Sec. Grimes if you are like me, and you have been watching what is going on in that Republican Party, well, it is wrong for kentucky, and it is wrong for the nation. I daresay who the leader of the Republican Party would be . If he ever thought he would hear the words donald trump do you . It is a campaign on the other side that is fueled by racism, bigotry, and hatred. On our side, though, it is someone who is measured, who has been tested, who i do believe is tough, and certainly, has a plan not only for the commonwealth, but this nation. She has put us where we are here today. And now, it is up to us. It is in our hands, if we would deliver that nomination on tuesday. [applause] sec. Grimes Hillary Clinton is someone who is about fighting for those without a voice. And my question to you is, are you ready to sign up and show up on tuesday, folks . [applause] sec. Grimes Hillary Clinton is someone who has literally dedicated her life to fighting for the underprivileged and empowering youth, minorities, and especially i like to think i am young young women, like me. Will you support her . Hillary clinton is someone who has, importantly, given her lifes work to every breath of service, to make this country and kentucky a better place. They love this state. And when i say they, i mean both her, and bill, and chelsea. I mean, they love kentucky east and west to right here in frankfort, kentucky. You know who they love the most . The people of this state, the most. The question is whether we will show up and be there for them . Will we send the message that we are ready for a champion in the white house, who will fight for the civil rights of all americans . Let me hear you say, yes. Yes sec. Grimes are we ready for someone who will make sure our students can earn degrees, and not debt, especially, our ksu students . Let me hear you say, yes. Yes. Sec. Grimes are we ready for someone who will fight for working women and men across this country and, especially, right here in kentucky . And are we ready for someone who will not only crack, but shatter that Glass Ceiling . And fight for women, all across this nation . Listen, i think it is long past due. We should not be having conversations anymore about equal pay for equal work or paid family leave. If we get Hillary Clinton to the white house, we get it done. [applause] sec. Grimes so, kentucky, are we ready to show this nation that the commonwealth is clinton country . Get on your feet. And help me welcome the 42nd president of the united states, William Jefferson clinton. [applause] mr. Clinton hello. Hello, frankfort. [applause] mr. Clinton first of all, lets give another hand to Alison Lundergan grimes. Alison, i told alison earlier today, if she had become a television minister, she would have the Biggest Church on the planet. [laughter] mr. Clinton im so grateful for her service and her support for hillary. I want to thank many people who are here. But let me just mention a few. Thank you, senator and former governor julian carroll. [applause] mr. Clinton the first time i ever came to kentucky was when i was a firstyear governor, in 1979. Julian carroll hosted the National Governors association. And i came here, my eyes were as big as dollars. I was so excited. [laughter] mr. Clinton thank you, senator graham, for your support. [applause] thank you, former lieutenant governor, for your support. [applause] mr. Clinton representatives, thank you all. The chair of the democratic party, thank you. And the mayor, thank you so much for being here, with your son and daughterinlaw. Thank you to our field organizer, jamie pollard, who spoke earlier. Folks, let me cut to the chase here. We are having an election tuesday, and there are 35,000 potential votes in frankfort. If there is anybody in the entire commonwealth of kentucky who knows about health care, education, and the longterm welfare of this country if you have a republicanonly government, you do. Because if it were not for the democratic house, you would be in a world of hurt today. [applause] mr. Clinton so, at its most basic, you know we cannot afford to have a republican president , a republican senate, and a republican house, and a Republican Supreme Court in washington, d. C. Or you will not recognize this country in four or eight years. Let me tell you the positive. You will admit, it is kind of an unusual election. There is a reason for that. [laughter] mr. Clinton america is a tale of two nations today, because we are outperforming every other big economy in the world. We have almost 15 million new jobs in the last five years. That is the most we have had since that other democrat, whatever his name was, was president. [laughter] mr. Clinton we have more than 90 of our people with Health Insurance, for the first time in history. [applause] mr. Clinton some people in your states are doing what they can to roll it back. But it is working pretty well. And we have got the youngest workforce in the world, the best Technology Base in the world. We have a lot of things going for us. But 80 of the American People have not had a pay raise since the financial crisis. And the median Family Income, the one in the middle, get this, after inflation it is 4000 lower than it was the last day i was in office, 15 years ago. Now, why is this . That is because, for 400 years, we actually have good records, for 400 years, it has taken every single country at least 10 years to get over