6th #Demdebate Disagreements 2016
The Democratic candidates faced off for the sixth time on the debate stage in Milwaukee tonight, two days after Bernie Sanders’ victory over Hillary Clinton in the New Hampshire primary.And from the very first question, the debate was lively. The first half of the debate concentrated on domestic issues, the second half focused on Foreign policy.
Though the media is putting ‘ism’ in the words, to differentiate between the two candidates, let’s look at clearly where the candidates disagreed/differed in their own words:
From the very beginning, the candidates were showing their differences.
Sanders: I think what our campaign is indicating is that the American people are tired of establishment politics, tired of establishment economics. They want a political revolution in which millions of Americans stand up, come together, not let the Trumps of the world divide us, and say, you know what, in this great country, we need a government that represents all of us, not just a handful of wealthy campaign contributors.
Clinton: I’m running for president to knock down all the barriers that are holding Americans back, and to rebuild the ladders of opportunity that will give every American a chance to advance, especially those who have been left out and left behind… I think America can only live up to its potential when we make sure that every American has a chance to live up to his or her potential. That will be my mission as president. And I think together we will make progress.
Second came up public spending, healthcare and education.
Sanders: The U.S. should join the rest of the world in going to a single-payer health care system and make public colleges and universities tuition-free.
Clinton: If you’re having Medicare for all, single-payer, you need to level with people about what they will have at the end of the process you are proposing.
Specifically Healthcare —
Sanders: Please do not tell me that in this country, if — and here’s the if — we have the courage to take on the drug companies, and have the courage to take on the insurance companies, and the medical equipment suppliers, if we do that, yes, we can guarantee health care to all people in a much more cost effective way.
Clinton: having been in the trenches fighting for this, I believe strongly we have to guarantee health care. I believe we are on the path to doing that. The last thing we need is to throw our country into a contentious debate about health care again.
On treatment of minorities —
Clinton: We need fundamental police reform, clearly, clearly, when we talk about a criminal justice system. I would hope that we could all agree that we are sick and tired of seeing videos on television of unarmed people, often African-Americans, shot by police officers.
Sanders: we have to restore policing that will actually protect the communities that police officers are sworn to protect…And, then we have to go after sentencing, and that’s one of the problems here in Wisconsin because so much of what happened in the criminal justice system doesn’t happen at the federal level, it happens at the state and local level.
On immigration —
Clinton: …with respect to the Central American children, I made it very clear that those children needed to be processed appropriately, but we also had to send a message to families and communities in Central America not to send their children on this dangerous journey in the hands of smugglers.
Sanders:…in terms of the children, I don’t know to whom you’re sending a message. Who are you sending a message to? These are children who are leaving countries and neighborhoods where their lives are at stake. That was the fact. I don’t think we use them to send a message. I think we welcome them into this country and do the best we can to help them get their lives together.
Then, ‘What influence will your campaign contributors have on our administration?’
Clinton: let’s not in anyway imply here that either President Obama or myself, would in anyway not take on any vested interested, whether it’s Wall Street, or drug companies, or insurance companies, or frankly, the gun lobby to stand up to do what’s best for the American people.
Sanders: But let’s not — but let’s not — let’s not insult — let’s not insult the intelligence of the American people. People aren’t dumb. Why in God’s name does Wall Street make huge campaign contributions? I guess just for the fun of it; they want to throw money around.
They also had small disagreement regarding no fly zone in Syria, foreign policy and ‘Henry Kissinger’. This debate may Actually be remembered for a long time for Kissinger being dragged.