Hillary Clinton has 31 policy groups on her campaign’s “Issues” page, which outline her policy goals as president.
And, guess what, they’re great!
She is better helped, as a candidate, by improving her positives than increasing Trump’s negatives (he does that well enough on his own).
So why not highlight those positives, night after night, and promote a better sense of the progressive and popular choice that she is? It’s easy enough to do, she’s a great candidate with generally great positions on the issues Americans care about.
When you can trust someone on the issues that rarely see the light of day, you can trust them on the “news cycle” issues.
I know a lot of people may have expected that tonight would focus on Hillary Clinton’s policy set re: gun violence, given all that we’ve learned about the massacre against LGBTQ Americans in Orlando. And, no doubt, that is immensely important (and it will be featured soon). But Hillary Clinton and reality itself are doing a good enough job of highlighting those issues for now. Check your local listings.
Hillary Clinton is tackling the major issues, we see that day in and day out...but her strength is that she knows about a VAST number of issues, and can speak and govern on big and “small” issues equally. And if you can trust someone on the “small” issues, they’re good for the big ones.
So, tonight, I want to instead highlight how clued in Hillary Clinton is to the deeply personal reality of so many Americans, in a way that is perhaps more under-the-radar, but as such is all the more evidence of her policy smarts and humane nature as a politician.
Alzheimer’s disease wreaks absolute havoc on families. It takes people we love away from us, away from even themselves, and it makes us doubt our future as the people we’ve worked so hard to live as.
My grandfather suffered and died from this disease, and to say that it was hard to watch is an understatement. It’s hard to look back on, and it’s just as hard to look forward to. To look at my mother and myself and my brother, to see that possible future, the tragedy of the illness becomes compounded on a very personal level.
It’s about the NIH and other governmental research initiatives. It’s about coverage for caregiving services, including family caregiving. It’s about compassion and awareness. It’s about priorities. This is what politics is about.
Hillary Clinton has an immense on-the-ground awareness of policy details. The fight against Alzheimer’s is no exception. Her plan is one that would truly make a difference — toward awareness, toward humane treatment, toward a cure. When we watch her deal with the policy subjects that get media coverage day after day, it’s worth looking into just how focused she is on the relatively media-invisible topics. They get her priority of attention, too.
Alzheimer’s disease, the policy quest to treat and cure it, is an example of her humanity and awareness of topics that fall out of the media’s line of sight.
If we can trust her with that, and we can, we can see her deal with the big issues and have a trust that goes beyond headlines and news cycles.
Credit: hillaryclinton.com
Credit: C-SPAN2
Hillary Clinton is proposing a groundbreaking commitment to preventing, effectively treating, and making a cure possible for Alzheimer’s disease by 2025. Her plan will:
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Invest $2 billion per year in research for Alzheimer’s and related disorders.This past year, the National Institutes of Health (NIH) invested $586 million in Alzheimer’s research, less than 1 percent of the annual cost of this disease. As part of a new investment in NIH, Hillary would rapidly ramp up our investment to $2 billion—the amount leading researchers have determined is necessary to prevent and treat the disease and make a cure possible by 2025.
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Ensure a reliable stream of funding between now and 2025. Just as important as increasing our investment, Hillary will fight to make funding predictable and reliable between now and 2025 so that researchers can work consistently toward effective treatments and pursue long-term research that will pay off down the road.
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Establish a plan of action with leading researchers and health experts. Hillary will appoint a top-flight team to oversee this initiative and will consult regularly with leading researchers to ensure progress toward ending Alzheimer's. At each stage, her plan will embrace a range of approaches to discovering and advancing effective treatments.
Hillary understands the enormous weight that Alzheimer’s disease imposes on a growing number of Americans and their families. To help alleviate the burden, Hillary’s plan will:
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Cover comprehensive Alzheimer’s care-planning services and help coordinate care among physicians. Beyond the difficulty of planning for Alzheimer’s care, the disease complicates the management of other conditions. The simple act of sitting down together—primary physician, patient, and caregiver—to map out a treatment plan can have a positive impact on a patient’s health. Under Hillary’s plan, Medicare will cover comprehensive Alzheimer’s care-planning sessions, as well as the cost of properly documenting every diagnosis and care plan.
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Help protect loved ones who wander. At least six in 10 Alzheimer’s sufferers will wander from home at some point in a state of profound disorientation—leaving them vulnerable and potentially unsafe. Hillary will work with Congress to reauthorize the Missing Alzheimer’s Disease Patient Alert Program, a cost-effective federal program with a reported 98 percent success rate in finding individuals reported missing.
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Ensure our seniors are aware and can take advantage of their Medicare benefits. Although Alzheimer’s cannot yet be cured, proper diagnosis and treatment can make a vital difference in quality of life—and allow patients to play an active role in planning for their future. Hillary will direct the Social Security Administration to raise awareness about the wellness visits, cognitive screenings, and other preventive benefits covered by Medicare.
Hillary’s plan builds on her a long record of working across the aisle on behalf of patients and families dealing with Alzheimer’s disease. In the U.S. Senate, she consistently pushed for greater funding for Alzheimer’s research, including federally funded stem cell research. She also co-chaired the Congressional Task Force on Alzheimer’s Disease and introduced legislation to restore funding for the Alzheimer’s Association 24/7 Contact Center and for Alzheimer’s disease demonstration grants.
Night 1: Paid Family Leave
Night 2: Fixing America’s Infrastructure
Night 3: LGBT Rights and Equality