a financial crisis. In fairness to the president , back seven years ago, but thanks to political gridlock, trouble abroad, most people have not had a raise. So, we have a decision to make. I spent a lifetime, is the governor and president , now working on america and the rest of the world for the last 10 years, try to give people something to look forward to when they get up in the morning. I have always believed that people had a decent job entities and access to education and health care, starting a Small Business, if they can most importantly, believed that they could make every today better than yesterday, and they could look forward to tomorrow, america would be fine. And we have been through many years without that being the case. So, basically, we have two choices now. In addition to all the problems i mentioned, the fundamental message on the other side is vote for me. And i will make it like it was yesterday. [laughter] mr. Clinton isnt that what it means . Make America Great again, the way it was . Now, i have to put up a few walls to do it, and pretend that we dont have an interdependent world. But we can do that. Now, first, i want to say it depends on who you are whether you like this. Remember what the great will rogers said. He said two things relevant to today. He said, first of all, i do not belong to an organized party he was a democrat. But he said, do not tell me about the good old days. They never were. But the truth is, they were good for some, not good for others. But we cannot go back. So, hillary says, what we really need to do is put america back in the future business. We need to take advantage of the benefits and opportunities that are out there, that no other country has. But this time, we have to make sure we raise middleclass incomes, restore upward mobility, and take every person in america along for the ride to the future. We cannot leave anybody behind. [applause] mr. Clinton so, my case for her is pretty straightforward. There are three reasons that kentuckians ought to vote for her in the primary. One is, you have the best ideas to create more jobs, raise more income, reduce inequality, and advanced social mobility by tearing down the barriers that keep certain places, including cold country, behind. And giving people who cannot have a good education behind. She really has some plans to do that. And her numbers add up. And everybody says she is the only person left in the race whose numbers add up. People ask me how we reduced three surpluses and the best in 50 years, and i said we brought a great new idea to washington. Arithmetic. [laughter] mr. Clinton i do not care how liberal or conservative you are [laughter] how far left or right you get, once you think you can repeal those laws, you begin to get in trouble. She has really good ideas. She once a National Infrastructure program, while Interest Rates are low, to rebuild our roads, bridges, airports. And flint, michigan is nowhere near the only place in america where children have elevated levels of lead in their blood. And if we took them all up, if we took them all up and lay down clean ones, we could give every kid in his job a healthy future. That is the kind of thing she wants to do. [applause] mr. Clinton if we gave every town in Rural America access to affordable broadband, we could have the national economy. That is something we ought to do. So, we need an infrastructure program. We have to prove that every place in america can get its fair share of clean energy jobs. You say, well, we are a coal state. And we will continue to run on coal for some years to come. But that should not include other things. The second most important state in america, and solar panels, is new jersey. There are three states in america they get over a third of their electricity from wind. One of them is texas, the oil and natural gas leader of america. Why . Because they can sell the other stuff, and they like having cheap power, and they like having jobs in texas, and getting income to people who own the land were the windmills are. We have to be able to walk and chew gum at the same time if we are going to go from where we are where we need to go. [applause] mr. Clinton and the third thing we need to do is to bring more manufacturing jobs back to america. Every American Manufacturing job we bring, we create two other jobs. We brought back 900,000 of those factory jobs we lost. Thanks, in part, to the fact that the president and the Congress Save the auto industry. And not allow us to fall in the great depression. We had the best ever last year. And we can do better. I think the plant in indiana, listen to this, in indiana, they are making mercedesbenz. Most of which are sold in china. Every year, you can pay a good, solid middleclass income because labor is a small percentage of the cost every year. And materials, transportation, and energy are bigger parts of the cost. So, hillarys position is very simple. We are going to try to take away the transportation costs, because america is the biggest market in the world and put americans back to work. [applause] mr. Clinton and the only reason that she won so big in ohio is that they believe in a 21stcentury manufacturing system. They know she was the cofounder of the Senate Manufacturing caucus, when she was a senator. They know she gets this. And that we can do this, together. And thirdly, we cannot forget that two thirds of our jobs have come from Small