Hillary Clinton has asked more than 100 questions to everyday Americans while on the campaign trail. Secretary Clinton is using the early days of her campaign to meet with voters face-to-face to learn about the issues that affect them every day, all to figure out how she can help make their lives better. While other candidates are using the media to further their own agendas and attack each other, Hillary Clinton is displaying the qualities of a true leader by meeting with the people she hopes to champion as the next President of the United States.
Secretary Clinton Asking & Answering Questions
OVERVIEW
Sec. Clinton Answered 20 Questions from Everyday Americans
Sec. Clinton answered 7 questions from Iowans.
Sec. Clinton answered 5 questions from Granite Staters.
Sec. Clinton answered 8 questions from Nevadans.
Sec. Clinton Asked 117 Questions TO Everyday Americans
Sec. Clinton asked 63 questions to Iowans.
Sec. Clinton asked 44 questions to Granite Staters.
Sec. Clinton asked 10 questions to Nevadans.
Sec. Clinton Answered Questions from Everyday Americans
- Ellen from Iowa: Well one thing that comes to mind with me doesn’t particularly affect me but my sister has a disability and so in school it’s harder for her sometimes to grasp concepts that the other the children grasp more easily. And so I was just wondering, what were your policies that you have for children with disabilities, to help improve that education? Because I think that it would be beneficial for her if she had an opportunity like in the summer to continue her education so when she came back to school she didn’t have to start over again. So she can continue to rise. [Kirkwood Community College, Monticello, IA; 4/14/15]
- Diane from Iowa: And I’m just wondering, what can you do to bring that heart back to education in the United States? [Kirkwood Community College, Monticello, IA; 4/14/15]
- Diane from Iowa: What can we do so that parents and community and businesses believe in American education and that teachers are respected and our schools are respected and our colleges are respected and we offer a quality education to all Americans throughout the United States?” [Kirkwood Community College, Monticello, IA; 4/14/15]
- Stephanie from Iowa: Well, I’m kind of wondering what the government can do or what the schools can do to help people like myself, single mothers, that are struggling to better themselves and better their families? What kind of advantages can they help with? [Kirkwood Community College, Monticello, IA; 4/14/15]
- Leslie from Iowa: The insurance companies now, do they compete across state lines? [Capital City Fruit, Norwalk, IA; 4/15/15]
- Brendan from Iowa: Why not have some kind of an immigration reform system so those people can get work visas or temporary permits or something like that so they’re not, kind of, in the underground? [Capital City Fruit, Norwalk, IA; 4/15/15]
- Katie from Iowa: It’s disheartening when my small business is qualified the same to the government small business, that a $20 million-revenue, 500-person company is qualifying against and actual large corporations are getting tax credits I have zero access to. So can you talk a little bit about goals there? [Capital City Fruit, Norwalk, IA; 4/15/15]
- Dave from New Hampshire: I would like you to elaborate on what you think you might do for childcare in the future if you’re elected? [Whitney Brothers, Keene, NH; 4/20/15]
- Pam from New Hampshire: We also need to see more for substance abuse help in our area. There is very limited resources here, and would like to see something in that respect. Do you have any further ideas? [Whitney Brothers, Keene, NH; 4/20/15]
- Jim from New Hampshire: I look at your ideas on health care, and Social Security, and, you know, where are those heading? I’m in my late 50s right now – 10 years from now I’m going to hopefully work less. What’s going to – so, in regards to our company here, what can be done to help bolster our – our company here to help us all live a better life? [Whitney Brothers, Keene, NH; 4/20/15]
- Dave from New Hampshire: So you need intelligent employees. We have the college and the high schools do have technical services, but it just doesn’t seem to be enough, and we’re always struggling to find people like that. Would you agree? [Whitney Brothers, Keene, NH; 4/20/15]
- Dave from New Hampshire: One final question that I might ask you is that, capital improvements. We like keeping our machines modern and up to date, and historically, I think the last eight to ten years, we’ve been able to write off the capital improvements in the year that they’re installed, and now in 2015 they’re talking about reducing that to $25,000. And I know that’s Congress, but I’m curious as to your feeling, I mean, if you’re President, what can you do to help small businesses like ours to improve the equipment that we have and not make it so onerous so that we can spread it out and still do right by the IRS? [Whitney Brothers, Keene, NH; 4/20/15]
