Clinton in Dover lays out ‘rising income’ plan (videos)

Just as a rising tide raises all boats, Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton wants an economy where rising incomes raise all Americans.

The former secretary of state (and U.S. senator and First Lady) laid out pieces of her economic plan to several hundred people July 15 at Dover City Hall.

It was her first town hall meeting of this presidential campaign in this first-in-the-nation primary state, as she spoke for several minutes but spent most of the 90-minute session answering questions from audience members.

Topics ranged from support for Alzheimer’s research and for caregivers to equal treatment of gays, lesbians, bisexuals and transgenders, from college loan debt to support of space exploration, from a balanced budget to climate change.

The latter issue on climate change provoked a mild protest among some crowd members who had planted themselves in the audience to support a ban on fossil fuel drilling in any public lands. When Clinton’s answers weren’t satisfactory enough they broke into a chant of, “Act on climate! Act on climate! Act on climate!”

In her initial discussion about her economic plan, she gave props to both President Barack Obama and to Market Basket - to Obama for his efforts to get the country out of an economic crisis he inherited in 2009 and to the grocery store chain for the profit-sharing program it makes available to both full- and part-time employees. Here is some of what she had to say on the subject:

In the context of her economic plan, here’s what she had to say about small business (“I want to be the small business president,” she said) and equal pay for women (“This is a family issue, it’s an economic issue,” she said):

For more on the profit-sharing part of her economic plan, go here.

The subject of climate change produced the most heat (pardon the pun) as she was asked whether she would support a ban on fossil fuel extraction from federal lands. Clinton said no. She supports alternatives to fossil fuels and supports efforts to curb the effects of climate change, but she said the nation needed a comprehensive energy policy that, while relying less on fossil fuel, would not pull the plug on it altogether, at least in the short term. That prompted another challenge from another questioner on the use of federal lands and when the answer was basically the same several in the audience broke out in the chant. Here’s what Clinton had to say about an what she called “a well-thought through” energy policy:

There was a question about college debt. Here’s the answer:

(And, yes, for you political watchers that is indeed former congresswoman Carol Shea-Porter in the blue blouse seated in the front row. Shea-Porter is gearing up for another run to reclaim the 1st Congressional District seat currently held by Republican Frank Guinta.)