Business. Now i think the secondmost important bill that the president signed the last four years was the doddfrank bill. It did stop wall street from making a wreck of main street. Anybody that tells you otherwise has not been paying attention. The problem is it was not supposed to apply to traditional Small Business lending. There is a long line of folks which of not been able to be enforced during the downtown. If you put a machine in neighborhood, you have to consider is that people in that neighborhood for affordable Small Business loans, without so much bureaucracy, without so much hesitation. You cannot charge so much on 80,000 loan as 80 million loan. She wants to get back so we can get the Small Business going. [applause] mr. Clinton so, you cannot reduce inequality and increase opportunity, unless we have more jobs that pay greater. The second thing you have to do is actually take affirmative steps to reduce inequality. What do i mean by that . We all know most of the gains have gone to people all of the wage gains have gone to the top 20 . The big income gains have gone to the top fraction of 1 . Why is that . A big reason is that more and more and more companies are being run for the benefit of their shareholders and top management, at the expense of the employees, communities, and even the customers. [applause] mr. Clinton i would just give you an example. With the exception of a couple of years when i was president , when the stock market raced ahead of the labor market, but then we all caught up, about . 65 on the dollar of corporate revenues went to pay and benefits for employees. It is now been hovering around . 62 on the dollar. If you just raised it three cents on the dollar, throughout the company, you would see wages rise dramatically. You would see middleclass Living Standards rise. And we would be living in a different world. People would actually believe a middle class life as possible again. Hillary said we need sticks to get that done. First, what is the carrot . Give companies that share profits with employees a 15 tax credit for doing it. [applause] mr. Clinton there are a lot of companies in this country that do that. But not most. I have a friend who is been a partner of mine, who came here many years ago as an immigrant from turkey, and started a greek yogurt company. It is called chobani. Some of you have eaten it. [laughter] mr. Clinton this guy has about 20,000 employees. He is about to take it public. They say it is worth about 67 billion. You know what he did . Before he took it public, he gave an ownership in the company to all 2100 people and let me finish he gave them ownership, not based on how high they were in the company, but how long they have been with the company. The ones that have been there the longest got the biggest ownership, even if they had relatively low level jobs. He is going to make them all rich because they made him rich. That is the way america ought to work. [applause] mr. Clinton and then, there is the stick you see where carrier airconditioning is going to throw 2100 people out of work in indiana . If they were losing money, we would feel bad. But they are not. Carrier made 2. 9 billion last year. Moreover, the Profit Margins were increasing, not decreasing. And finally, the units offered to save much money, they were done by reorganizing. But they were pressured by activists investors, a fancy name for billionaires who want to make all of the money in a year and a day so they can immediately set the stocks on again and pay only 20 income tax. I could fill this room with Academic Studies from economists showing that people who tend to their workers make more money over any 510 year period than any other company to please these activist shareholders. If the finance tail wags the economic dog, you cannot be in business to do what you want to do. Hillary said we need to stop that. Let us stop making them make a 20 Capital Gains on a year and a day. Let us encourage people to hold the stock longer, so the company can be run for the benefit of the enterprise, the community, the workers, and the shareholders. Pay it down at 20 over five years. Do not give them all of the benefits, but give them an immediate benefit if they share the problem. If you do that, we will move back to . 65 so our stock will rise. [applause] mr. Clinton but that will not help the people who cannot access the economy. You still have to access it. You have to tear down the barriers to access. And there are many, but i will just mention three or four real quick that are relevant to kentucky. One is we have to improve education from prek, and the best way the federal government can do this, all of you in State Government know that the lions share of prek12 education, the federal government only has about 8 of the total budget. She things we have spent too much of that on acquiring too many tests, and too little investment, and too little teachers. The evidence is all of the Research Shows that the most important thing you can do with limited investment dollars is help teachers get better, help principals get better, help teachers build with each other to identify a culture of learning and potential and possibility. There is more evidence on that. That is why finland does so well. And a very diverse student body. That is why shanghai, china, the big city school system, works. The principal sounds like he came from kentucky. I read an interview with