- Erica from Nevada: I’m just here wondering, what are your plans to help my community and help us not live in fear anymore? [Rancho High School, Las Vegas, NV; 5/5/15]
- Raphael from Nevada: As a current undocumented immigrant here in the United States, I stand firmly with the 50,000 undocumented transgender immigrants in this country who lack researches to get any legal representation to file within the one year deadline for asylum. So my question is for you Secretary Clinton would you lift the one-year deadline for asylum seekers? [Rancho High School, Las Vegas, NV; 5/5/15]
- Ezra from Nevada: Thankfully I go to bed every night and I live in fear that my parents will be deported but they’re still here. I can talk to them and I can see them. I think all of our stories have very complex issues. Whether Juan, working and his family is also mixed status family. Outside of it, we all have siblings, which through the three to ten year bar, our parents would qualify for adjustment, fortunately that’s still in place. My question is a little bit expanding on several of those issues. [Rancho High School, Las Vegas, NV; 5/5/15]
- Erica from Nevada: There’s 276,000 undocumented LGBT immigrants here in the United States around 15-50 of them are trans so as a lesbian woman, I would like to know how we can protect our trans brothers and sisters from being put into institutions where they don’t identify where their gender identity? [Rancho High School, Las Vegas, NV; 5/5/15]
- Wanda from Nevada: If and when elected do you plan to push congress as your first initiative to push for comprehensive immigration reform? [Rancho High School, Las Vegas, NV; 5/5/15]
- Juan from Nevada: I just want to see, what do you plan on? Well I know here in Nevada and in county our education, we keep on lowering the education. A lot of kids aren’t graduating and I feel like we need to reach out to these kids and show them that school’s very important and so is higher education. A lot of the kids don’t even know if they qualify for college. [Rancho High School, Las Vegas, NV; 5/5/15]
- Betsaida from Nevada: Once DACA was opened up and established it opened doors to many like myself to go to Ivy league schools but often times the journey ends there. I was wondering if, or what was your position or what would you offer to continue on our education to let us become lawyers, become doctors? [Rancho High School, Las Vegas, NV; 5/5/15]
- Erica from Nevada: How can you inspire him to vote for you and how can you reassure him that you’re going to protect our family and he doesn’t have to go to sleep thinking that our parents are going to be deported? [Rancho High School, Las Vegas, NV; 5/5/15]
Sec. Clinton Asked Questions to Everyday Americans
- Well, you sound like you’re going to be very well prepared for what will be a rigorous curriculum that’s going to demand a lot out of you. I’ve got young friends who are either former or current midshipmen and I know how challenging the study is but you feel like this has given you the hands on — literally hands on experience that you can then transfer? [Kirkwood Community College, Monticello, IA; 4/14/15]
- Give me a sense of your experience with that. [Kirkwood Community College, Monticello, IA; 4/14/15]
- Drew, tell me about your experience. Because you’re still in high school. You’ve got another year to go, right? [Kirkwood Community College, Monticello, IA; 4/14/15]
- So how did you end up here? [Kirkwood Community College, Monticello, IA; 4/14/15]
- Did you hear about it? [Kirkwood Community College, Monticello, IA; 4/14/15]
- Did a counselor tell you about it? [Kirkwood Community College, Monticello, IA; 4/14/15]
- So we’re in your classroom? [Kirkwood Community College, Monticello, IA; 4/14/15]
- And is your experience doing the work on auto similar to what I heard in advanced manufacturing? [Kirkwood Community College, Monticello, IA; 4/14/15]
- You have to learn a lot of math and understand the computers, and they were talking to me about with the computerized numeric control trying to really use their math skills and upgrade them so they can deal with all of the computerization? [Kirkwood Community College, Monticello, IA; 4/14/15]
- How long have you been teaching here? [Kirkwood Community College, Monticello, IA; 4/14/15]
- I did want to ask you, Ellen, when did you start taking courses here? [Kirkwood Community College, Monticello, IA; 4/14/15]
