contribution towards finding a vaccine. Clinton's American Health Choices Plan will ensure that all Americans living with HIV/AIDS have access to care. Hillary will end the Bush administration's abstinence-only prevention policy, and instead, fund evidence-based HIV/AIDS prevention programs including, but not limited to, abstinence education as part of a comprehensive prevention message.

Hillary will address the disproportionate burden of HIV/AIDS among minority communities. African Americans account for almost 50% of new infections and Hillary will partner with stakeholders in the community to reverse this trend immediately. She is also concerned about the high rates of infection in the Latino community and will take action to improve prevention among Hispanics. Hillary will increase funding for the Minority AIDS Initiative and support the prevention and treatment efforts of minority-run community based organizations. Her plan also increases federal funding for substance abuse treatment, which often leads to high-risk behavior that can lead to infection. By taking steps to crack down on substance abuse and help users seek treatment, the chance that people will contract HIV can be greatly reduced.

Hillary is taking a bold stand to fight HIV/AIDS globally as well. She has committed to providing at least $50 billion over five years to combat HIV/AIDS around the world. This commitment will establish the U.S. as a leader in galvanizing the global community around meeting the Millennium Development Goal of halting and beginning to reverse the spread of HIV and other diseases by 2015. She will lead the world in achieving universal access to treatment by doubling the number of people that the U.S. supports with treatment. The Clinton plan will increase the number of health workers in training or in place in Africa by at least one million over a decade and ensure access to medications for all.

HILLARY CLINTON'S PLAN TO FIGHT HIV/AIDS IN THE U.S. AND AROUND THE WORLD

Today, Hillary Clinton unveiled her plan to combat HIV/AIDS globally through U.S. leadership and effective investments in research, prevention, and treatment. There are 33 million people living with HIV/AIDS around the world. Every day, about 6,800 people become newly infected and 5,700 die because of AIDS. Here in the U.S., while we have made tremendous strides in combating HIV/AIDS, about 40,000 people are newly diagnosed with HIV each year - an estimate which is expected to increase. More than 16,000 Americans die from AIDS annually and AIDS is the leading cause of death among African-American women aged 25-34.

AIDS has had a devastating impact on the continent of Africa, where more than two-thirds of all people with HIV/AIDS live, more than three-quarters of AIDS-related deaths occur and where the epidemic has orphaned 11 million children.

With a coordinated and comprehensive effort, Hillary knows we can significantly reduce the number of new infections annually and help provide coordinated care and treatment to the more than one million Americans currently living with HIV/AIDS in the U.S. and the millions living with HIV/AIDS around the world. As President, Hillary will:

Fight HIV/AIDS in the U.S. by:

* Developing and Implementing a Comprehensive National AIDS Strategy;
* Guaranteeing Health Insurance for Individuals Living with HIV/AIDS;
* Doubling the U.S. Contribution Towards Researching a Vaccine for HIV/AIDS and Increasing Commitments to Research;
* Ensuring Access to Care for All Americans Living with HIV;
* Increasing Funding for Evidence-Based HIV/AIDS Prevention;
* Addressing High Risk Behaviors that Often Lead to HIV/AIDS;
* Improving Opportunities for Substance Abuse Treatment;
* Providing Housing Opportunities and Supportive Services for People with AIDS;
* Increasing Funding for the Ryan White CARE Act; and
* Halting and Reversing the Burden of AIDS Among African-Americans and Latinos.

Fight HIV/AIDS Globally by:

* Providing at Least $50 Billion for Global HIV/AIDS by 2013;
* Ensuring Universal Access to Treatment and Care;
* Committing to Access to Medications for All;
* Expanding Prevention Efforts and Targeted Outreach;
* Championing Universal Basic Education as a "Social Vaccine" to Combat HIV/AIDS;
* Increasing Flexibility and Improving Accountability in Use of HIV/AIDS Funds;
* Addressing the Disproportionate Impact of HIV Among Women; and
* Helping Children Gain Access to Treatment and Care.


