Mahoning County Democratic chairman: America needs Hillary Clinton

By David Betras

Special to The Vindicator

Over the past few weeks, Ohio has hosted both the Democratic and Republican presidential nominees, and their visits provided a window of what their presidencies would look like. Hillary Clinton laid out her detailed vision for an economy that works for everyone by creating more good-paying jobs and raising wages.

This contrast is just one of the many reasons why Ohio needs Hillary.

Hillary Clinton has spent her life fighting for children and families. She began her career at the Children’s Defense Fund and helped to get health care for 8 million kids--hundreds of thousands right here in Ohio-- as First Lady. As President, she’ll work to break down barriers that are holding Americans back and work to build ladders of opportunity for everyone.

Throughout this campaign, Hillary Clinton has been here in Ohio listening to workers and laying out actionable plans. She is sweating the details of her economic vision like her “Make it in America” plan, because she knows working families in Ohio and in the rest of the country are ready to rebuild together. Hillary Clinton is the only candidate running who has a step by step plan to help working families across the country, and restore confidence in American manufacturing.

She has five specific goals to build an economy with good jobs and a good education available in every zip code. When she becomes President, she will: pass the biggest investment in tangible good-paying jobs since World War II in her first 100 days, make debt-free college education available to all Americans, let workers share in the profits they help create, ensure Wall Street and the wealthiest Americans pay their fare share, and put families first and match our policies to how they actually live and work in the 21st century.

Hillary Clinton has a long record standing up to the countries that break rules. She has put forth a comprehensive agenda to address unfair and illegal trade practices as President. And this is not just talk. When she was Senator, she voted against CAFTA because she stood up for working families here at home. So, it is no surprise that she will strengthen trade enforcement, hire a special trade prosecutor, and crack down on currency manipulation to ensure other countries don’t solve their problems on the backs of American workers.

She has a simple approach to trade deals - she only supports the trade deals when they create jobs, raise wages, and advance national security. And as soon as the final TPP deal was public - including what it contains on currency manipulation and its weak “rules of origin” standard automobile that give a backdoor into our markets to countries like China- she completely rebuked it. It didn’t meet her standard of protecting America families.

The choice is clear: we must come together to tackle the big challenges facing the country. The Mahoning Valley needs someone who is not all talk and hot air. We want someone with a real detailed plan and that is why Ohioans are with her.

Betras is chairman of the Mahoning County Democratic Party.