- So you will have 48 college credits when you graduate from high school? [Kirkwood Community College, Monticello, IA; 4/14/15]
- Now, are there many other students doing what you are doing among your friends or classmates? [Kirkwood Community College, Monticello, IA; 4/14/15]
- And you’re still doing your high school courses or are these substitutes for your high school courses? [Kirkwood Community College, Monticello, IA; 4/14/15]
- So what’s next for you with all these credits? [Kirkwood Community College, Monticello, IA; 4/14/15]
- So then, you will only have to pay for two years of four-year college? [Kirkwood Community College, Monticello, IA; 4/14/15]
- And Diane, as an instructor how do you see the benefit of these kinds of blended programs and what issues have you seen arise? [Kirkwood Community College, Monticello, IA; 4/14/15]
- How would you make them even better? [Kirkwood Community College, Monticello, IA; 4/14/15]
- So, you have taught I think how many years? [Kirkwood Community College, Monticello, IA; 4/14/15]
- And predominantly in high school? [Kirkwood Community College, Monticello, IA; 4/14/15]
- How would you characterize your students today from the students you taught when you first started as a teacher? [Kirkwood Community College, Monticello, IA; 4/14/15]
- As I understand, you do a lot of financial counseling for the students here, a lot of outreach to help them. You start in high school. But a lot of people are still not going to know exactly what they want to do, and the end up at the community college. And then they need continuing help, right? [Kirkwood Community College, Monticello, IA; 4/14/15]
- And Bethany, tell me about your coming to school, and what did you do before, and how did you make the decision, and anything else you would like to share? [Kirkwood Community College, Monticello, IA; 4/14/15]
- And does the work program and the Pell Grant pay for it or do you have additional costs? [Kirkwood Community College, Monticello, IA; 4/14/15]
- But then they are all these other costs. Costs of, you know, whether it is books or online materials, whatever you need to be able to actually go to the courses. And some people have told me that that becomes a bigger problem. That, like a Pell Grant covers, in many instances, most if not all of the community college cost. But a lot of students are working or they are single parents, and they have all these other expenses that they don’t have any help trying to pay. So how have you thought about that? [Kirkwood Community College, Monticello, IA; 4/14/15]
- But you’ve been in this field for a long time, how do you see all this Mick? [Kirkwood Community College, Monticello, IA; 4/14/15]
- I want to give anybody a chance to say any last-minute concern or issue. Andrew, anything? [Kirkwood Community College, Monticello, IA; 4/14/15]
- Since you’re going to the naval academy, how do you see our security and some of the issues around your service? [Kirkwood Community College, Monticello, IA; 4/14/15]
- Ready to serve your country? [Kirkwood Community College, Monticello, IA; 4/14/15]
- Diane, what do you think? What other points would you like to make? [Kirkwood Community College, Monticello, IA; 4/14/15]
- So it has really been a big plus for you, you really feel like it helped you not only learn skills but have a better idea of what you want to do in future? [Kirkwood Community College, Monticello, IA; 4/14/15]
- I need to hear from you because what are the skills you need, who are the people that you’re trying to recruit, and what are the challenges that you are facing? [Capital City Fruit, Norwalk, IA; 4/15/15]
- Why don’t we start with you Brendan? [Capital City Fruit, Norwalk, IA; 4/15/15]
- Brendan, before we move on to Katie, can you just describe the skills that you’re looking for that are absent because I was impressed yesterday at the community college, about how they’re trying to work to prepare people for the jobs that businesses want. So explain what you want. [Capital City Fruit, Norwalk, IA; 4/15/15]
- Yesterday, in Davenport I met with a young hospital administrator. He told me that they have 300 openings for RNs and CNAs. So nurses, truckers, two examples of where there is a mismatch, right? [Capital City Fruit, Norwalk, IA; 4/15/15]
- Katie, could you provide any specifics about both the taxes and the physical facility challenges that you have faced? [Capital City Fruit, Norwalk, IA; 4/15/15]
- But you don’t have any of the licensing issues as a web developer? [Capital City Fruit, Norwalk, IA; 4/15/15]