this guy. I wanted to taken up to lunch. He said i did not do very much. I looked around, we have some of the best schools in the world, really good schools, we had ordinary schools, and a few that were not very good. I just wanted to try to make all of the teachers at least good. We did that for a few years. After we got done doing that, i took the very best teachers and sent them to the best schools, and sent the best principles to the best goals. After we did that for a few years, all of our classes were good, all of our students were good, all of our kids were doing great. I so did not do very much. I just did not get in the way of common sense. [laughter] mr. Clinton why have we abandoned that . Hillary thinks you ought to get a good education no matter what your zip code is, no matter what your Family Income is. [applause] mr. Clinton you have to make college more affordable and the debt more manageable. And here is one place where there is a difference, and that is the primary election. These two candidates that you can choose from voted with me when they were both in the senate, they agreed with each other about 90 of the time. They did not agree over the final auto bailout legislation, which required money, that you get paid back with interest on. She was for it. He was not. They disagreed over the last reform bill, that we had a chance to get a republican president , the second president bush, to sign. He was for it. She was not. But they disagree over this. He favored free public tuition free tuition for all institutions of higher education. She favors debtfree education from all Public Institutions and all private schools that educate a lot of young people, from disadvantage or workingclass background. Whether they are black colleges and universities, or catering to first or Second Generation immigrants. A lot of schools in kentucky, you do not want to subsidize Public Schools in a way to hurt them. And so, what her position is, people need free tuition. And why dont we just give it to them . And have a big increase in the pell grants so you can do living expenses, too. But if their parents can pay something, they ought to do that. And if they are welltodo, they ought to do the whole thing. And give students 10 hours a week of workstudy income. That will hold down the cost of college, help them get through, and not kill anybody. [applause] mr. Clinton you have a great model of that right here in kentucky at berea college, where every student works. You have a model here. [applause] so, you get student aid, you do a little work, you are holding down the cost, you get a good education. That will work. But look at the ones already in debt. Hillary offers two options. One is the average college debt is approximately 24,000 nationwide for undergraduates. So, she believes that anybody that is working in americorps affiliate programs for two years and do any kind of Public Service work, teacher or nurse or work in a drug Treatment Facility or a firefighter, anything related, those three years, in addition to your pay, you get another 23,000 totally taxfree to throw against your debt and get rid of it forever. [applause] mr. Clinton a lot of people will not be able to do that. So she favors i met an art teacher today at our first stop in owensboro, with her students. All three students had debt, but the art teacher had the most. Because she had gone to school more. So, she favors hillary does however much your debt is, let people turn it into a home mortgage. Like this. Think about it. You get a 30 year mortgage because it is an asset for life, right . Every young student in their 20s today has an reasonable chance of living until they are hundred. And in all probability, it will be a future without debilitating diseases. So therefore, a College Education is more than a lifetime asset than a house is. So, she believes you ought to be up to pay it out over 20 years. First, let students refinance their debt and market Interest Rates. It is the only loan in america you cannot refinance. [applause] mr. Clinton if we did that, the average student debt, just refinancing on 24,000 would save 2 . They would pay 10,000. Then, allow them to pay it out over 1020 years, at no more than 10 of their aftertax income. If they went to medical school and they over 200,000, no matter what, you cannot make them pay over 10 . Think about it, all of people move out of their parents home. [laughter] mr. Clinton all the people who took their jobs than they dont like, they dont have to take those jobs. Because the debt payment will go down with the salary. Anybody wants to go borrow 60,000 to start a new business can go to the bank and get a money now. Because you do not make any money in your first year, it will not matter. You dont owe anything on the loan. This will unleash the energy of millions of young americans. And we can start again. And we could all rise together. This is very, very good. [applause] mr. Clinton i do want to mention one last thing. I think it is really important. And you can just use coal country as an example. If you look at this epidemic of heroin and drug abuse that is sweeping across america, it is an equal opportunity killer. It kills people without regard to race, income, or political party. Just since christmas, ive had the sad duty on behalf of hillary and me to call three good friends of ours, whose children died. They are the first three. There are other people