This plan builds on Hillary's long history of working to address the HIV/AIDS epidemic. As Senator, Hillary has introduced legislation to expand access to treatment for low-income individuals living with HIV; pushed to make scientific, evidence-based prevention programs more available to youth; sought to increase coordination in combating global AIDS; championed legislation to provide universal basic education that would help prevent the spread of AIDS, and consistently supported increased funding for federal efforts against the epidemic both in the U.S. and around the world.

HILLARY CLINTON'S PLAN TO FIGHT HIV/AIDS IN THE U.S.

As President, Hillary Clinton will continue her commitment to providing care and support for people living with HIV, as well as stopping the spread of the virus by:

Developing and Implementing a Comprehensive National AIDS Strategy - Federal efforts to tackle HIV/AIDS are diffuse and uncoordinated today, failing to maximize coordination among agencies providing treatment, support and care, and limiting our efforts to engage in effective prevention. Hillary will tie all of the federal efforts together into a single comprehensive national strategy. She will bring together federal agencies, such as the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the Health Resources and Services Administration, and the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, state and local governments, community-based organizations, providers, academic experts, and Americans living with HIV, among others, to devise a plan to better coordinate the overall response to this epidemic in the U.S., with the goals of significantly reducing the number of new infections, particularly among populations with increases in infection rates, improving the health of people living with HIV, and reducing disparities in care. This plan will include measurable goals, targets, and timelines for increasing evidence-based prevention and expanding effective treatment interventions, so that we can monitor and evaluate our efforts, expand what is working, and correct what is not. This single, comprehensive strategy will allow for better cooperation and more efficient and effective allocation of resources, so that we can stop and reverse the increases in HIV infection among vulnerable populations.

Guaranteeing Health Insurance for Individuals Living with HIV/AIDS - Hillary has proposed the American Health Choices Plan, which ensures that every American will have access to affordable, quality health insurance. Under her plan, insurers will not be able to deny coverage based on preexisting conditions, such as HIV infection. Safety net care options, like Medicaid, will be strengthened, while individuals will be able to choose from an array of plans with benefits at least as good as the typical plan offered to Members of Congress, which includes mental health parity. Health care will be made affordable through the provision of a premium affordability tax credit, which will be designed to ensure that health care premiums never exceed a reasonable portion of a person’s income. With the American Health Choices Plan, individuals with HIV/AIDS will have access to chronic care management, helping ensure that their providers are coordinating care for the best outcomes.

Doubling the U.S. Contribution Towards Researching a Vaccine for HIV/AIDS and Increasing Commitments to Research - Hillary believes we should never stop working to achieve the end goal of a cure for AIDS, and recent setbacks in vaccine trials do not mitigate the need to develop a vaccine to combat this disease. During the 1990s, new drugs helped people with HIV and AIDS live longer, healthier lives. In addition to increasing access to these drugs, the federal government must also research new treatments to simplify regimens, increase adherence, and address issues of drug resistance. We must also focus on funding for prevention - whether it is through efforts to fund microbicide research, or efforts to evaluate the best behavioral health strategies for preventing HIV and AIDS. In order to achieve these goals, Hillary would increase our investments in HIV/AIDS research at the National Institutes of Health to $5.2 billion annually, and ensure that researchers in all areas have the resources necessary to continue and expand their valuable efforts.

Ensuring Access to Care for All Americans Living with HIV - Hillary will extend Medicaid eligibility to low-income Americans living with HIV by the end of her first year in office. Today, too many low-income Americans with HIV have to wait until they become sick in order to receive health care through Medicaid. Delaying care in this manner hurts those who could have avoided illness through preventive care and treatment, and increases the costs associated with their care over the long-term. Hillary will change the Medicaid rules so that early treatment and intervention is guaranteed. This proposal builds on Hillary’s record as the lead Democratic sponsor of the Early Treatment for HIV/AIDS Act, and helps to strengthen the affordable options available for those living with HIV as part of her America’s Health Choices Plan.

