McCain: Out of Touch

McCain Opposed Earmarks That Provide Vital Funding For Florida Residents. Click on an icon to see projects McCain opposed in your community.

Washington Post Fact Checker: McCain Proposal to Eliminate $100 Billion a Year in Earmarks is “Largely Fantasy.” “John McCain boasts that he can save $100 billion a year ‘immediately’ by eliminating the so-called earmarks that legislators attach to spending bills to finance pet projects, usually in their home state. But he has refused to say exactly which projects he would cut, and his estimates of the amount of money that is being spent on earmarks have been challenged by independent experts... McCain's talk about eliminating $100 billion a year in earmarks is largely fantasy. His advisers are now promoting a more realistic plan of eliminating $100 billion in overall spending. But it is difficult to take even that promise very seriously given the fact that the senator refuses to identify exactly which projects he will be cut. To use a phrase coined by George H.W. Bush, this is ‘voodoo economics,’ based more on wishful thinking than on hard data or carefully considered policy proposals.” [Washington Post, 5/23/08]

McCain: Out of Touch

McCain Claimed Americans Were “Better Off Because We Have Had A Pretty Good Prosperous Time.” In the January 2008 Republican debate, McCain commented, “I think you could argue that Americans overall are better off, because we have had a pretty good prosperous time, with low unemployment and low inflation and a lot of good things have happened. A lot of jobs have been created.” [CNN GOP Debate, 1/30/08]

MSNBC: McCain Has Used The Phrase, “The Fundamentals Of The Economy Are Strong” At Least 16 Times This Year. “First Read searched through our database of the candidates' speeches and found McCain had used the phrase [“the fundamentals of the economy are strong”] at least 16 other times, between Jan. 1st and June 5th of this year.” [MSNBC “First Read”, 9/15/08]

Carly Fiorina, One Of McCain's Top Advisors, Called the Outsourcing of American Jobs "Right Shoring." The San Francisco Chronicle reported: "Labor unions have battled "offshoring," which Fiorina calls "right- shoring," for decades, he said." [San Francisco Chronicle, 1/9/04]

McCain Supports Unchecked Free Trade With Everyone. "If I were President, I would negotiate a free trade agreement with almost any country willing to negotiate fairly with us. Only risks to the security of our vital interests or egregious offenses to our most cherished political values should disqualify a nation from entering into a free trade agreement with us." [Speech to National Press Club, 5/20/99]

Did You Know?

Over The Past 12 Months, Florida Had The Highest Job Losses In The Nation. The Miami Herald reported: “Economists say that the state, which had the highest number of job losses in the nation, will be in even worse shape than they previously thought…The top job-loss state in the nation. Shrinking wages. Collapsing population growth. Record home foreclosures. Florida's economy is not just firmly and bleakly in the red ---- it will likely stay that way until next June, according to the state government's top economists who issued their most pessimistic financial forecast in years… The most dire fact of all: Florida lost more jobs in the past 12 months -- 74,700 -- than any other state in the nation.” [Miami Herald, 7/17/08]

The Job Outlook In Southwest Florida Is One Of The Worst In The Nation. The Naples Daily News reported, “For job hunters, it’s a tough go. As the year comes to a close, the outlook for employment in the Fort Myers-Naples market is expected to be one of the worst in the nation. The area ranks No. 5 on a list of the weakest areas for hiring from October to December. It’s based on a Manpower Employment Outlook Survey. Locally, only 10 percent of companies plan to hire more employees while 43 percent expect to reduce their payrolls. Another 47 percent will keep their staff the same size, according to the survey. That means there is a negative employment outlook of minus-33 percent. The picture has worsened since the last survey.” [Naples Daily News, 9/9/08]

Florida’s Unemployment Rate Rose To 6.1 Percent In July; Highest Point In 13 Years. [Orlando Sentinel, 8/15/08; Bureau of Labor Statistics, Accessed 9/17/08]

The Bush/McCain Economic Policies Have Caused Florida’s Unemployment To Rise 65% Over The Past Eight Years. The unemployment rate in Florida has increased from 4% to 6.1% since January of 2001. [Bureau of Labor Statistics, accessed 7/30/08]

Tampa Bay Has Lost Over 20,000 Jobs Over The Past Year. This represents the fourth-biggest loss nationwide among larger metro areas. [St. Petersburg Times, 7/9/08]

In South Florida, More Than 140,377 People Are Out Of Work. “The latest U.S. Labor Department report says employers cut payrolls by 62,000 in June -- the sixth straight month of nationwide job losses.” [The Miami Herald, 7/9/08]

McCain: Out of Touch

McCain Called Mortgage Crisis Victims "Irresponsible." "I have always been committed to the principle that it is not the duty of government to bail out and reward those who act irresponsibly, whether they are big banks or small borrowers.” […] “Any assistance must be temporary and must not reward people who were irresponsible at the expense of those who weren't.” [McCain Housing Speech, 3/25/08]

Top McCain Economic Adviser: No Assistance To Those Who Failed In Assessing Credit Risks. In an editorial published in the Washington Post, McCain’s top economic adviser, Douglas Holtz-Eakin, wrote that one of the principles McCain will apply in addressing the mortgage crisis would be that “No taxpayer dollars should bail out real estate speculators or financial market participants who failed to do due diligence in assessing credit risks.” [Washington Post, 3/24/08]

McCain Did Not Know How Many Houses He And His Wife Own. McCain said in an interview “that he was uncertain how many houses he and his wife, Cindy, own. ‘I think — I'll have my staff get to you,’ McCain told Politico in Las Cruces, N.M. ‘It's condominiums where — I'll have them get to you.’ The correct answer is at least four, located in Arizona, California and Virginia, according to his staff. Newsweek estimated this summer that the couple owns at least seven properties.” [Politico, 8/21/08]

Unlike Rival, McCain Rejects Broad U.S. Aid On Mortgages. The New York Times reported, “Senator John McCain of Arizona warned Tuesday against vigorous government action to solve the deepening mortgage crisis and the market turmoil it has caused, saying that ‘it is not the duty of government to bail out and reward those who act irresponsibly, whether they are big banks or small borrowers.’” [New York Times, 3/26/08]

Did You Know?

