Former President Bill Clinton made an unscheduled stop at Jackson State University on Thursday ahead of Tuesday’s presidential primary, telling a crowd that there are too many people struggling because of political gridlock and too many people in Mississippi prisons.
More than 200 people gathered in the Student Center on the main campus to hear the nation’s 42nd president discuss an array of other issues, too, that he said his wife’s presidential campaign is addressing. With Mississippi’s 41 Democratic delegates up for grabs, he said concerns range from crumbling infrastructure, U.S. Supreme Court nominations and rising college debt to water tainted by lead.
Barnstorming the country on behalf of former first lady, U.S. Senator and Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton, Bill Clinton also addressed other challenges faced by those in the Magnolia State and the nation. Despite volatile hurdles, he described the Democratic Party’s leading candidate as a “change maker.”
“Hillary wants us all to grow together, learn together and live together. She is committed to tearing down every barrier that holds people back whether by race, by gender or where they were born,” he said.
Among bright spots, he credits President Barack Obama for providing affordable health care, reducing joblessness and stopping the hemorrhaging of 800,000 jobs a month, thus lowering the unemployment rate to historic lows.
The former commander-in-chief also used the occasion to draw distinctions between Hillary Clinton and her rivals, saying that she was the first candidate to speak out about the high lead levels in the water supply in Flint, Mich. “You want a president who asks, ‘What can I do to make things better?’ Hillary has a plan that has a huge infrastructure focus – roads, bridges and airports,” Clinton said.
Of Mississippi’s incarceration rate, he said the correctional system is warehousing many nonviolent offenders, which is costing taxpayers millions. He said Hillary Clinton will provide $5 billion for re-entry programs to help states reduce imprisonment. She also plans to remove the box from employment forms that ex-offenders are required to check.
Furthermore, Bill Clinton, in a nod to the issue over lead in water, said Mississippi would become better by replacing old pipes. He said the state can improve as the country installs “universally affordable, fast broadband” throughout the country.
He also heralded the call for doubling money to small businesses, which he credits for creating two-thirds of all jobs in the U.S. – many of which are owned by African-Americans, Latinos, Asians and women.
He said Hillary Clinton vows to tear down barriers that keep people from climbing the ladder of opportunity and will work to eliminate unsafe living conditions. “There are not enough people with affordable health care, and Mississippi ought to take Medicaid expansion,” he said, generating loud applause from the crowd.
He said another barrier faced by constituents and students nationwide is the high cost of education. “Hillary believes that anyone who graduates from a public university, Historically Black Colleges or Universities or any institution serving traditionally disadvantaged people should graduate from college debt-free.” One of her proposals, he said, would be to allow refinancing so that borrowers can save an average of $2,000 over the life of their college loans.
Then, Clinton weighed in on the controversy of nominating a successor to U.S. Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia, who died last month. “President Obama has a constitutional right to make an appointment,” Clinton said. It’s very likely that the next president will get to nominate one or, perhaps, two new justices, he added.
Before wrapping up his visit to JSU, the former president railed against blatant obstructionism and declared that lawmakers must work for the will of the people and allow those whom they represent to rise as far as they can.
“Right now, we are being killed by paralyzed politics,” he lamented.