Increasing Funding for Evidence-Based Prevention Efforts - As President, Hillary will work to give individuals the tools needed to protect themselves against HIV by supporting proven strategies and targeting those efforts to the populations most vulnerable to HIV infection. Hillary supports giving young people age-appropriate information about HIV/AIDS and how to protect themselves against the disease, including by delaying sexual activity. But she rejects the Bush Administration approach of investing exclusively in abstinence-only sex education. She supports federal funding for needle exchange programs. And she will work to target culturally competent prevention efforts towards vulnerable populations that account for a disproportionate number of new infections. In addition, she will ensure that women, who account for more than one-quarter of all new HIV/AIDS infections in the U.S., have the knowledge and tools necessary to protect themselves against HIV.

Addressing High Risk Behaviors That Often Lead to HIV/AIDS - Hillary will work to halt and reverse the recent increase in infection rates among gay men, young people, and people of color. In addition, Hillary will seek to address the factors that contribute to high risk behavior, such as the use of drugs like crystal meth, which is impacting both rural and urban areas, and the use of which is on the rise in the gay community. Hillary was a proud co-sponsor of the Combat Meth Act of 2005, which was signed into law on March 9, 2006. This law tightens restrictions on how pseudoephedrine is sold to ensure that it is not being trafficked, and provides resources for prevention, education, and treatment. As President, Hillary will work to see that this law is implemented effectively.

Improving Opportunities for Substance Abuse Treatment Services - Providing federal funding for needle exchange programs will help increase referrals and entry into treatment programs and reduce overall HIV incidence, but there is much more we can do to address the connections between substance use and HIV infection. Hillary will expand available treatment services and provide additional federal assistance for such services by increasing funding for SAMHSA, the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration. In a 2006 SAMHSA study more than 23 million Americans were identified as needing specialty treatment for substance or alcohol abuse, yet only about 10% of them accessed such services. A major barrier to receiving such services is the cost of treatment.

Providing Housing Opportunities and Supportive Services for People with AIDS - As many as half of all people living with HIV/AIDS will need housing assistance at some point in their illness. For many of those, short-term assistance with rent, mortgage or utility costs alone will provide the necessary support to remain healthy and in stable housing. But for others, more intensive supportive services are needed. Hillary will increase funding for the Housing Opportunities for People with AIDS (HOPWA) program to serve about 90,000 households. In addition, Hillary recognizes the importance of supportive services for individuals living with HIV and their families. With stable housing and supportive services, individuals are more likely to be able to access comprehensive health care and adhere to HIV/AIDS treatments, improving their medical outcomes and reducing health care costs.

Increasing Funding for the Ryan White CARE Act - The Ryan White CARE Act is an important mechanism through which to deliver treatment and supportive services to individuals living with HIV and AIDS. As President, Hillary will support increasing Ryan White funding, especially in underserved areas and areas where the epidemic is growing, and working to make sure the increases are coordinated with other federal programs. She will also work to increase flexibility of funding to be used for supportive services - such as nutrition assistance and case management - that increase treatment adherence and improve the health and well-being of Americans living with AIDS.

Halting and Reversing the Burden of AIDS Among African-Americans and Latinos - Hillary will increase funding for the Minority AIDS Initiative, and work to ensure that it helps to foster and support the prevention and treatment efforts of minority-run community based organizations. This effort is particularly important in the African American community, as African Americans in the U.S. account for approximately 13% of the population, yet make up almost half of the new HIV/AIDS diagnoses. Hillary will work to end the disproportionate impact of AIDS on this community and seek to halt the growth of HIV in other minority communities as well. In addition, she will seek to increase cooperation with the clergy and other religious leaders in the black and Hispanic communities, to determine how churches can play a role in reducing the number of new infections. Finally, she will work to reduce and eliminate racial and ethnic disparities throughout our entire health care system, to ensure that African Americans and Latinos living with HIV and AIDS have access to quality care and treatment.

