Holt Baker: McCain ‘In Lockstep’ with Bush

by Seth Michaels, Jun 4, 2008

Sen. John McCain, the presumptive Republican nominee, went to New Orleans last night to launch his general election campaign. He used the national spotlight to try and distance himself from George W. Bush, the most unpopular president on record, whose policies McCain consistently has supported. In 2007, McCain voted 95 percent of the time with Bush and 100 percent of the time in 2008, according to the AFL-CIO Congressional Voting Record.

AFL-CIO Executive Vice President Arlene Holt Baker says that while McCain’s words might separate him from Bush, his record doesn’t show any independence.

 John McCain has some nerve going to New Orleans, site of the Bush administration’s do-nothing approach to Hurricane Katrina, to announce that he’s a “different kind of Republican.” 

From health care and jobs to the devastating aftermath of Hurricane Katrina, Sen. McCain’s record shows he’s in lockstep with President Bush and the administration’s corporate allies. 

Holt Baker, who directed the AFL-CIO’s Gulf Coast Recovery Program, says it’s particularly galling to see McCain using New Orleans for a photo op. 

Actions speak louder than words. McCain supports Bush tax giveaways for corporations, Big Oil and the wealthy while opposing an increase in the minimum wage and an extension of unemployment benefits. His health care plan would saddle working families with an additional tax while doing nothing to address the deep flaws in the system or provide coverage to the 47 million Americans who have no insurance. He even opposed the development of a commission to examine the Bush Administration’s failures in response to Katrina, which makes it all the more offensive that he chose New Orleans as the backdrop to try to reinvent himself.

In more private moments, McCain has admitted he’s just like Bush. And he’s accepted Bush’s endorsement and his fundraising help. When it comes time to vote on real policies, McCain has stood with Bush on everything from children’s health care to retirement.

In his speech, McCain said we need to “rethink and reform” health care, retirement, trade and more. But what does he mean by that? He’s said he would privatize Social Security. His health care plan could raise taxes and push millions out of insurance coverage. He supports anti-worker trade deals like the U.S.-Colombia Free Trade Agreement. And he isn’t offering answers to the economic crisis we face.

Holt Baker says that despite his words in Louisiana last night, McCain’s record and his policy proposals aren’t the right answers for the challenges we face.

America’s working families call on Sen. McCain to shelve the empty rhetoric and, instead, reject the failed policies that led to a devastating calamity like the Katrina aftermath, a disastrous economy and a seemingly endless war.

McCain simply isn’t offering anything different than what we’ve seen under President Bush. He needs to listen to working families, not the lobbyists who run his campaign. He needs to propose solutions that make the economy work for everyone, not just a few.

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