Posted by student LINDSEY CLARK – As a native Ohioan, I have been paying particularly close to the March 4 primary in the Buckeye State and paying even closer attention to what Senators Clinton and Obama have been saying. And so more than 11 million other Ohioans.
With a combined total of 162 Democratic delegates at stake, candidates Clinton and Obama have been criticizing the details of their opponent’s views on health care and NAFTA, as evident in last night’s debate. This is because the state has been hit particularly hard by job losses while seeing a growing number of its citizens go without health insurance. We want to know specifically what each candidate will do to improve these areas.
Since 2000, Ohio has lost 209,000 jobs, including 23.3 percent of its manufacturing jobs. Employment dropped 3.7 percent, second only to Michigan. Companies are closing their doors, including Hoover, and just announced today, Honda motorcycles. While NAFTA may have created 27 million jobs since January 2004, Ohio has not reaped all the benefits. Ohioans are listening with attentive ears as both campaigners threaten to withdraw from NAFTA.
The debate opened with a 16 minute discussion of health care. Eleven percent of Ohioans are uninsured. Senator Clinton’s health care plan would allow people to keep their insurance coverage if they are happy with it but would mandate that individuals buy insurance. She would help reduce health care costs, provide tax credits to businesses and end discrimination in insurance practices to make insurance affordable. Senator Obama would also work to ensure affordability of health care and would implement a national health plan that would include the self-employed and small businesses. While this plan would help all Americans buy insurance, it does not require a mandate to do so – a difference the two candidates hotly debated.
These issues will continue to greatly affect Ohio, and this is why voters want specifics. This is why the content of campaign ads and mail flyers has been scrutinized by Senator Clinton. It’s the details that will deliver Ohio to one of these candidates on March 4.