HILLARY CLINTON'S PLAN TO FIGHT HIV/AIDS WORLDWIDE

As First Lady, Hillary Clinton saw the impact of HIV and AIDS in her travels around the globe. As Senator from New York, she has worked to secure funding and improve coordination for global AIDS programs. As President, she will continue our efforts to secure universal access for treatment, prevention, and care by focusing on the following:

Providing at Least $50 Billion for Global HIV/AIDS by 2013 - Hillary has a long record of advocating for funding for both U.S. and multilateral efforts to fight HIV/AIDS around the world. While we have made important progress on funding over the past decade, Hillary believes that we must go beyond the President’s request to flat-line global HIV/AIDS funding over the next 5 years. She is currently fighting in the Senate to reauthorize and improve PEPFAR - the President’s Emergency Plan For AIDS Relief. And as President, Hillary will commit at least $50 billion for global HIV/AIDS efforts by 2013. This investment will allow the U.S. to increase our commitment to the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria, which leverages additional donor commitments to support coordinated national approaches to fighting disease. It will establish the U.S. as a leader in galvanizing the global community around meeting the Millennium Development Goal of halting and beginning to reverse the spread of HIV and other diseases by 2015.

Ensuring Universal Access to Treatment and Care - With increased funding, Hillary Clinton will expand access to treatment in developing countries. The U.S. will take the lead in ensuring that we reach universal access to medications by doubling the number of people that the U.S. supports with treatment over the next several years. Hillary will also invest in building the health infrastructure of developing countries that is critical to achieving effective treatment and prevention of HIV/AIDS and other diseases. This will include working with international partners to increase the number of health workers in place or in training in Africa by at least one million over the next several years, improve the self-sufficiency of local health networks, and reduce global disparities in care.

Committing to Access to Medications for All - Hillary understands that in order to meet our goals for universal access to treatment, we must make available the life-extending medications we have in the U.S. to resource-poor countries. The World Health Organization estimates that 10 million lives could be saved each year by improving access to medicines already in existence. As President, Hillary will ensure the U.S. lives up to its Doha Declaration commitments and allow countries to access the treatments necessary to address public health crises like HIV/AIDS. She will support trade policies that protect and expand poor countries’ right to affordable, quality-assured generic drugs for important health needs. As President, she will also work with institutions that receive federal funding to ensure that drugs developed with taxpayer resources are made available off-patent in developing countries.

Expanding Prevention Efforts and Targeted Outreach - Hillary wants to maximize the impact of new U.S. funding in prevention efforts at the local level. She believes that effective prevention models should be tailored to the needs of communities, without requirements that limit the ability to provide accurate information and relevant comprehensive services to as many individuals as possible. To that end, she supports striking the current requirement that 33% of prevention funding be spent on abstinence-only programs, to ensure that prevention efforts can be tailored to local needs and populations most at-risk. She also supports using U.S. funding to support proven harm reduction efforts - including needle exchange - to help hard-to-reach populations, and will continue to support new evidence-based prevention methods as additional scientific research helps us understand how to best address this epidemic. Hillary will also work to support efforts to reduce stigma and improve outreach and education around testing. When people get tested, and they discover they are positive, we can help them access treatment, medical care, and information about the virus before they become sick. If people get tested and they are negative, counselors can help them understand how they can avoid infection.

Championing Universal Basic Education as a "Social Vaccine" to Combat HIV/AIDS - Hillary is the original Senate sponsor of the Education For All Act, which calls for a dramatic increase in US funding and leadership in achieving universal basic education. In addition to reducing poverty and improving child and maternal health, education is a key form of prevention - a "social vaccine"- against the spread of HIV/AIDS. Compared to peers who are out of school, girls enrolled in secondary education are more likely to resist early marriage and remain abstinent, while also being five times more likely to know the basic facts of prevention and three times less likely to contract HIV/AIDS. With strong peer support programs, life skills training, and prevention curricula that address HIV/AIDS, gender-based violence and other health concerns, education can be even more effective in combating HIV/AIDS.

