John McCain: No Friend of the American Worker
John McCain told a real howler on Tuesday when he said American workers are the 'fundamental strength of the U.S. economy."
This is the same John McCain who's been kicking the crap out of American workers for the last 26 years. He voted to cut overtime. He voted against extending unemployment benefits. He voted to kill the minimum wage -- 19 times.
He called Social Security a "disgrace."
He supports sending American jobs overseas. "Lowering barriers to trade creates more and better jobs," he said. Yeah, that's what's been happening in my home state of Michigan.
He even crossed a strike line in January to appear with Jay Leno on "The Tonight Show."
So it was amazing to hear John McCain say that workers are the strength of the economy.
The 1.4 million members of the Teamsters Union are the heart and soul of the middle-class of our nation. I understand what workers are going through during this Bush-McCain recession. John McCain has worked during his entire legislative career to undermine American workers.
His newly-found respect for the American worker is nothing more than election year pandering.
It was even more unbelievable to hear him say he's going to "put an end to the reckless conduct, corruption and unbridled greed that has caused a crisis on Wall Street."
Did I hear that right? McCain and his pals were the ones responsible for the reckless conduct on Wall Street.
In 1999, John McCain voted for a bill to get rid of safeguards against reckless speculation by banks. That bill became law. It was sponsored by his good friend and top economic adviser, Phil Gramm.
You remember him, Gramm is the guy who said America is a "nation of whiners" facing a "mental recession."
Here's something else you should know about McCain's top economic advisor. In December 2000, Gramm further loosened regulations on risky financial deals by amending a spending bill.
There probably isn't a single person on the planet more responsible than Phil Gramm for the turmoil on Wall Street and the drop in housing values. And if McCain wins, there is no doubt that Phil Gramm would be his first pick as our next Treasury secretary.
McCain is right when he says we're the victims of greedy Wall Street speculators. Trouble is McCain's been fighting on their side ever since he got to Washington.
Do you remember the Keating Five? McCain was one of them. He intervened on behalf of his wealthy friend, Charles Keating, who went to prison for making bad loans, looting his own bank and leaving taxpayers holding the billion-dollar bag. McCain was lucky to get off with an admonishment by the Senate Ethics Committee.
So it isn't so easy to believe John McCain when he tells us he's going to clean up Wall Street for the American worker. His record says otherwise.
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Thank you, President Hoffa ... You always tell it how it is and how it needs to be heard.
Not very patriotic either.
Mr Hoffa, When you have the time, read this Teddy Roosevelt speech.
" The New Nationalism "
by Theodore Roosevelt delivered in Osawatomie, Kansas on August 31, 1910.
Link to text:
http://en.wikisource.org/wiki/The_New_Nationalism
John Mc Cain is no Teddy Roosevelt either.
Thanks for all your doing for unions, the country, and electing Barack Obama as our next President.
And now McCain wants to tax any employer-based health care benefit. I have seen nothing about this on any news show or cable news channel. It will destroy the basis for employer-supported health care. No one seems to care or considers this important. It is a new tax and one that hits a lot of people.
Mr. Hoffa says it so clearly! I agree this should be an Obama ad. Perfect!!
My memory may not be what it used to be but didn't the Teamsters support the GOP?
Regardless, the white rank and file in Michigan will not vote for Obama. Prejudice and racism is strong enough in Michigan to the point white Michiganders would rather live in eternal poverty then have a black man as president.
The number one reason the auto industry in America is failing is because it is head quartered in a state with people who are incapable of evolving.
Which auto plant was M at yesterday when the crowd started yelling in unison "Obama 08"? Maybe I'm wrong, but I thought it was Michigan. M just meandered out the door, with his lovely wife in tow.
GM in Grand Rapids
What he meant was that the backs of the American workers are strong enough to carry the train wreck of the American economic mismanagement by Bush and McCain. And so much so, that it will be there to carry the can for McCain. I hope the blue collar workers are listening and thinking and voting with their mind not their gut. Or at least with their pocket book.
Thank you for spelling it out! God knows someone needed to do it and they need to do it some more, every day, all the way to November 4th.
