Hillary Clinton believes in larger government. Over the years, she has almost always advocated plans, programs, and actions centered on government action. I will not comment on the whether this philosophy is sound or not. But for politicians, nothing is easier than to advocate solutions. In fact, nothing is easier than to say you support child care, or taking care of the poor, or cleaning the environment; or to advocate solving the many issues of today. A common practice of a politician is to promise a piece to everyone, and lead them to believe that it comes for free. What often is lacking is the difficult part of the equation-- what these proposed solutions are going to cost.
A classic example of this can be found in Mrs. Clinton's formal candidacy announcement. Her goals mentioned in the speech included:
(from ABCNEWS.COM)
Increasing research funds for breast cancer and AIDS.
Establishing a voluntary rating system for movies, TV programs and video games.
Increasing summer school, preschool and after-school programs.
Improving child care for working parents.
Reducing class sizes in schools.
Ensuring all Americans have health insurance.
Tax cuts for middle-income families, and tax credits for college tuition and elder care.
Requiring child safety locks and universal licensing for guns.
Providing debt relief for the poorest countries in the Third World.
Advancing the peace process in Northern Ireland, South Asia and the Middle East.
Not a word about how the additional tax revenue will be generated or who will pay. She speaks to each organization and group with a list of "to do's", but never with a list of what it will cost.
Some of her other proposals (and the list continues to grow):
"Technology bonds," giving investors federal tax credits instead of interest issued in less affluent areas to build the infrastructure for high-speed Internet access.
Establishing technology extension programs modeled on traditional agricultural extension services.
Doubling federal spending on training partnerships between employers and educational institutions.
More help for small businesses with legal and patent advice.
Spend $690 million more next year to create 120,000 new housing vouchers.
Establish parenting education and family visitation by social service intermediaries on how to raise children.
Called for increased federal support for business incubators in the city and state.
Proposed boosting the federal investment in technology research to create gun detectors that could scan city streets and pinpoint guns.
Supports a proposal to spend $24.8 billion in bonds over the next two years to modernize up to 6,000 schools nationwide.
Pay full tuition for students college education if they teach for 4 years.
Offer $1 Billion over five years to libraries.
Spend money to update library media resources and provide for trained library media staff in schools.
Supports grants to build new childcare centers on campuses.
Support an early learning fund for pre-school children.
Support to create homes for unmarried teen parents.
Insure every single student has a computer.
Provide bonuses and training for fifteen thousand mid-career professionals to become teachers every year.
Increase federal taxpayer funds to clean up our river ways and our waterways.
Increase by $600 million funding for Low Income Home Energy Assistance Program.
27 million dollars in new funds allow CDC to conduct nationwide monitoring of over 100 substances.
Spend an additional $20 million dollars on aid to Ireland.
Reduce class size and extend learning time.
Increase teachers salaries.
Increase funding for Federal Mass Transit Fund.
Add prescription drug benefit to Medicare.
Some spending proposals take the form of tax breaks:
Spend 30 Billion dollars in tax credits for some attending college.
Tax credits for long-term care.
Tax credits for business R&D.
Tax credits for building new schools.
$1,000 tax credit for mothers and fathers to stay at home with their newborns.
Increase the child care tax credit.
Tax credits to businesses to cover costs for on site care or referral services.
Allow those who don't itemize on their income tax returns to take a tax deduction for charitable giving.
