Former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton finished her brief two-day swing through Iowa today with a roundtable discussion with small business owners just outside Des Moines. Clinton is the only major Democratic presidential candidate to announce she’s seeking her party’s nomination.
Journalists far outnumbered the handful of small business owners at this roundtable at Capital City Fruit in Norwalk. After a stop at a community college the day before, Clinton turned her attention to the job world.
“I want to build the economy of tomorrow not yesterday and I want to make middle class mean something again and you cannot do that if you don’t have small business building and driving economic growth,” Clinton said.
Clinton also discussed how healthcare continues to be an issue for small business owners like those seated around the table.
“We keep what works and what’s lowering costs," Clinton said. "As hard as it is to believe healthcare costs are actually going down healthcare inflation is lower than it’s been but that doesn’t help you if you’re the person facing the 18 or 13 percent or you’re off your parents policy and have you have another alternative, so we got to figure out how we fill all those gaps."
She told the group she plans to spend a lot of time in Iowa. The state delivered the first blow to her presidential campaign eight years ago.
