Former president Bill Clinton spoke to a crowd of 1,675 students, faculty and Durham, N.H. residents Wednesday, Oct. 3, urging listeners to continue “moving forward” by re-electing President Barack Obama, and outlining the president’s policies on student loans and health care.
The speech, which lasted just under 30 minutes, focused much of its attention on the strides Obama has made in just four years despite “enormous opposition” and the need for Americans to join together to achieve prosperity instead of leaving individuals to fend for themselves.
Clinton started his speech by saying he had been reading local press coverage of his upcoming visit to the university, and was particularly troubled by one student who was quoted as saying he didn’t know if he would vote because he wasn’t sure if his vote mattered.
“Let me just say this,” Clinton said. “The Republicans in New Hampshire think it matters, that’s why they work so hard to keep you from voting.”
Clinton referenced the legal controversy surrounding out-of-state college students’ right to vote in New Hampshire. It was recently ruled that out-of-state students do have the right to register to vote in the Granite State, though critics of this decision are pushing to appeal it.
“Over 40 years ago, the United States Supreme Court said that every full-time college student in the United States had an absolute constitutional right to register to vote either where their home was or where they went to college; they got to choose,” Clinton said, before pushing UNH students to send politicians a message with their opinion on the appeal.
Much of Clinton’s speech was focused on the economy, and he emphasized the idea that one of the main questions concerning this election is who is going to get the country out of its mess as quickly as possible.
“It is my opinion, and not just mine, but the opinion of every single serious economist with whom I have spoken, that no president — not me, not any of my predecessors — could undo all the damage that President Obama found on the day he took office in just four years,” Clinton said.
“The only reason this is a race is that we’re Americans, we’re impatient, we want things fixed the day before yesterday and the economy’s not fixed,” he said. “The president’s economic plan is better in the short-run, better in the long-run, and a vision of ‘we’re all in this together’ is a heck of a lot better than ‘you’re on your own.’”
Speaking directly to the crowd of UNH students, Clinton referenced the changes made to student loans under Obama’s leadership and the impact they have had and will continue to have on the affordability of a college education.
“The university and college and community college system in America is our great hope for a modern, 21st century, middle-class economy,” he said. “But the trends are a great threat to it.”
According to Clinton, America has dropped from first to 16th in the world in the percentage of young adults who, at 24-25 years old, actually have college degrees, even though America is still in the top of young adults who enroll in higher education.
To combat this, Clinton said, Obama utilized a program that had been used on an experimental basis during Clinton’s presidency where the federal government gave money for the student loans directly to the universities and set aside a loan, rather than subsidizing the banks to do the same thing.
Under this program, Clinton said, students saved $9 million and lowered interest rates, and taxpayers saved $4 billion because nobody defaulted on their loans once they could repay them.
“The taxpayers came out ahead,” Clinton said.
Upon stating that Romney intends to repeal this, Clinton emphasized the importance of college education in moving the economy forward.
“Not every job in the 21st century requires a four-year degree, but almost every job will be created by someone who has one,” he said.
Clinton then moved toward the subject of health care, which gained many cheers of approval from the crowd as he announced that people under 26, under the Affordable Care Act, could still use their parent’s health-care plans.
He stated that health care is an “economic issue that threatens your future” because many countries advertise the fact that they have better health outcomes and costs than America. According to him, Americans spend 17.8 percent of their income on health care annually, while none of its major competitors spend more than 11.8 percent.
“That is one trillion dollars a year,” Clinton said, saying it was a trillion dollars a year that could be put toward science, research development, helping small businesses hire more employees and giving pay raises to people to raise their income.
Clinton wrapped up his speech by hitting home with the point of moving forward together, saying that although New Hampshire is famous for its independent citizens and emphasis on personal responsibility, the country should feel no shame in the country banding together to fix its problems.
“We have got to stop saying that there’s a contradiction between being self-reliant and standing on your own two feet and knowing you have to take responsibility for yourself, and saying that your neighbor’s future and your future are bound up together, and we’re better if we go forward together,” he said.