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McCain: ‘Fundamentals of the Economy Are Strong.’ Wrong, Again |
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So how does the collapse of Lehman Brothers and the fire-sale purchase of Merrill Lynch by Bank of America—not to mention the Bush bailout of Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae and Bear Stearns—relate to those of us who aren’t hedge fund billionaires?
First, the economic shock waves caused by the financial and housing crisis will impact every American—and many others around the globe—through slower growth, lost jobs and lost wealth in housing, financial assets and pensions. