Hillary Clinton returned to Iowa Wednesday, speaking in favor of the Affordable Care Act and student-loan reform.
By Aaron Walker
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MT. VERNON — Hillary Clinton was on the stump again in Iowa on Wednesday as she worked to gain student support and expand her lead in Iowa by speaking at Cornell College.
A few weak battle cries before her arrival implied a quiet crowd, but a number of her comments on health care, student debt, and gun control proved the opposite and garnered highly audible praise.
Clinton jumped to the topic of health-care solutions after being introduced by Cornell freshman Sophie Meads who discussed her struggles with juvenile diabetes and her belief Clinton will assist others struggling with medical costs.
“I am not going to let Republicans rip up Obamacare and throw it away,” Clinton said. “The country cannot go through that again. We will fight to lower prescription drug costs, premiums and other expenses. But I’m not going to let any family be deprived of health care.”
She soon transitioned the discussion from health care to the importance of the youth vote. She vied for future workers by asserting the nation’s need for a higher minimum wage, creating jobs through infrastructure, and reforming the federal student-loan system.
In her plan to reform higher education, the New College Compact, she says Americans should not have to borrow money to afford public universities, allow the lowest possible interest rates for private university students, and allow graduates to refinance student loans.
“If you can refinance your house or your car, you ought to be able to refinance student debt,” Clinton said. “And I don’t believe the federal government, which is now the major lender, should be making a profit off young people who are borrowing to get their education.”
She spoke strongly in favor of reproductive rights and renewable fuels, while condemning corporate campaign finance and hawkish foreign policy.
But some of Clinton’s strongest comments were against gun lobbyists and the National Rifle Association.
“The NRA tries to keep gun owners, the ones who are members, really upset all the time so they can keep collecting their money because they tell them they’re the only thing that’s going to stop the black helicopters from landing on their front yard and people’s guns being seized,” she said.
Her head-to-head battle has been somewhat one-sided for the past month as the next candidate, Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., has yet to lead a poll since early September.
Clinton leads the latest Iowa poll by 11 points with 47 percent of Democratic caucus goers, according to a poll conducted by NBC News, The Wall Street Journal, and Marist Polling, with an error margin of 5.3 percentage pointys. But with the option of Vice President Joe Biden, Clinton’s lead falls to 33 percent, with Sanders in second at 28 and Biden following at 22.
Her support was cemented by comments from two of Iowa’s most well-known female Democrats. Sue Dvorsky, the former chairwoman of the Iowa Democratic Party, spoke initially and pulled the Iowa Senate President Pam Jochum on stage to iterate their support.
“[Clinton] has been there for her entire adult life standing up for working families, for children, for women … You name it, that woman has been there,” Jochum said. “There is no one in my lifetime that who has been more prepared to be president of the United States and to lead this nation than Hillary Clinton.”
The wide mix of youth and aging supporters was apparent and emphasized by both the diverse group sitting behind her and the crowd that matched.
One of those supporters who sat behind Clinton as she spoke was Sidney Boston, a Cornell College student from St. Paul, Minnesota. Her favorite comments, though, were not related to college affordability.
“[Mentioning] Black Lives Matter, that hit home,” Boston said. “And reproductive rights, too, the right to choose if I want to get an abortion or not. It should be my choice. So with that, it’s like, ‘Yea, Hillary.’ ”
