Last night Barack Obama articulated a clear path to economic recovery for working families by investing in America, while John McCain simply reiterated the angry personal attacks that his campaign has come to rely upon.
On every major economic issue facing working families today – jobs, trade, tax policy, health care, and education -- Sen. Obama showed he has the leadership, intellect and integrity to put working families back on a path to economic prosperity after an eight-year detour under George Bush. McCain’s attempt to show he understands the anxieties of working families by invoking “Joe the plumber,” on the other hand, fell flat: McCain has spent a lifetime working for wealthy CEOs and corporations and against working people just trying to keep their heads above water in this awful economy.
When it comes to hearing the economic concerns of working families, it was clearer than ever that John McCain is tone deaf. He’s still talking about earmarks and tax cuts for the wealthy when working people are trying to figure out how to pay next month’s rent or keep the heat on this winter. He once again touted his support of unfair trade deals, even as millions of workers see their jobs shipped overseas as a result. He advocated for a flawed health care approach that would create an additional tax on working families and lead to as many as 20 million Americans losing their employer-based health coverage.
McCain’s scapegoating of civil rights hero John Lewis showed just how low he’s willing to go to score political points. He offered a similarly overblown, ridiculous attack on ACORN, a group dedicated to giving low-income Americans a voice in the political process. These kinds of cheap attacks show an alarming lack of integrity in a campaign that’s increasingly more concerned about winning at any cost than addressing the real issues facing working families.
While McCain disingenuously tried to distance himself from George Bush, working people wanting answers from McCain on how he could continue to support the Bush Administration’s devastating economic agenda were simply left with more questions about his unsteady leadership and his lack of a coherent economic plan.
It was clear last night that Sen. Obama understands that the crisis on Wall Street has been battering working families for years. Sen. Obama’s economic plan is based on investing in the real economy by creating good jobs and lifting wages for America’s workers. He’ll stand up for our middle class and won’t be bullied by the Wall Street barons and their high-paid lobbyists. He’ll stop giving tax breaks to corporations that outsource American jobs and bring an end to the war in Iraq that’s costing $10 billion a month. He’ll reduce health care costs, provide health care to the 46 million Americans who have no health insurance and crack down on insurance company abuses. That’s the leadership we need to end the mess the policies of Bush and McCain helped create.
Contact: Steve Smith (202) 637-5018
Paid for by the AFL-CIO Committee on Political Education (COPE) Political Contributions Committee, www.aflcio.org, and not authorized by any candidate or candidate’s committee.
