Hilary Clinton’s vision for Americans of Caribbean Descent

Aug 02, 2016 Letters

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Dear Editor;
.Editor’s note: this is the conclusion of Mr. Kirton’s letter carried in last Sunday’s edition.
.Get Incomes Rising and Create Good-Paying Jobs: Hillary has said getting incomes rising again is the defining economic challenge of our time, and she will fight to raise incomes so that all American families can get ahead and stay ahead. Her plan includes raising the minimum wage, ensuring equal pay for women, providing incentives for companies to share profits with their employees, guaranteeing paid family and medical leave, and boosting apprenticeships to help more people get into the workforce. While the unemployment rate of white Americans is 3.8%, it’s nearly 6% for Caribbean immigrants, and Caribbean Americans have higher rates of poverty than the overall population. Hillary has a plan to invest $125 billion to create good-paying jobs, rebuild crumbling infrastructure, and connect housing to opportunity in communities that are being left out and left behind. Her plan includes investing $20 billion to create youth jobs, and another $25 billion to support entrepreneurship and small business growth in underserved communities. She will pay for the new investments in this initiative through a tax on Wall Street—ensuring that the major financial institutions that contributed to the Great Recession are doing their part in bringing back the communities they hurt the most.
• Ensure Every family can build and maintain a strong economic foundation: Too many Caribbean American and Caribbean immigrant families have to worry about how one financial setback can erase all of the progress they’ve made. Hillary will fight for economic security for every family, because economic security is a foundation for economic opportunity. Hillary recently announced her plan to invest $25 billion to lift more families into sustainable homeownership and connect housing to opportunity. The ACA has helped to address disparities in health care and Medicaid accessibility; the uninsured rate among those from the Caribbean has fallen by 7.2% since 2011, with well over 222,000 individuals gaining insurance coverage as a result of the ACA. Moreover, with nearly 20% of the Caribbean-immigrant families at or below the poverty line, the ACA has expanded access to Medicaid and other services for those who need it most. Hillary will stand up to Republican attempts to roll back the ACA and will protect the progress we have made. She will work to lower out-of-pocket health care costs, reduce the cost of prescription drugs and transform our health care system to reward value and quality. She believes we should let families—regardless of immigration status—buy into the Affordable Care Act exchanges. Finally, Caribbean Americans would be especially harmed by Social Security cuts or Medicare privatization, given the higher share of seniors in the community. As president, Hillary will fight to defend Medicare and Social Security as well as expand benefits for widows and women who have taken time out of the workforce—so that all American families can retire with dignity.
Hillary has a record of standing with the Caribbean American and Immigrant communities:
• As Senator from New York, Hillary championed initiatives to improve the lives of Caribbean immigrants, their families and communities. She introduced the Count Every Vote Act to ensure that all citizens, including foreign language speakers, had equal access to voting, and sponsored the Legal Immigration Children’s Health Improvement Act to restore access to Medicaid and SCHIP benefits for immigrant pregnant women and children. Hillary not only voted consistently in support of comprehensive immigration reform, but also authored legislation to address the backlog of family visas and expedite the reunification of immigrant families.
• As Secretary of State, Hillary was committed to bolstering economic development, public health, and human rights in the Caribbean and Latin America. She launched several initiatives aimed at expanding the U.S.-Caribbean relationship, such as the Energy and Climate Partnership of the Americas and the Caribbean Idea Marketplace. She increased the U.S. financial commitment to the Caribbean Basin Security Initiative, which helped local communities cut down on illegal trafficking. She also announced a Caribbean Climate Change Adaptation Initiative, which awarded six Caribbean countries grants for alternative energy, and spearheaded the International Diaspora Engagement Alliance, which aimed to bridge the gap between diaspora communities and businesses in their countries of origin.
Wesley Kirton

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