here, folks. And there are people who live the life made for them, want to have their children, just like people in the church, right . But the rates are highest in the most distressed areas. So, hillary was the first person to say, we need a 10 Million Program to treat this like public health. We need treatment, mental health, we need things to go into one of these drug courts in West Virginia. I saw this great judge. Probably a High School Kid would let her into sports and was an honor student, and then got addicted, and he couldve gone to prison, and he was back in school, in sports, making good grades again. Because they have a court and system determined to save that kids life. We need more of that. [applause] mr. Clinton but what does that tell you . It tells you that a lot of these kids, older people are dying of a broken heart. The most deadening thing that can happen in life is that the thinking of all of your tomorrows people can do anything if they feel they have the power to change the future. So, hillary believes that we should have a major investment, not just in coal country, but in indian reservations that do not have casinos, for america. And every place else, that has been left out and left behind. She favors the law proposed by congress in south carolina, 10 of all federal investments, including Economic Development and Science Technology investments to go to areas that have a poverty rate of 20 for 30 years or more. That is a lot of places in kentucky, West Virginia, and other places that they ought to get. [applause] mr. Clinton and she favors a huge increase in the new market tax credit, and the simple application of it. I admit, it is the last thing i did for you, before i left office. Totally bipartisan support, and the congress has kept it for 15 years. A gives a tax credit of up to 39 for investing in poor areas. Private sector investment, 20032013, three quarters of a million jobs. And 88 of the investors said they would not have invested in the area had there not been a credit. Hillary was to make it broader, simplier, easier for america. [applause] look at all these think of all of these coal communities, where they have had to repurpose the land. They could all reindustrialize themselves. We could grow manufacturing jobs. We can do all kind of things. But we have to do this. So, she is the best ideas for this. The second thing i want to say is, none of it is going to matter unless we can get something done. I was just in a owensboro, the home of your former senator. A lot of you know that he and i were insanely close. He was in charge of one of my inaugurations. [applause] mr. Clinton gave me some instructions and his gravelly voice. We just had five people like him, the congress would be good. Not because he had great conviction, but because he treated his adversaries as adversaries, not enemies. He treated people with respect. [applause] mr. Clinton and he knew that, at the end of the day, we have to do something. I feel actually bad for a lot of these republicans that they think their greatest achievement is that they kept anything from happening. [laughter] mr. Clinton think about it. Tomorrow morning when you get up, look in the mirror, smile and say this oh, goodness. I can go out today and spend one more day keeping any good thing at all from happening. [applause] [laughter] mr. Clinton really, i feel bad for them. He had the forethought to spend every day to make something good. He was willing to work with people to do it. So is she. He is the only person in the party now was a long, long record of doing that. When we got beat on health care, she kept working to get Health Insurance for kids. And we passed the childrens Health Insurance program, which now serves 8. 4 million kids. [applause] mr. Clinton and the late senator edward kennedy, he had so much republican support that 76 of the congress voted for it. Then, she passed a bill working with a republican leader of the house, that did not agree with us on anything. That dramatically changed the adoption laws for kids in foster care. There was an 80 increase in the adoption of kids out of foster care. [applause] mr. Clinton then, when she was a senator, she became the first new york senator on the Armed Services committee. And she worked with john mccain, lindsey graham, all the republicans to make sure they had the gear they needed. From iraq to afghanistan, making sure guns were in service. Making sure that military personnel, when they came home, to make sure he took care of people with traumatic brain injuries and disorders. And building the military for the 21st century, she served on the pentagon to mention with newt gingrich, no less, on recommending the strategy we are dealing now with isis. No more of the middle east, send in the special groups and let them learn how to fight for themselves. [applause] mr. Clinton she became the de facto Economic Development officer for upstate and western new york and long island. She worked with republican manufacturers. Some of you do not know this, but new york is a huge agricultural economy. A big percentage of our income. So when she ran for reelection, she was endorsed by republicans, head of the farm bureau on long island. They interview the guy, he was a longtime, active republican. I will never forget the interview with him. They said, i thought you were republican . He said, i thought i was, too . How can you be for hillary . Because