Florida Homeowners Are Expected To Lose Close To $324 Billion In Property Value In 2008-2009. [U.S. Congress Joint Economic Committee, State-by-State Figures: Foreclosure and Housing Wealth Losses, April 10, 2008]

Florida 2nd In The Nation In Foreclosures. “More than 44,000 Florida homes were in some form of foreclosure for Florida in August, according to new data released by RealtyTrac, representing one in ever 194 homes. Florida, however, had the second highest number of foreclosures behind only California. Florida, California and Arizona accounted for more than half of the nation’s foreclosure activity, according to RealtyTrac.” [Tampa Bay Business Journal, 9/12/08]

McCain: Out of Touch with Florida Women

Ledbetter Lost Supreme Court Case. Lilly Ledbetter worked at a Goodyear Tire Rubber Co. plant in Gadsden, Alabama, for 19 years. By the time Lilly retired as a supervisor, she was making $6,500 less than the lowest-paid male supervisor. When she made a claim for pay discrimination, the Supreme Court dismissed her case, telling her she should have filed her complaint within six months of the discrimination - even though she didn’t know she was being discriminated against at that point. [National Women’s Law Center]

Senator Obama And Other Democrats In Congress Supported The Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act To Allow Women More Time To Make Their Claims. But John McCain supports the current regime: unless a woman makes a claim within 180 days of initially being discriminated against, she could go her whole career being paid less than her male counterparts with no legal recourse. When questioned about his opposition to the equal pay bill, he said women needed more “education and training.” Disagreeing with women’s organizations across the country, McCain later said the equal pay act wouldn’t do “anything to help the rights of women.” [USA Today, 4/23/08; National Committee on Pay Equity; Washington Post, 5/7/08]

McCain’s Voting Record

McCain Skipped An Important Vote On Pay Discrimination To Attend Campaign Events; Later, He Said He Didn’t Support The Equal Pay Law. McCain was one of only two senators to miss an important vote on the Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act of 2007. On the campaign trail, McCain expressed his opposition to the bill. [H.R. 2831, Vote #110, 4/23/08; USA Today, 4/23/08]

McCain Voted Against Providing More Effective Remedies For Victims Of Wage Discrimination. In 2000, McCain voted against the Harkin amendment to “provide more effective remedies to victims of discrimination in the payment of wages on the basis of sex.” The amendment would have allowed workers who won their wage discrimination claims in court to collect punitive and compensatory damages in addition to back wages. [S.Amdt. 3847 to H.R. 4810, Vote #203, 7/17/00]

McCain: Out of Touch

McCain has called Social Security’s funding mechanism a “disgrace,” and has said he will pursue President Bush’s failed policy to privatize Social Security. [St. Petersburg Times, 6/22/08; LA Times, 3/24/08]

McCain’s campaign has also said that he is considering raising the retirement age and reducing Social Security cost-of-living adjustments. [Wall Street Journal, 3/3/08]

McCain Said There is “Only One Solution” for Social Security: Privatization. “My friends, there is only one solution if Social Security commitments are to be honored without breaking the backs of the next generation: bold reform -- genuine reform -- that allows workers to invest some of their Social Security savings, privately, in higher yielding accounts. … The only way to increase the yield on Social Security dollars is by allowing workers to make investment decisions for themselves; by empowering American families to invest, in most robust portfolios, a portion of their earnings for Social Security that they would otherwise pay in taxes to Social Security.” [“Excerpts from a speech by Senator John McCain, presidential candidate, on Social Security, June 7, 1999,” CATO Institute website, accessed 5/11/08]

Unclear What McCain’s Plan On Social Security Is. “Analysts caution that both McCain and Barack Obama have produced policy pronouncements that are just as much election documents as workable proposals; after all, that is what presidential candidates do. But when it comes to the metric of paper produced, McCain trails Obama in spelling out the nitty-gritty. … Consider McCain campaign senior adviser Taylor Griffin’s description of his candidate’s plan for fixing Social Security: ‘The history of the Social Security debate has taught that too many specifics, especially during a presidential campaign, has polarized the debate,’ he said of the program that McCain called ‘an absolute disgrace [that's] got to be fixed.’ Will he contrast his plan to that of his opponent? ‘Sen. McCain believes this is so important that we do not politicize this debate during an election season.’” [Politico, 8/1/08]

McCain Supports Privatization. According to his campaign website, “John McCain supports supplementing the current Social Security system with personal accounts.” [McCain Campaign Website, accessed 3/28/08]

Did You Know?

Floridians depend on a reliable social security system. In 2007, 3,476,594 Florida residents relied on Social Security Payments; 2,579,434 of these beneficiaries are 65 and older. Also, In Florida alone, Social Security lifts 1.1 million elderly people above the poverty line “reducing the elderly poverty rate from 50.2 percent to 8.7 percent.” [socialsecurity.gov, accessed 8/12/08]; [Center on Budget and Policy Priorities]