Very old wise crack: If you have John McCain for a friend, you have no need for enemies. Members of the Teamsters know this. They & Mr Hoffa will tell other workers. Between that & Wall St's melt down-that will kill McCain.
SO HOW IS THE SERVICE ECONOMY, THE REPUBLICAN ECONOMICIST SOLD YOU, SERVING AMERICA ?
Please, Cook it down into a 30 second TV add, then play it over and over and over again.
Yes!'
Yes!
Yes!
This is an excellent suggestion.
Somebody in the Obama campaign, PLEASE do it.
Take Heart!
Do you see all of the anger in here? The hate? The lies? The doublethink? They claim that we are desperate. And they are right. Desperate for CHANGE!
The opposition has been fed a steady diet of fear for 8 long years...they will fight back the only way they know how. They will call you a liar. They will say that you are desperate. DO NOT LISTEN!
They will use the Rovian tactics of distortion and manipulation and attacking strength from weakness. DO NOT LISTEN!
Remember that they are doublethinkers (I implore you to re-read 1984, at least Chapter IX, so that you can truly understand what they are doing). DO NOT LISTEN!
When they say you are a liar it is because they are lying. When they claim that you are desperate it is because they are desperate. When they assert that Obama CAN'T win it is because they know that he WILL.
The increase in their numbers and volume is a GOOD thing. Their anger is illustrative of their fear. They have no issues to discuss. So, instead, they rant and rave in a constant diatribe of fear and hate.
NOW is the time to display the true courage of our convictions. NOW is the time to show those who mindlessly chant of honor and freedom and patriotism what these words really mean. NOW is the time to stand strong...to be the better man. NOW is the time to take our country back!
How any worker would go to see McCain is beyond me. He has always voted against.bills that would benefit the US worker. Mr. Hoffa, McCain is not a friend of the workers of the US and he is not a friend of any intelligent citizen of this country.
Thank you for all of the excellent points. Now ladies and gentlemen, vote for Obama/Biden and let's get back to work to rebuild our country. Time to take the place back.
When you look at the damage done to the American workers and their families, starting with Reagan and on through Bush, a fundamental question needs to be addressed. Why has the middle and working classes voted for these people and against their best interests? Even in 92, if Perot had not drawn votes from Bush, Clinton might not have won. Today we are faced with the same conundrum, how can the middle and working classes and women vote for a team that will do them more harm? In particular, why would women favor a party that advocates for the continued erosion of their rights? The only answer that I have, ignorance.
President Carter was much more an advocate for free-trade than Reagan ever was. In many ways, Reagan was even considered to be a protectionist. Anyway, the increase in trade since the early 80s has brought down inflation and allowed the economy to grow. In more protectionist countries like Japan and Western Europe, growth has been much slower to even non-existent over the last 15 years and unemployment is high. Protectionism may have allowed more factory workers to keep their jobs, but inflation would remain high, the services industry (retail, tourism, hotels, restaurants) would be much smaller, consumer goods would be expensive and more scarce, and many more people would be unemployed.
yada yada yada!!! Oh dear Jeeebus thank you for all of our wunnerful wunnerful repugnant presidents and their amazing abilities to destroy things over and over and over again.
Yes, Dugan, all to the benefit of China, India, mexico and the top 1% of Americans. Meanwhile, the average American is, nett, poorer than the average Chinese, Indian etc.
Way to go Dugan!!
Talk about someone with a 1984 complex. Up is not down Dugan... nor is an inflated sense of growth followed by the inevitable bursting of the bubble, preferable to real, though slow, growth with slight inflation.
Once this new millenium's Republic/NeoCon sponsored Great Depression settles in, you'll be begging for for the type of economic reality that Japan and Western Europe have lived within for the later part of the twentieth and early part of the twenty-first century.
The information you are looking for has been said a few times. America is socially conservitive and economically liberal. If you get Americans to vote with their pocketbook, they elect Dems, if they vote with their values they elect Repubs.
If the Dems could find a good compromise that allowed churches to support us (Dems tend to act more like Jesus taught us to), and a good compromise with the NRA, there would be no Republican party.
But every time we bash religion or guns, we push a big group of poor and middle class Americans right back into the Republican party.
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