Hillary Speaks In Kentucky

12/14/2005

Dear DFL Member and Supporter,

Hillary spoke to 2,000 people at the Kentucky International Convention Center in Louisville on December 2 on behalf of the Kentucky Democratic Party. The event raised $600,000 – more than the Party has ever raised in a single event!

A number of people have asked about the speech. Here are some excerpts. If you’d like to read the whole speech, it’s posted at:

http://www.hillaryclinton.com/kentuckyspeech/

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Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton Speaking to the Kentucky Democratic Party
December 2, 5005

(excerpts)

...Americans have always risen to the challenge that confronted us. And at the dawn of the 21st century, we face real challenges. From global competition to global warming. From rising health care costs to rising energy costs. And yet Republicans in Washington are not even serious about addressing these challenges. They’re not willing to take them on. And their failure of leadership is leaving America unprepared for the future we face.

...I believe that the Democratic Party should and will take on these tough challenges. I believe we can do it. We can reverse high energy costs, and we can become energy independent and break our addiction to foreign oil which is undermining our economy and our security. I believe we can make quality health care more affordable and available for every single American. I believe we can make the investments today in both the public and the private sector that will promote high-paying quality jobs and will ensure that American business can compete in the global marketplace not by engaging in a race to the bottom where people are paid wages they cannot live on but by lifting up our economic sights and making the investments that will make us richer and stronger.

And I believe we can defeat terrorism, secure our homeland, and make Americans feel safe again by leveling with the American people, telling them the truth, and pursuing strategies that will actually work, not just platitudes and rhetoric that are not working.

...[L]et’s take some of these problems we face. Energy’s a perfect example. We have a short-term problem: helping people pay their bills, and that will be particularly important this winter. ...[T]here are a lot people who are going to have to pay hundreds of dollars more to heat their homes. ...The price of natural gas has tripled in the past months and families can expect to spend 30-50% more just to heat their houses. ... And we have increasing evidence, from scientific findings to brutal storms, that we are warming the planet at a rate that can endanger the futures of our children and grandchildren.

These problems will not go away by ignoring them. They certainly will not go away by forming secret energy task forces. But they can be addressed if we roll up our sleeves and go to work together. It will take new technologies and new priorities, but we can do this. We have always, in America, led the way in virtually every new technology, from telephones to electric lights to the personal computer to new miracle drugs. We not only can be, we must be leaders in the energy revolution. We can make better investments in alternative energy. We can make better use of the coal that comes right from Kentucky. We can invest not only in clean coal but in solar and in wind, in fuel cells, biofuels and so much else.

...[T]he same thing is true about healthcare. Now this, as you know, is a subject that I’ve had some experience with. And I still have the scars to show for it. But I am not sorry that we tried twelve years ago to make sure we provided health care that was affordable and of high quality and available to every American. And in fact, we have the same problems we had back then, don’t we? In fact we have more uninsured people and health care premiums are going up by double digit inflation. A twenty percent jump in the past two years.

...I believe, and I have worked to pass legislation which I passed through the Senate just a few weeks ago, that we should have more health information technology that will give us better information about health care, give every one of us a safe, secure, confidential electronic medical record...to learn more about how to take better care of ourselves, reduce medical errors, improve the quality of care, and give us a chance to save billions of dollars in our system.

... But you know as well as I do that to fix health care is going to require more than just computerizing it. We’ve got to figure out how to help people afford health care. There are many common sense ideas around. Why not let early retirees buy into Medicare? Why not let families buy into the federal government’s health care system?...Why not renegotiate the Medicare prescription drug benefit so that, number one, it’s understandable, and people actually know what they’re buying when they sign up for one of those plans that comes in the mail? And number two, why don’t we let Medicare negotiate for lower prices the way the Veteran’s Administration was able to do starting in the Clinton Administration?

...[I]t’s not only the health care system that’s at risk, the health of our economy is also at risk. ...[I]n a short period of time, we have not only piled up a massive debt for our children and our grandchildren, but we have surrendered our fiscal sovereignty to foreign capitals and foreign bankers. Every single month we have to borrow $60 billion. And where do we get that? We get it from Beijing and Seoul and Tokyo and Riyadh.

...If you ever wonder why this Administration can’t get tough on China remember, they have to borrow money to feed that debt that they have exploded in the last four years to provide tax cuts to the wealthiest Americans.

And apparently they’re not finished yet. ...They’re pushing an economic plan right now in Washington that is cutting health care, cutting education, cutting so many of the important programs...in order to fund even more tax cuts. ...And then they want to try to conceal and reduce the impact by raising the cost of college loans. By cutting child care to working families. By imposing new burdens on Medicare and people on Medicaid. The president’s discovery of poverty in front of a cathedral in New Orleans hasn’t even lasted ninety days.

...I know I speak for everyone here when I express our deep and profound gratitude to the men and women of our armed forces. …[T]hey honor our country every day with their courage, their selfless dedication and their success in the battles we send them to fight.

...I think we need a plan for winning and concluding this war, and the President can begin by taking responsibility for the false assurances, faulty evidence and mismanagement of this war. And it is past time for the President, the Vice President, and anyone associated with them to stop impugning the patriotism of their critics.

... America has a big job to do now. We must set reasonable goals to finish what we started and successfully turn over Iraqi security to Iraqis. The elections on December 15 will give us a chance to work with a government that is truly elected to represent all of the Iraqi people. We must deny terrorists the prize they seek in Iraq, and we must repair the damage to our reputation. We must reform our intelligence system so we never go to war on false premises again. We must repair the breech with the Muslim world and we must again work to create international alliances because we cannot win the war against terrorism unless we have more friends than enemies.

I know when America leads with its values and fearlessly faces the facts we do make the best decisions. ...We can make a difference, we can elect Democrats, and when we elect Democrats we elect a better future for America.

Thank you and God bless you.