all politicians, at election time, she actually went to washington and did something to help our farmers. [applause] mr. Clinton now, since they and their family media outlet, they are depending on your shortterm memory loss. Which, since i am nearing 70, i get. But do not forget, on the day she walked out of the secretary of states office, she was the most inspired politician with a low as negative rating and the highest rating. All that is happened in the last four years is politics. These people are not dumb. They dont get power. And they know that if you have a good record, the only thing they can do is to delegitimize you. And they are really good. And they work hard at it. But in the end, it will not work. You make sure she wins here in kentucky. Make sure she wins the nomination. The American People will have a general election president. [applause] mr. Clinton now, the only thing i want to say, the last thing i want to say, sit down. I can say this in a sentence. We are living in a world that, in america, is not much different when you left me. We had declining middle class income, lack of mobility, and we got back in the future business. And we work together. What we have to do, the difference is, there is a lot more trouble in the world today. On every continent in the world. She is the only person who is qualified to go in there and both keep us safe, and give us the space we need to grow in a troubled world. You cannot afford to ignore that. You have to have safety and space. Next to political gridlock in washington, this is the biggest threat for our building an economy where we all rise together. She is the best change maker i have ever known. She is the best i have ever known. There are 35,000 potential votes in this primary, in this area. So, i want you to vote for her. And i want you to drag some of your friends to vote for her. I do not want you to believe, all of these surveys, that this nomination is over. She hasnt wrapped it up. Arithmetically, it looks good. That is not the point. If you want to win in november, we have got to show up. We have to keep the momentum going. She loves kentucky. You have been good to her. God bless you. Thank you. [applause] cspans washington journal, live every day with news and policy issues that impact you. Coming up this morning, Iowa Republican congressman steve king talks with us about his experience for senator ted cruz s campaign. Then tim ryan will talk about the start of work on the 575 billion dollars defense spending bill, his recent trip to the middle east, and his desire to see more special Operation Forces sent to iraq to train iraqis. Cspans washington journal, coming up at 7 00 a. M. This morning. Join the discussion. Announcer House Speaker paul ryan said his meeting with republican president ial candidate donald trump was productive, but would not say if he is endorsing mr. Trump. Speaker ryan spoke to reporters at his weekly meeting at the capital. Speaker ryan good afternoon excuse me, good morning. Right now, more americans die every year from drug overdoses than they do in car accidents. Let me say that again. We have got more of our fellow citizens dying every year from drug overdoses than they do of car accidents. Today, the house continues to work on legislation to address the heroin and Opioid Epidemic across this country. For those of you who were at our press conference yesterday, you heard from susan brooks and bob dold, authors of two of these initiatives. All told, by the end of this week, we are acting on 18 bills to deal with this. Ill actually be signing one of them today, s. 32, transnational Drug Trafficking act. This allows prosecutors to go after drug traffickers in foreign countries, if we believe their drugs will make it to our shores. So, that is going to the president s desk today. But one reason we call this a epidemic is because it cuts across all demographics. It affects families everywhere in america. Take youth athletes. These athletes get injured, and then they are prescribed medication. Before they know it, they are on the path to dependency and addiction. Yesterday, we passed a bill that introduced by pat meehan of pennsylvania to help families and students deal with these dangers. You can also be born with a dependency. This is the saddest of them all. That actually happens every 25 minutes in this country. These babies struggle to eat or even breathe. Yesterday, we passed a bill introduced by representative jenkins of West Virginia to help protect infants. The next step here is that well take all of these bills we are passing out of the house and go to a Conference Committee with the senate. Then, we intend to send the bill to the president s desk. And i hope each and every one of you will be back here, when we sign this bill. This Opioid Epidemic is something we have to get on top of. Im very proud of the republicans and democrats that have come together to address this situation, because it is really about peoples lives. It is about whole communities that are being torn apart. And i believe we can win this fight, and we must. Questions . Chad. Reporter i have been reading the joint statement you and mr. Trump put out a couple minutes ago. I know it is the first meeting. But there is a lot out of this statement, that you just want to beat Hillary Clinton. Speaker ryan that is true. Reporter that cant be the only point of unity. You are having trouble passing the budget he