Increasing Flexibility and Improving Accountability in Use of Funds - Hillary Clinton wants to work with both donors and recipient governments to ensure that U.S. investments are made as effectively as possible. Donors must work to improve coordination and reduce the burden placed on poor country ministries of multiple, overlapping and sometimes conflicting reporting requirements. Developing countries must work with donors to identify the impact of the epidemic on a localized basis and help target prevention and treatment efforts to vulnerable populations that are often overlooked, including orphans, displaced persons and individuals who have been trafficked. Doing so will allow the U.S., at the country level, to better identify needs, eliminate duplication, and establish monitoring and evaluation systems to better track funding. In addition, Hillary will increase funding for operations research to identify and replicate best practices in prevention, care and treatment. Finally, Hillary will work to improve outreach and coordination with nonprofit organizations, businesses, faith-based groups, people living with HIV and AIDS and other nongovernmental entities to ensure that civil society is engaged and active in efforts to prevent and treat HIV/AIDS.

Addressing the Disproportionate Impact of HIV Among Women - Worldwide, adult women account for almost half of all new infections, and in certain areas, like sub-Saharan Africa, women account for more than 60% of those living with HIV. As President, Hillary Clinton will work to reduce infections among women, improve their access to care and treatment, and give them the tools needed to protect themselves against infection. She will require our government to develop a comprehensive plan to address the needs of girls and women and integrate these needs into our efforts to address HIV/AIDS. This plan will identify and address factors, such as gender-based violence and economic insecurity, which are linked with increased vulnerability to HIV. It will also work to improve services for women, in order to integrate HIV and AIDS care into existing health service delivery, including sexual and reproductive health services and family planning. In addition to working to ensure that the health needs of women are addressed in our global AIDS policies, Hillary Clinton will also improve access to overall women’s health services that help provide treatment, care and education. She would restore U.S. funding for UNFPA, which provides vital reproductive health services to women around the world, and rescind the Global Gag Rule, which prevents U.S. funding from assisting nongovernmental organizations in other countries that provide information about or access to abortion services.

Helping Children Gain Access to Treatment and Care - The majority of children living with HIV worldwide die before the age of three. As First Lady and Senator, Hillary worked to increase the number of medications specifically manufactured for children, including those that would treat AIDS. As President, she will work to ensure that the gains we have made in increasing treatment options are extended to children around the world. As she moves to improve needs assessments and expand treatment across the lifespan, she will work to ensure that children’s needs are included in strategies for fighting AIDS, including plans for the care and treatment of orphans and other vulnerable children who have lost their families to the AIDS epidemic.

[rodeodance]

31. OP is not interested in critically contrasting the two--He just puts up O's and makes proclamations

as if they were true.

[ProSense]

32. Are you saying it isn't true that Hillary is misleading when she says Obama lacks specifics? n/t

[11 Bravo]

33. Oh, that's smooth.

The official NoSense, three post, spam rule has been instituted, so you go back to kicking posts from two days ago. I hope that I never need attention that badly.

[ProSense]

34. Fear of facts, I see! n/t

[rinsd]

17. Hillary's plan - Healthcare Reproductive Health

On Anniversary Of Roe, Clinton Announces Agenda For Reproductive Health Care

The Clinton campaign today reinforced its commitment to protect a woman’s right to make the most fundamental decisions about her life and health and announced a comprehensive agenda for women’s reducing unintended pregnancy and enhancing access to reproductive health care. The announcement comes on the 35th anniversary of the landmark Supreme Court decision Roe v. Wade and follows the news of the endorsement of WCLA - Choice Matters, one of the oldest pro-choice advocacy organizations in the nation.

"When I’m President, I will appoint judges to our courts who understand that Roe v. Wade isn’t just binding legal precedent, it is the touchstone of our reproductive freedom, the embodiment of our most fundamental rights, and no one - no judge, no governor, no Senator, no President - has the right to take it away."

The agenda includes preventing unintended pregnancies by increasing access to honest, accurate sex education, contraception and family planning services, ensuring that private health plans offer the same level of coverage for contraception as they do for other prescription drugs and services, ensuring that women who survive sexual assault have access to emergency contraception upon request. Clinton also calls for providing greater access to reproductive health care services overseas.

