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Clinton:
Michigan
Democrats
should
tout
health
law
DETROIT
-
Michigan
Democrats
should
tout the
federal
health
care law
and
campaign
on it
this
fall,
former
President
Bill
Clinton
told a
fundraising
crowd
Saturday
night.
In a
50-minute
speech,
he also
stressed
the
importance
of
getting
voters
to turn
out at
the
polls
and
applauded
leaders
in
Detroit
for
their
efforts
to
improve
the
city.
Clinton
told the
audience
of about
2,000 at
a
Michigan
Democratic
Party
fundraiser
in
Detroit
that the
Affordable
Care Act
is a
"working
people's
bill"
that is
helping
drive
down the
cost of
health
care.
"One of
the
reasons
no one
in
America
has
gotten a
pay
raise in
a decade
is we're
spending
so much
more on
health
care
than our
competitors,"
he said
at the
annual
Jefferson-Jackson
dinner
at Cobo
Center.
Clinton
also
urged
Democrats
to push
for more
voter
participation
this
fall. He
said
Democrats
will be
successful
at the
polls if
they get
voters
to show
up at
the rate
they did
in the
presidential
elections.
"Shame
on us if
we can't
convince
the
people
who vote
for us
in
presidential
elections
to show
up in
midterm
elections,"
he said.
"If we
don't
show up,
how can
we
expect
to have
anything
but a
profoundly
divided
country?"
The
Michigan
Democratic
Party
raised
more
than
$500,000
to use
in the
November
election.
Its
chairman,
Lon
Johnson,
called
the
dinner a
"rousing
success."
"I'm
looking
forward
to
welcoming
thousands
of
Democratic
activists
back to
Detroit
in six
months
to
celebrate
Democratic
victories
up and
down the
ticket,"
Johnson
said.
Clinton's
Detroit
visit
did not
change
the
"lackluster
candidates"
from the
Democratic
Party
who are
running
in the
state,
said
Michigan
Republican
Party
Chairman
Bobby
Schostak.
"President
Clinton
is
welcome
to come
to
Michigan
and see
leaders
with a
plan -
leaders
who have
moved us
forward
past the
lost
decade
of
failed
Democrat
policies,"
Schostak
said.
Vice
President
Joe
Biden
spoke at
last
year's
dinner.
Earlier
Saturday,
Clinton
met with
workers
while
touring
a
popular
Detroit
watchmaker.
Clinton
said it
was
"exciting"
to see
how the
Shinola
brand
"is
playing
its part
in the
economic
revitalization"
in
Detroit.
Shinola
presented
him with
a new
watch
featuring
the
presidential
seal.
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