- You know, one of the issues that people are raising with me is how so many professions are now subject to licensing that weren’t 10, 20, 30 years ago, and that’s money on the front end. It’s a lot of time. And there’s just a patchwork across the country; I mean, to become a cosmetologist in one state takes 500 hours, but only 300 in the state next door. There’s just this really difficult terrain that you have to try to navigate. But you don’t have that problem? [Capital City Fruit, Norwalk, IA; 4/15/15]
- Well, could you take advantage of like, you know, if the community college or one of the universities or even a private consortium set up web development, coding, those kinds of classes? [Capital City Fruit, Norwalk, IA; 4/15/15]
- That would be an advantage for you, because it would help you with your workforce development? [Capital City Fruit, Norwalk, IA; 4/15/15]
- Who has to approve the curriculum? [Capital City Fruit, Norwalk, IA; 4/15/15]
- Is it the state? [Capital City Fruit, Norwalk, IA; 4/15/15]
- How about you? Tell us about your business. [Capital City Fruit, Norwalk, IA; 4/15/15]
- Did you have trouble financing – did you buy an existing facility? How much debt did you graduate with? The average four-year graduate in Iowa graduates with nearly $30,000 in debt. [Capital City Fruit, Norwalk, IA; 4/15/15]
- And you see that a lot at the center that you run, don’t you? [Capital City Fruit, Norwalk, IA; 4/15/15]
- Has the credit situation improved in your market? [Capital City Fruit, Norwalk, IA; 4/15/15]
- And what do you hear, or you too, Amelia, what do you hear from other small business people? Has the credit crunch eased at all or is it still really difficult? [Capital City Fruit, Norwalk, IA; 4/15/15]
- Jennifer, what about your business? [Capital City Fruit, Norwalk, IA; 4/15/15]
- How many people work for you now? [Capital City Fruit, Norwalk, IA; 4/15/15]
- I met a single mom of three kids, a divorced mom yesterday at Kirkwood who’s going back to school, and it really took a lot of energy to piece together all the different amounts of aid and what she needed to be able to try to get the education so she could get the better job. And that interferes with people starting businesses, or joining small businesses, because they don’t maybe feel that they have enough security. Have you seen that? [Capital City Fruit, Norwalk, IA; 4/15/15]
- But I think here at Capital City Fruit, Brendan, you provide paid vacation and paid sick leave right? [Capital City Fruit, Norwalk, IA; 4/15/15]
- And you have a 401k? [Capital City Fruit, Norwalk, IA; 4/15/15]
- I am committed to trying to build on what works in the Affordable Care Act because 16 million people now have insurance who didn’t have it and when I was in Mt. Vernon yesterday a woman, a local business woman came up and she said ‘I don’t know what I’m going to do, my 26 year old son has been on my policy now,’ and you’ve been on your parents policy? [Capital City Fruit, Norwalk, IA; 4/15/15]
- And what about, you know, when you look at health care is an issue in lots of businesses, obviously, but I noticed, Brendan, you have a lot of immigrants and refugees, what are some of the challenges you face in using people who are willing to work hard, who show up? [Capital City Fruit, Norwalk, IA; 4/15/15]
- And we are saying to all these other people who want the same dreams and the same aspirations and the willingness to work hard, just like our families did. That, you know, no. We’re not going to make it easy for you, we’re not going to make it legal for you. And I just think that’s just such a short-term unfortunate outcome for us as well as for them. Do you see that in your business too? [Capital City Fruit, Norwalk, IA; 4/15/15]
- Well I want to give everybody a chance to raise any other issue that you’d like to put on the table. [inaudible] has got us at the table solving problems so we should keep going at them. Do you want to start Emilia? [Capital City Fruit, Norwalk, IA; 4/15/15]
- How about you Jennifer? [Capital City Fruit, Norwalk, IA; 4/15/15]
- So, these are some of the problems that we still have to address in order to make healthcare truly accessible, affordable, high-quality, which is what we all deserve to have and I think that we’ve learned a lot in the last few years, we’ve seen some of the positives and some of the challenges and we’re just going to have to get around the table and get to work on that again. Right? Did you want to add anything, Leslie? [Capital City Fruit, Norwalk, IA; 4/15/15]
- What about you Katie, do you have anything else? [Capital City Fruit, Norwalk, IA; 4/15/15]
- Well Brendon let me end where I started, you were telling me a little bit as we were walking around about how you piece together all the different forms of support to actually build this facility. Could you describe that, because I think that would be interesting? [Capital City Fruit, Norwalk, IA; 4/15/15]