"On the 35th anniversary of Roe v. Wade, I am reaffirming my commitment to safe, legal, and rare abortion, and unveiling an agenda for decreasing the number of unintended pregnancies in the U.S. through honest and complete sex education and expanded access to contraception and family planning," said Clinton.

WCLA joins other prominent pro-choice organizations endorsing Hillary Clinton for President, including the National Organization for Women PAC, EMILY's List, Women's Campaign Forum, National Women's Political Caucus, Women's Political Committee.

Below is Hillary’s full agenda for women’s reproductive care:

Hillary Clinton’s Agenda for Women’s Reproductive Health Care

On the 35th anniversary of Roe v. Wade, Hillary is recommitting to Roe as the law of the land and charting a new course for women’s reproductive health care based on preventing unintended pregnancy. Hillary envisions a world in which every child born is wanted, cherished, and loved. She believes in empowering people with honest and complete information so that they can make responsible decisions, and in providing broader access to contraception, family planning, and the full range of reproductive health care services for women of all income levels.

Hillary has been a leading advocate for the right of every woman to make the most personal of life decisions for years. She believes the right to privacy is a fundamental right, and that abortion should be safe, legal, and rare. Her views on reproductive rights were informed by seeing what happens when the government gets involved in these decisions. As First Lady, Hillary traveled to Romania where, under a Soviet-style dictatorship, the government had controlled every aspect of women’s reproductive health by eliminating birth control, sex education and abortion and requiring humiliating government-controlled monthly exams, in order to compel every woman to bear five children and build the Romanian state. Hillary saw the other extreme in China, with its one birth policy, under which women could be sterilized or forced to have an abortion if they got pregnant for a second time. Hillary took those lessons to heart.

In the Senate, she has been an outspoken critic of the Bush Administration’s relentless and insidious attempts to undermine Roe and has been on the forefront of the major victories on behalf of the pro-choice community in recent years. In the Senate, Hillary waged a three-year effort, along with Senator Patty Murray, to get the FDA to accept the overwhelming recommendation of the medical community and approve emergency contraception for over-the-counter sales. She also helped craft a winning strategy to put the right wing on the defensive by highlighting their opposition to contraception, a position that is way out of the mainstream in the U.S. Hillary championed the Prevention First Act, which expands access to contraception for women of all income levels, and provides for honest and complete sex education programs. As President, Hillary will be vigilant in ensuring that each woman maintains the right to plan her own family and protect her reproductive health.

Maintaining Roe as the Law of the Land

Appointing Justices that will uphold the right to privacy - Senator Clinton opposed the nominations of Justices Alito and Roberts to the Supreme Court because she believed they represented the greatest threat to Roe since it was decided. Her prediction has been born out through Gonzales v. Carhart, the first time the Supreme Court upheld a law outlawing a specific abortion procedure. As President, Hillary will nominate justices who share her view that the Constitution protects a woman’s right to make the most fundamental decisions about her life and health, and that the right to privacy is a fundamental right.

Enacting the Freedom of Choice Act - Hillary will sign into law the Freedom of Choice Act, which would codify Roe v. Wade and send a renewed signal to the courts that the will of Congress and the President is to keep abortion legal.

Preventing Unintended Pregnancies

Hillary has long believed that abortion should be safe, legal, and rare. Unfortunately, we are far from realizing that vision. One half of pregnancies in the U.S. are unintended and one half of unintended pregnancies end in abortion, and the U.S. has one of the highest rates of teen pregnancy in the industrialized world. Hillary’s agenda will help reduce the number of unintended pregnancies by:

* Increasing access to family planning services. Hillary will expand the national family planning program (Title X) and extend Medicaid coverage for family planning services to women who are eligible for pregnancy-related care. Each year, Title X provides 4.8 million people, mostly poor and uninsured, with family planning services that help them plan their pregnancies and improve their health. Clinics that use Title X funds are present in close to three-quarters of counties in the U.S. Over the last two decades, Title X services are estimated to have prevented 20 million unintended pregnancies and nine million abortions, and helped to prevent 5.5 million adolescent pregnancies . President Bush has proposed no increases in Title X since taking office. As a result, health care providers that rely on Title X funds have significantly lost purchasing power and are struggling to afford the latest technology in diagnostic and contraceptive services. According to the Guttmacher Institute, the $286 million allotted to Title X for FY 2005 was worth 59 percent less than the $162 million appropriated in FY 1980. Hillary will restore the funding for Title X that has been lost under the Bush Administration. She will also ensure that states make family planning services as widely available as pregnancy-related services in Medicaid.

