Subject: Hillary Clinton's Remarks at Conversation on Working Families in New Haven
From: Hillary for America Press <[email-masked]>
To: Hillary for America Press <[email-masked]>
Date: Sat, 23 Apr 2016 22:01:54 -0400
List-Id: <nationalpress2016.hillaryclinton.com>

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*Hillary Clinton's Remarks at Conversation on Working Families in New Haven*

Today, Hillary Clinton joined Congresswoman Rosa DeLauro and members of the
community in New Haven for a conversation on working families. Clinton
discussed her commitment to raising incomes as president and her plans to
raise the minimum wage, fight for equal pay, and provide paid leave for
working families.

*The transcript of Clinton’s remarks, as delivered, is below:*

Well thank you so much Rosa and really, everything that you were kindly
saying about me I would just return multiple times over to you. You have
been such a strong, tenacious fighter for the people you represent and for
the values that we both share about the kind of country we want for
everyone, to fulfill his or her own potential, to have a chance to get
ahead and stay ahead. That's what it's all about.

And like you, I fear that we are losing that dream and there are many
reasons for that. There's a lot of crosscurrents at work. But we have to
figure out what to do about it. We can't just watch it and complain about
it and pray about and worry about it, we've got to figure out what to do
about it and we need more good jobs with rising incomes.

And we need to make sure that our education system works for every child,
no matter what zip code that child lives in. We've got to make college
affordable, we've got to make everything possible we can to help people who
have student debt pay it down, like you can refinance a mortgage or a car
payment. We have to continue the work on the Affordable Care Act to make
sure that it is really providing high-quality care at an affordable price.
We have to pay attention to caregiving, because a lot of the families that
I know, that I meet with, I hear from are juggling all those family
responsibilities.

So I think it is way past time that we have a raise in the nationwide
minimum wage. And where it can be raised higher, like we've just seen in
New York and California and what the Fight for Fifteen stands for. We must
do that and support communities that are willing to really try to put a
better, higher floor under low wage workers.

We need paid family leave because it's the most important part of anyone's
life. Caring for yourself if you're ill - your parents, your spouse, your
parents, your grandparents, whatever those responsibilities might be. I
remember very well Rosa's indomitable mothers campaigning with me in 1992.
My mother lived with us for the last ten years of her life. Creating more
support for people, predominantly, but not exclusively women, who do
care-giving, is high on my list.

Equal pay, we shouldn't be talking about it in 2016, it's almost
embarrassing. I was in Philadelphia, outside of Philadelphia yesterday with
Lily Ledbetter - who Rosa knows well, as do I - who worked in a job for
years not knowing, although she was doing exactly the same as her male
counterparts, she was begin paid 40 percent less.

And she made a point yesterday that isn't made often enough, Rosa, in this
discussion. Because she was paid 40 percent less, her 401k is less, her
social security is less, her family was really short-changed.

The equal pay issue is not a women's issue, it's a family issue, it's a
fairness issue, it's, frankly, an economic issue. We have to get incomes
raised and we need to give more people a chance to get out into the economy
and make the choices they think are best for them and their families.

We also have work to do to create more good jobs. I think our real emphasis
has to be on infrastructure jobs - our roads, our bridges, our tunnels, our
ports, our airports, our water systems; what we can't see as well as what
we do see. We have great work to be done - these are jobs that cannot be
exported. And these are good, union jobs in most instances. And they are
good middle class jobs.

We also need to do more to bring back advance manufacturing, and there are
lots of ways of doing that. Because right now we have 1.2 million jobs that
are waiting to be filled by people with advance skills in the trades -
welders, machinists, tool and dye makers, and the like. We've got to get a
better fit between people's interests, their job prospects, and the jobs
that we need done in our society.

And we should be doing more to combat climate change by emphasizing clean,
renewable energy jobs. And some nation is going to be the 21st century
clean energy super power. It's either going to be China, Germany, or us -
it should be us. And that will bring just a flood of new jobs and
everything from energy efficiency, to wind and social power, to so much
else.

We also need to do more to support small businesses, like the one we're in
right now. We were for the longest time the leader for small business
creation in our county, and now we aren't anymore. We've got too much
red-tape and too much problems with getting access to credit and being able
to start and continue and grow jobs. Particularly true for minority- and
women-owned small businesses. And since most new jobs will come from small
businesses, we have a big stake in helping to generate a revival in small
businesses.

These are some of the things that I am very focused on, and I want to hear
from all of you. Because I want your ideas. Both from your own lives, from
your own work, your own perspective. I do have a great affection for New
Haven, having spent four years here. Three years at the Law School, one at
the Yale Child Studies Center, and working at the Yale-New Haven Hospital.
Really being one of the first, and I wasn't even a lawyer yet, I was a law
student, making rounds with doctors to deal with something we had just
really come to grips with - child abuse.

And it's hard to imagine, but this was a revelation to people, that
children coming in injured, burned, otherwise damaged, had gotten that way
because of deliberate, physical punishment as opposed to an accident or
some other way that wouldn't cause the concerns, even though the child
would have to be cared for. So I loved living here, and I'm also very
impressed with all the changes I've seen over the years as I've come back
for events.

Mayor, I want to be a good partner to you and the people of this city and
the surrounding areas to keep doing what we have to do to create more
opportunity and to life up folks. Affordable housing - huge problem.
Transportation to jobs if we get jobs another big problem. So we need to
really put our heads together on how we're going to be able to deliver on a
lot of what we know would create greater opportunity for working people in
our country and right here in New Haven.

So, Rosa, with that I know we've got some people here. And do you want to
start, Mr. Williams?

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For Immediate Release, April 23, 2016

Contact: [email-masked]

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