>I would say while this might actually be possible, I would suggest being skeptical. Obviously in the long run doing this would turn out to be a worthy investment for us as a country to make. But see that's just thing - you can actually say something like that to the person - then a lot of these HRC supporters will go do some research and have some informed thought about it and find articles like this to read http://money.cnn.com/2016/07/06/pf/college/hillary-clinton-college-plan/ - but all too often this is not the case with a Trump supporter - they read something their drunk uncle billybob (the same one who says he was abducted by aliens) wrote on facebook about how Obama was born in Africa and is a secret agent Muslim sent here to destroy America and they believe it and nothing will ever convince them otherwise because they're convinced they're smart - when it fact they're dumb. I watched a reporter outside a Trump rally yesterday go down the line of people waiting to get inside - almost NONE of them thought Obama was born in the USA. The reporter asked one lady "why do you think he wasn't born in the USA?' - her response was "wellll he never showed his birth certificate' -- the reporter pointed out that he had and said "but he did show it" - dumb ladies response was "noooo he did not". This is not an obscure event here - this is damn right typical. But - to more directly answer your question - if someone thinks HRC can snap her fingers and make college free then they don't know how government works, but I think it would be a false equivalency here to compare the two.

On the CNN link, please note that the article talks about "tuition free". HRC has doubled-down on her promise of "debt free". They are very different things.

HRC never made this kind of promise before we all learned about how the DNC manipulated the process to pave the way for HRC over Sanders. Her original plan during the primaries was comparatively more moderate. I strongly think she made this kind of promise as a political ploy to attract far-left Sanders supporters. I find that just as problematic as the Trump scenarios you described.

Her plan has been blasted in financial circles, and even criticized by the NYT, on two general grounds. First, it is an open invitation for some colleges to raise prices. Second, states currently spend very different amounts per student. Either some states will wind up getting short-changed or HRC is going to have to significantly alter her plan on the distribution of money (and/or revert back to her original plan, which would further raise the question on why she expanded her original plan to begin with).

I'll believe that HRC supporters are willing to dig this deep (and I've still just scratched the surface) when this is framed as a debate question for HRC.

But until then...until we get a debate moderator who isn't actually interested in currying favor with HRC...here is my point, and why I disagree that this is a false equivalency: it's easy to go on diatribes about some of the Trump backers. That's low-hanging fruit. I'm talking about challenging the intellectual honesty of the HRC camp.