5 Things I Love About Hillary Clinton

5 Things I Love About Hillary Clinton October 21, 2016

Hillary

Hillary Rodham Clinton is probably going to be the next president of the United States, for better or worse.

I stand a lot closer to “worse” on that scale, and indeed I spent much of the Democratic presidential primary working hard to help Bernie Sanders defeat Clinton.  We failed, and the revelations that the DNC conspired to rig the primary for Clinton made many Sanders supporters justifiably furious.

However, as a part of my ongoing quest to live a life centered in Jesus, I’m going to practice what he commanded and try to love my enemies.  Hillary Clinton might stand against almost every ideology I hold dear, but that doesn’t mean that there aren’t some things I respect (and even love) about her.  Here they are.

5.) “Hillarycare” Was Actually Slightly More Progressive Than Obamacare

Is this one cheating, considering “Hillarycare” didn’t actually become law?  I don’t think so, for it shows the kind of person Clinton was before she became obsessed with obtaining power.

When her husband, president Bill Clinton, ran for president in 1992, he made healthcare a central issue of his campaign.  In 1993 he set up a task force, spearheaded by Hillary, to go about reforming America’s healthcare system.

Hillary took to the job with gusto, and the way she handled herself in front of Congress stirred up popular support for the reforms and made her a national star.  For a time, it seemed as if healthcare reform was really going to happen, until (shockingly) Republicans and other special interests mobilized against it.

“Hillarycare” as it became known was similar in some ways to the Affordable Care Act (Obamacare), such as the expansion of aid programs from the federal government to the states to cover low-income people.  However, its main provision was a mandate on employers to cover every single one of their employees, as opposed to Obamacare’s mandate on individuals to seek care for themselves (this is a bit of an oversimplification, of course, but I am only describing the general mechanism of each plan).

Simply put, while Obamacare has forced individuals to become customers of private insurance companies, Hillarycare would have forced businesses to purchase plans on behalf of their employees.  It’s still capitalism, and capitalism in regards to healthcare is still evil, but at least Hillarycare would have put most of the burden on corporations instead of individuals.

Hillary’s role in trying to pass major healthcare reforms brings me to the next thing I love about her…


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