- So when are you open? When is your bowling alley open? You know I’m going to be in Iowa a lot. [Capital City Fruit, Norwalk, IA; 4/15/15]
- And you do that with 2 or 3 people? [Capital City Fruit, Norwalk, IA; 4/15/15]
- And are you the chef as well? [Capital City Fruit, Norwalk, IA; 4/15/15]
- As we were walking around and Dave was telling me about all the incredible machines that are used here in production, all but one are from another country. And many of them, if I’m right, Dave, are from Europe? [Whitney Brothers, Keene, NH; 4/20/15]
- So, starting early? [Whitney Brothers, Keene, NH; 4/20/15]
- And Kris, you hire a lot of people, so you see this, don’t you? [Whitney Brothers, Keene, NH; 4/20/15]
- And a lot of employers are either doing that or thinking about going back to doing it, from what I’m hearing. Is that what you hear from your human resource contacts as well? [Whitney Brothers, Keene, NH; 4/20/15]
- What are some of the other issues? Jim, like what is on your mind economically, and how you see things for yourself and your family? [Whitney Brothers, Keene, NH; 4/20/15]
- Can I ask you – you worked for 27 years. Was there any kind of retirement account, 401k, anything? [Whitney Brothers, Keene, NH; 4/20/15]
- Did you think, Mary, when you retired the first time that you had enough resources to be able to take care of your needs, and then something unexpected happened? [Whitney Brothers, Keene, NH; 4/20/15]
- Did you start drawing Social Security? [Whitney Brothers, Keene, NH; 4/20/15]
- What did you get a month? [Whitney Brothers, Keene, NH; 4/20/15]
- Do you remember what you were drawing on Social Security? [Whitney Brothers, Keene, NH; 4/20/15]
- 1400 a month? [Whitney Brothers, Keene, NH; 4/20/15]
- When you came back, did you believe that you were here for a period of years, or are you going to take it year by year? [Whitney Brothers, Keene, NH; 4/20/15]
- So I would love to hear from you, and maybe start with you, Kris, because when people come for a job interview, where have they gotten their skills, or do they even know that those skills would enhance their chance to get hired? [Whitney Brothers, Keene, NH; 4/20/15]
- So you’ve got cost pressures plus skill pressures? [Whitney Brothers, Keene, NH; 4/20/15]
- The amount of tuition is so high both in the two year and the four year schools, but that still doesn’t help unless we somehow provide incentives for more people, younger and older, to go into these trades, right? [Whitney Brothers, Keene, NH; 4/20/15]
- What are your hours of operation? [Whitney Brothers, Keene, NH; 4/20/15]
- Does anybody else feel that way? [Whitney Brothers, Keene, NH; 4/20/15]
- Well Dave, we’ll give you the last word because you’ve been here, you know, how long have you worked here? [Whitney Brothers, Keene, NH; 4/20/15]
- You are at the end of this process and you are someone who has to recruit and employ people who have the skills you need. Could you describe a little bit about your business and why you are interested in highlighting advanced manufacturing training that goes on here? [New Hampshire Technical Institute, Concord, NH; 4/21/15]
- And specifically, what skills are you looking for? [New Hampshire Technical Institute, Concord, NH; 4/21/15]
- How about you Professor Cunningham, how do you see the future for your students and the whole area that you are working in now? [New Hampshire Technical Institute, Concord, NH; 4/21/15]
- And why do you think that you need to recruit more students? What is it about students today that you see as a barrier to their being interested in what you’re teaching and what you’re offering Val? [New Hampshire Technical Institute, Concord, NH; 4/21/15]
- Could I ask you, President Dunton, are there students going on to a four year college who if they knew what the benefits and opportunities might be here, if they were perhaps better counseled, would find their way here? [New Hampshire Technical Institute, Concord, NH; 4/21/15]
- Well Aurora talk to us about your experience because I think you started at a four year college, so maybe take us through your process that led you here. [New Hampshire Technical Institute, Concord, NH; 4/21/15]
- And Morgan, what about your story, how did you end up here? [New Hampshire Technical Institute, Concord, NH; 4/21/15]
- So you think maybe when you finish your work here you would go on to a four year, and to study what? [New Hampshire Technical Institute, Concord, NH; 4/21/15]
- Do you think it would help if more high school, maybe even middle school students, had more of an opportunity to learn what they like and what they’re good at? [New Hampshire Technical Institute, Concord, NH; 4/21/15]
