Statement by AFL-CIO President John Sweeney On John McCain’s Comments About the Economy and American Workers
September 16, 2008
McCain’s “Rhetoric Is An Insult to Our Country’s Hard Working Families”
John McCain should be ashamed, first for saying yet again yesterday that the fundamentals of our economy are strong, and then for trying to cover up his gaffe by saying what he really meant is American workers are the “fundamental of our economy” and they’re the “most productive and most innovative.”
McCain’s record is one of the most anti-worker in Washington. In his 26 years in Congress, John McCain has earned a voting record on workers’ issues of 16 percent. Trying to cover that up with new rhetoric is an insult to our country’s hard working families who have struggled mightily against the policies he has championed throughout his career.
The record is clear. John McCain has voted repeatedly for the same policies that brought us the financial catastrophe, and he is surrounded by the architects of financial deregulation. Former Sen. Phil Gramm, an early campaign advisor whom McCain has described as more respected on economics than anyone else in America, was the chief sponsor of legislation that deregulated the banking sector, legalizing the risky investment practices that are at the root of the current crisis. This year Gramm has belittled working people who are struggling in the economic crisis.
McCain has done as much as any elected leader in Washington to harm the living standards and futures of working people while building power for corporate interests. He voted against repealing tax breaks that encourage American companies to send jobs overseas and he voted repeatedly for unbalanced trade deals. He voted 19 times against minimum wage increases and he voted against removing hurdles for workers who want to organize unions to win better wages and benefits. Even today he supports making permanent Pres. Bush’s tax cuts that give the lion’s share of relief to the very wealthy, and he supports cutting corporate taxes by an amount that would give immensely profitable oil companies a tax cut of $ 4 billion. McCain’s proposed policies differ from the policies of President Bush only in that they are more extreme and irresponsible.
Peace,
Chad (The Left) Shue
1 comments:
Since the beginning of the Reagan revolution we have been told that the government cannot intervene to improve our lives. A whole generation has been told that government is the problem not the solution. Deregulation has been the answer to all of our problems. Roosevelt era social programs were the underlying cause of the problems business was having posting profits. Now suddenly the Republican, Bush, government has become an activist interventionist government. Tell me it aint so! Now the government can intervene to save the corporations from themselves.
Do you think the rulers are afraid that the question may arise that if the government can intervene to save the corporations...why can’t it intervene to save the homeowners from foreclosure? If $85 billion can be made instantly available to purchase the insurance giant AIG....why can’t $85 billion be made immediately available to fund single payer healthcare? If taxpayers are providing these corporate lifesaving funds why can’t they make demands about caps on executive pay and stop the layoffs? Are we not now the primary financiers of these corporations?
Nationalization is now accepted. Is it time to nationalize the oil and gas companies to pay for the environmental devastation their products have caused? To pay for the seeding of the green industries our very survival depends upon?
It is time for a “New Deal.” We must bring pressure upon the government in this time of exposure, before they slip back behind the curtain and once again pretend they can do nothing to allow the rest of us a bigger piece of the pie.
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