The candidates squared off on the issue of entitlements and abortion during a contentious third and final debate at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas on Wednesday night.
This article first appeared October 19, 2016 on MedPage Today.
By Shannon Firth
LAS VEGAS -- Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump squared off on the issue of entitlements and abortion during a contentious third and final debate at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas on Wednesday night.
In the context of a question about the federal debt, Fox News anchor Chris Wallace asked both candidates what they would do about entitlements, which Wallace said were the main drivers of the debt -- he then cited reports that Medicare would run out of funds in the 2020s and Social Security would be broke in the 2030s and asked each of them if they would be willing to raise taxes or cut benefits.
Trump said his plan for curbing the debt is to take back jobs from other countries, cut taxes and "repeal and replace Obamacare."
"You take a look at the kind of numbers that that [the Affordable Care Act] will cost us in the year seventeen [2017], if we don't repeal and replace [Obamacare] -- now it's probably going to die of its own weight... premiums are going up sixty, seventy, eighty percent. Next year, going to go up over one hundred percent," Trump said.
Clinton said she wouldn't cut benefits but would consider raising the cap on Medicare payroll taxes. "And I'll say something about the Affordable Care Act, which he wants to repeal: the Affordable Care Act extended the solvency of the Medicare trust fund. So if he repeals it, our Medicare problem gets worse," Clinton said.
She said she would improve the ACA by focusing on "long-term health care drivers," on lowering healthcare costs and increasing value, and emphasizing wellness.
A second important question Wallace posed was about the direction they see the Supreme Court taking with regard to the constitution.
"I feel that at this point in our country's history, it is important that we not reverse marriage equality, that we not reverse Roe v. Wade, that we stand up against Citizens United," Clinton said.
But Clinton went even further saying that even with Roe v. Wade in place women's reproductive rights have been curtailed.
"So many states are putting very stringent regulations on women that block them from exercising that choice to the extent that they are defunding Planned Parenthood, which of course, provides all kinds of cancer screenings and other benefits for women in our country. Donald has said he is in favor of defunding Planned Parenthood, he even supported shutting the government down to defund Planned Parenthood."
Clinton said she will defend Planned Parenthood and a women's right to choose and castigated Trump for saying "that there should be some form of punishment for women who obtain abortions."
Trump did not address Planned Parenthood funding, but he said he would nominate pro-life justices and those that would defend the second amendment.
Asked whether he would over-turn Roe v. Wade, he hedged, "Well if we put another two or perhaps three justices on that's really what's going to be -- that will happen. It'll happen automatically in my opinion because I am putting pro-life justices on the court. I will say this it will go back to the states and the states will then make a determination."
Asked specifically about her decision to vote against a ban on late-term partial-birth abortion, Clinton doubled down on her pro-choice stance.
Trump said, "I think it's terrible if you go with what Hillary is saying in the ninth month you can take the baby and rip the baby out of the womb of the mother just prior to the birth of the baby." (In a 1999 interview Trump said he opposed the ban partial birth abortion, according to NPR.)
Clinton called his use of "scare rhetoric" unfortunate.
"I've been to countries where governments either forced women to have abortions like they used to do in China or forced women to bear children like they used to do in Romania. And I can tell you the government has no business in the decisions that women make with their families in accordance with their faith and with medical advice, and I will stand up for that right," she said.