Clinton on economic justice, defense spending, gender

Mary Barron is covering the Democratic primaries for NCR. She interviewed Sen. Hillary Clinton by phone April 13 following the CNN Compassion Forum prior to the Pennsylvania Primary, which Clinton won and in which she took 69 percent of the Catholic vote. Sen. Barack Obama, who had recently created a National Catholic Advisory Council (see story at www.NCRonline.org), polled only 31 percent. NCR has requested an interview with Obama, but so far he has been unavailable.

AP Photo/Charles Dharapak: Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton, D-N.Y., campaigns at Wilson Senior High School in West Lawn, Pa., April 19.NCR: People’s framework for solving problems tends to reflect their beliefs, and you have spoken about spiritual motivations for addressing certain political issues. Could you tell us which two or three issues you feel most driven by faith to confront?Clinton: Well, here at home, economic justice, health care for all, and a clean, renewable energy future are my three highest priorities because I think that each and every one of those will determine the quality of life, the standard of living and the moral fiber of our nation. And around the world, promoting peace and prosperity that will benefit people who are living in extreme poverty, who are subjected to oppressive regimes, who have lots of challenges in their daily lives is important both for moral and security reasons and I will do what I can to try to address those [problems] as well.

In terms of economic justice at home, what mechanisms will you use to promote that?I’m going to use both the bully pulpit of the presidency and the changes I would advocate legislatively and through regulation. We have to start by giving an opportunity to every child through early childhood intervention, universal pre-kindergarten. I want to give young people more incentive to stay in school and provide for a better chance for them to be productive and successful. You have to make college more affordable. And we have to raise the minimum wage, invest in worker training. I would end George Bush’s tax cuts for the wealthy, end the tax breaks for companies that send jobs overseas. Reward companies that create good jobs here at home. Support labor unions so they can organize and bargain collectively for workers who don’t have enough bargaining authority on their own. I want to triple the Earned Income Tax Credit so it can provide more benefits for large families who are disproportionately poor. There are things we can do that would make it clear that economic justice is a goal of our country again.

I would like to base one of my questions on a quote from Pope Benedict. Pope Benedict offered a kind of global perspective. He said, “Less than half the immense sums spent worldwide on armaments would be more than sufficient to liberate the immense masses of the poor from destitution. This challenges humanity’s conscience.” Given that the U.S. spends more on the military than much of the rest of the world combined, do you think there is a moral imperative to cut military spending? If so, how would you do it and by how much?Let me respond by saying I agree with His Holiness. … But I also hope that his message about economic justice and global development will get the appropriate hearing both in the country and in our government. There has to be more commitment by the United States to reprioritize our spending. The budget is a moral document and I am committed to doing more to help around the world when it comes to education, health care, and promoting human rights and women’s rights. I hope that we can make progress.

AP Photo/Charles Dharapak: Four-year-old Cassandra Savukinas holds up a sign during a campaign rally at Radnor Senior High School in Philadelphia April 18.So would you be committed to cutting military spending by any particular amount?Well, I’m going to take a hard look at our military budget. I’m convinced that we need to make sure that we are not spending more than we need to be spending, that what money we’re spending we are spending in the right ways. I’m going to conduct a bottom-up, top-down review to try to figure how best to protect and defend our country and protect and defend our friends and allies around the world because we do face real threats. We know that, but [I] would like to see us spend more money on helping people around the world. I really believe that instability and extremism are fostered in places where people feel that they don’t have opportunity. We have to do more to restore moral leadership in the world by addressing the needs of the poor. That’s why I’ve set some very big goals in this area for new financial commitments from the United States.

Obviously this is a historic race partially because of the history of race and gender in our country and around the world. Sen. Obama devoted a speech to race -- can you talk about how your formation and life as a woman in this culture has influenced your approach to politics?That’s a wonderful question. I am obviously the sum of all of my parts and one very essential part is the fact I am a woman. I’m a daughter, a sister, a wife and a mother. That has shaped and influenced me in my entire life and certainly in my public life. And I care deeply about the continuing obstacles confronting women here at home and around the world. I have spent many years trying to promote equality of opportunity for women, [to] end discrimination, and have paid particular attention to the very difficult challenges that women in many countries confront as they attempt to exercise their full humanity. So this is going to be a watershed event for our country, electing a woman president, and I hope to be able to further the cause of women’s rights, and human rights, and equality both here and for people everywhere.

AP Photo/Matt Rourke: A campaign event at Liberty High School in Bethlehem, Pa., April 20You have said the country has a moral obligation to provide mandatory universal health care. Can you explain in a nutshell how we would pay for it and what limits would be placed on care?I want to open up the congressional health plan for federal employees to everyone. Many people would not be interested because they have good health insurance and they would keep what they have. But many others, the uninsured and the underinsured, would, for the first time, have the opportunity to have quality, affordable health care. I lay out how I would pay for it on my Web site, as I do with all my major initiatives, but briefly I would let the tax cuts of the people making more than $250,000 expire so they would go back to paying the rate they paid when Bill was president. And I would use that money, which is $55 billion a year, to fund the health care tax credit I have proposed for people who need financial assistance in obtaining health insurance. I would limit the amount of money anyone has to pay for health insurance to a low percentage of their income. And I would modernize our health care system, which would be very effective in saving cost, so that our health care dollars could go further. And independent analysts have said that my plan would get us to universal health care and I am determined that we will achieve that.

The Rev. Jim Wallis asked Sen. Obama to commit to cutting poverty in half in 10 years. He agreed that he would be committed to that. Would you match that?Well, I certainly intend to achieve that. I’ve called for the creation of a poverty czar, someone who would coordinate at a cabinet-level position inside the White House all the various efforts we have under way, as well as activities by the not-for-profit and faith communities to alleviate and reduce poverty. I’d like to see us end child poverty. And I have worked on this for many years, from the time when I was a very young lawyer working for the Children’s Defense Fund and I remain committed to ending the poverty that 37 million of our fellow Americans live in.

Mary Barron is a freelance writer living in Colorado Springs, Colo.

National Catholic Reporter May 2, 2008