* Ensuring that private health plans offer the same level of coverage for contraception as they do for other prescription drugs and services. Massive shifts have occurred in the number of women with access to contraception through their health insurance over the past 15 years. In 1993, according to testimony by the Executive Director of the Women’s Research and Education Institute, women typically spent 68% more in out-of-pocket health care costs than men, a difference that was largely accounted for through reproductive health services. Today, nearly nine in ten employer-provided health insurance plans cover the full range of prescription contraceptives . Still only half of all women of live in states that require contraceptive coverage of employers, and millions of women who don’t receive health insurance through their employers aren’t reached by these state laws . As president, Hillary would work to enact the Equity in Prescription Insurance and Contraceptive Coverage Act, which would require health insurance plans to cover contraception to the same degree that they cover other forms of prescription drugs.

* Ensuring that women who survive sexual assault have access to emergency contraception (EC) upon request. Emergency contraception is a safe and effective way to help women who may be at risk for an unintended pregnancy. Yet, according to seven years of data from the Centers for Disease Control, fewer than half of all women who visited an emergency room after a sexual assault received emergency contraception becoming pregnant . Fourteen states already require hospital emergency rooms to provide emergency contraception-related services to sexual assault victims. Hillary would enact legislation to require hospitals to inform women who are victims of rape and sexual assault that EC is an option for them, and make it available or provide a referral upon their request, or risk losing federal funding.

* Implementing important public education initiatives about EC. Emergency contraception is a safe, effective back-up birth control method that reduces the risk of pregnancy by 75% . Despite the widely acknowledged safety, efficacy, and acceptability of EC, many women do not know EC is an option for them and only 6% of women have ever used it . Hillary would support efforts to increase awareness so that women can have full information about this proven option.

* Restoring the discount for birth control on college campuses and community health centers. The Deficit Reduction Act of 2005 eliminated the ability of college health clinics and about 400 community health centers to receive deep discounts on contraception and pass those savings onto students. As a result, college students and low-income women across the country have seen the price of contraception rise by 300 or 400%. Many are choosing to take a risk on unprotected sex rather than pay the increase. Others are cutting down their budget for food or other necessities. Hillary will make restoring this discount a top priority.

* Supporting sex education programs that provide honest, accurate, complete information about abstinence, contraception, and disease prevention. Senator Clinton supports a more comprehensive approach to sex education that teaches young people to delay sexual activity, but also teaches them the basics of human sex and how to protect themselves from unintended pregnancy, HIV/AIDs and other sexually transmitted diseases. Fourteen states have rejected President Bush’s strict abstinence-only approach . Hillary would provide funding for medically accurate, age appropriate, comprehensive sex education programs.

* Funding teen pregnancy prevention programs. The U.S. has one of the highest rates of teen pregnancy in the industrialized world, and teen pregnancy is associated with a host of poor outcomes for the parents and children of teen parents - lower employment rates, higher rates of welfare dependence, higher school dropout rates, and poorer health and academic outcomes. Hillary would set a national goal of reducing teen pregnancy by one third and invest in initiatives with a proven record of reducing teen pregnancy. In December, the CDC National Center for Health Statistics announced that the teen birth rate rose for the first time since 1991. Over the fourteen years preceding, the teen birth rate fell by 34 percent. Hillary will bring a concerted focus to breaking the cycle of teen pregnancy, and in doing so tackle the root cause of many social problems and help to improve prospects for young people, strengthen families and our nation.

