Departments

Over the past several weeks the news reports have been filled with comments of what a pastor said or whether bullets were flying as someone landed. Yes, political season has a way of bringing out the sensational and the strange to fill headlines and sell papers.

However, as it has been proven many times before, fact can prove stranger than fiction.
One of the frequent headlines of the conservative media is that of the “experience of John McCain.” The pundits on Fox News and other right winged news outlets have been touting the vast experience of McCain in the Senate. Indeed McCain has experience- years and years of it. But, working class Americans should be concerning themselves with the events that have transpired from McCain’s experience.

McCain was first elected to Congress in 1982 and then moved on to the Senate in 1986 after serving two terms as a representative. Along the way, his “experience” has left a trail of votes that are anti-worker, anti-child and in support of the same big business principals that George Bush touts.

The non-partisan group Children’s Defense Fund, an advocacy group whose goal is to lift children out of poverty, rated John McCain the worst member of the Senate for children’s issues in 2007. McCain voted against the extension of the children’s health care program last year then applauded President Bush’s veto of the bill. In an interview with CNN McCain stated he “agrees with President Bush's veto of legislation expanding a children's health insurance program, saying the bill provided a "phony smoke and mirrors way of paying for it. - Right call by the president.” The program would have cost $35 billion over five years. While McCain was fully committed to defeating that bill, he is 100% behind the War in Iraq which has cost over $500 billion and 4,000 U.S. lives in five years.

Through the course of time, there have been moments when McCain voted in support of working Americans, but he has lately changed his tune on some important issues. He voted against Bush’s tax cuts to wealthy, but now supports making them permanent.

McCain has also been a loud for voice for campaign reform and the need to “clean up politics by limiting the influence of lobbyist”, when in fact, McCain has a long history of being linked to lobbyist and from benefiting from his association with them. ABC news recently reported that McCain has 59 lobbyists currently working raising money for his campaign. In addition, the majority of McCain’s campaign staff is made up of former lobbyists who have devoted themselves full time to his campaign. Kind of shocking for a guy whose website for the presidency states “Too often the special interest lobbyists with the fattest wallets and best access carry the day.”

McCain recently showed his compassion for big business by supporting the bailout of Bear Stearns, but is against helping the working families caught in this market. He is all for making certain the financial market managers are reimbursed for their losses, but homeowners should be given the boot from their homes that were purchased with a mortgage that was a crooked deal to benefit a bank.

Wealth is no stranger to John McCain. His personal income appears rather small, but that is due to his prenuptial agreement with his wife Cindy. The prenuptial agreement calls for the majority of the couple’s wealth to be held in her name – over $100,000,000 worth. Cindy McCain is the heiress to Hensley and Company the third-largest Anheuser-Bush wholesaler in the United States. So, the McCain’s have six lavish homes, private jets and everything money can buy. One must wonder what McCain’s religious right buddies such as John Haggie think of his lifestyle provided by the alcohol industry.

McCain frequently states that he excuses himself from voting on alcohol related issues. However, in 2001 McCain voted against the fiscal transportation appropriations bill because it set a legal limit a national standard for drunk driving at .08. The National Beer Wholesalers Association opposed the legislation and told its members it had at least succeeded in "delaying and diluting the final version." McCain voted against the bill because he objected to "pork-barrel spending. A very flimsy excuse from a man whose “experience” suggest a record of saying one thing and doing another.

McCain has no interest in finding a way to end the war in Iraq which is mounting an astronomical human and financial cost. McCain has stated the U.S. should stay in Iraq 100 years or more. In 2004 he proposed a plan to add another 100,000 troops to the conflict. The former POW has in the past been an outspoken critic of torture techniques, but voted against a bill that would end the “waterboarding” torture technique used by the CIA that gives the sensation of drowning. McCain even encouraged and praised Bush for vetoing the bill that would have ended the inhuman technique that has given the United States such a bad name around the world.

On trade, McCain has been an outspoken advocate of free trade deals. He voted for NAFTA, CAFTA and permanent trade relations with China. McCain told the Iowa Register “I know NAFTA was a good idea. It has created millions of jobs and it has helped the economies of all three of these nations. All you have to do is go to Detroit and see the trucks lined up every day or go to our southern border. There have been winners and losers. And that’s the problem. But free trade is something that I think is vital to America.” McCain doesn’t care about the one million plus jobs that have been lost to NAFTA or the reduction of wages that have been brought as a result of the threat of outsourcing jobs to low wage areas. Here are a few of McCain’s votes on trade related issues:

- McCain voted to allow overseas outsourcing of government contracts after President Bush’s economic advisers released a report saying America should outsource its jobs.
- He voted against a bill to tax multinational companies on income from foreign factories when goods are shipped back to the United States.
- McCain voted to allow the Secretary of Defense to waive Buy American laws for defense systems and place our defense manufacturing industry in jeopardy.
- McCain abstained from a vote to filibuster a bill to protect steelworker jobs from illegal dumping after 10,000 steelworkers lost their jobs.

Yes the experience of John McCain is to be considered when making a choice during this election cycle. However, it is the result of this experience that should frighten working class Americans. Working class families should look through the trickery of the conservative media and focus on the real issues in this election. The bottom line comes down to survival of the working class and the experience of John McCain places our survival in jeopardy.