- So you think some girls, Morgan, think well engineering’s more this science and its maybe cold and not caring and they don’t understand the bridge that you just described about how you can use engineering to actually, really help people. [New Hampshire Technical Institute, Concord, NH; 4/21/15]
- Well, Bill, let me ask you how did you find your way here as a non-traditional student as you said? [New Hampshire Technical Institute, Concord, NH; 4/21/15]
- And what do you see yourself doing with this additional education? [New Hampshire Technical Institute, Concord, NH; 4/21/15]
- And you’ve got two little girls? [New Hampshire Technical Institute, Concord, NH; 4/21/15]
- Since you’re teaching here at this college, Professor Cunningham, how do you see the role that the community college plays, and having heard from Morgan and Aurora and Bill, what more could be done to recruit more young people into the program that you’re running? [New Hampshire Technical Institute, Concord, NH; 4/21/15]
- What are the barriers that prevent, you know, students like these three finding their way here? [New Hampshire Technical Institute, Concord, NH; 4/21/15]
- Let me ask you, do you believe that if we could get this pipeline with the skills that we need filling up more in the next five to ten years we would see a resurgence in manufacturing across our country? [New Hampshire Technical Institute, Concord, NH; 4/21/15]
- I’ve been thinking a lot about that. How do you set up opportunities for people who may have given up, or who may have tried something and felt like they failed at it and aren’t’ sure that they can come back and do it again? [New Hampshire Technical Institute, Concord, NH; 4/21/15]
- You have any thoughts on that Aurora? [New Hampshire Technical Institute, Concord, NH; 4/21/15]
- You said something about healthcare, can you describe what you mean by that? [New Hampshire Technical Institute, Concord, NH; 4/21/15]
- Are they on Medicaid? [New Hampshire Technical Institute, Concord, NH; 4/21/15]
- Are they getting Medicaid? [New Hampshire Technical Institute, Concord, NH; 4/21/15]
- This issue about how you incentivize people to become self-sufficient, if you put these really tough caps on what they can get for health, and if they make more money they lose it, instead of something graduated that gives people more incentives then why would they work, why would they get an education if they need the healthcare? We’ve really created these catch-22 problems. [New Hampshire Technical Institute, Concord, NH; 4/21/15]
- Bill have you seen that too, or any other issues that you want to raise? [New Hampshire Technical Institute, Concord, NH; 4/21/15]
- So you’re at the CRTC? [New Hampshire Technical Institute, Concord, NH; 4/21/15]
- Are you mostly serving high school students? [New Hampshire Technical Institute, Concord, NH; 4/21/15]
- And what numbers do you have in those programs? [New Hampshire Technical Institute, Concord, NH; 4/21/15]
- If you will introduce yourself and talk about your own life and what brings you to this table today. [Rancho High School, Las Vegas, NV; 5/5/15]
- You were scammed because you hired a lawyer to help you? [Rancho High School, Las Vegas, NV; 5/5/15]
- And talk to me a little bit about what you’ve done in school, how you see your future, the contributions you have already made as a young person and what you’d like to do further. [Rancho High School, Las Vegas, NV; 5/5/15]
- Erica how did you end up here with us today? [Rancho High School, Las Vegas, NV; 5/5/15]
- Wanda could you explain for people who might not know what the 3 in 10 rule is because it causes a lot of these issues? [Rancho High School, Las Vegas, NV; 5/5/15]
- And Juan, you have an interesting story because you’re one of those small businessmen. You know I said the other day, I want to be the president for small business because that’s where most jobs get created and that’s where the real engine of economic recovery and growth comes from, so why don’t you tell us what you’ve been doing? [Rancho High School, Las Vegas, NV; 5/5/15]
- Do you want to share your story? [Rancho High School, Las Vegas, NV; 5/5/15]
- Tell me about your family? [Rancho High School, Las Vegas, NV; 5/5/15]
- What’s happened with the rest of your family? [Rancho High School, Las Vegas, NV; 5/5/15]
- So I know that you each have had very personal experiences and now’s your chance to maybe say what you think should be done and how it should be done so that we have a debate that is about the realities, not about the talking points and the arguments. Ezra would you like to start? [Rancho High School, Las Vegas, NV; 5/5/15]