* Conducting research into preventing unintended pregnancy. Hillary will invest in research efforts identify the most promising strategies for reducing the rate of unintended pregnancy. She will fund a pilot program to do rigorous analysis of the programs and strategies currently being undertaken, and will use the results of the research to determine the most effective strategies and practices going forward. Hillary will ensure that investments we make in reducing the number of unintended pregnancies are evidence-based, not ideologically driven.

Providing Greater Access to Reproductive Health Care Services Overseas

* Overturning the Global Gag Rule and Reinstating the United Nations Population Fund. Hillary has said that on day one of her Administration she will overturn the global gag rule, which prohibits Non-Governmental Organizations (NGOs) from even talking about abortion in the event of an unplanned pregnancy. This rule has had devastating consequences on access to reproductive health care for women by forcing NGOs, which are sometimes the only health care provider for women’s health in a poor community, to choose between foregoing the funding they need to be sustainable and providing honest and accurate information to women about their options. In countries like Nepal, which are grappling with high rates of maternal death as a result of unsafe abortion and growing rates of HIV/AIDS, the global gag rule has devastated the limited reproductive health care infrastructure. Hillary will also reinstate for the United Nations Population Fund, which provides vital funding for family planning abroad. President Bush has eliminated this funding every year of his administration.

* Reproductive Health Services for Women Stationed at Military Bases Overseas. Nearly 3,000 military women reported being victims of sexual assault last year. Yet, women living on military bases overseas often have a hard time accessing emergency contraception and are prohibited from using their own money to pay for an abortion at a military medical health care provider. Hillary introduced the Compassionate Care for Servicewomen Act, which requires full access to emergency contraception for servicewomen at all U.S. military health care facilities around the world. As President, she will enact this legislation. President Clinton issued an executive order in 1993 to lift the ban on paying for abortion with private funds, but it was overturned by Congress in 1995, and has been in place every since. Hillary believes women stationed on U.S. military bases overseas should have the same access to the full range of reproductive health care as women living in the U.S., and as president she will work towards that day.

[Political Heretic]

18. EDIT - retraction

Retracting my post - a month ago when I did side-by-side comparison, I felt that Obama's detail on issues and policy positions far out paced what was accessible on Hillary's site.

But today, as I go back again - I don't feel it is fair to claim what site is light on detail and the other isn't. I'm finding lots of specifics.

So... I take it back.

[MagsDem]

20. You can find it if you look

And much more than 64 pages worth. Click on an issue, read the basics, then look up and to your left. She has detailed policy papers on nearly every issue.

[ProSense]

28. You would think Hillary could easily find Obama's! n/t

[rinsd]

21. Wow a whole 64 pages...

You think because he puts it on pdf files that makes it more weighty. :rofl:

[Political Heretic]

23. That, combined with equal amount of speech texts, specific briefs, white papers

editorials and articles, as well as issue talking points and policy / program bulletins...

Yes, I think its pretty weighty. Not only that, I agree with the proposals, and what a the leader that plans to impelment them. Where Clinton and Obama's proposals are similar - which is in many cases - then my decision includes which candidate do I feel has the vision, intellect, persuasive ability, gravitas and motivation capability to keep the American people with him and supporting his leadership - and that person is Obama.

[MagsDem]

26. So you agree with him about SSI?

You agree with the rethugs and disagree with most dems on that? Rethugs say there is a problem. Most dems say we just need to balance the budget and stop wasteful spending on military and earmarks. Obama says we should raise the payroll tax. You agree with him?

[rinsd]

22. Hillary's site hasn't changed so feel free to admit you were full of it.

[Political Heretic]

25. I'll admit whatever you like.

Perhaps I didn't compare carefully enough - perhaps I didn't like the way information was presented, perhaps I had other priorities on my mind when I was looking, perhaps I let bias get the best of me...

...whatever, I'm sure the fault was mine.

I thought her site lacked substance. I posted based on that thought. Just in case, I went back to make sure I was right. I had the integrity to admit I wasn't, and I bothered to change my post to admit that rather than try to score political points.

What else do you want?

We're not enemies - we support different candidates. I made a mistake and I corrected it. Try not to be a dick.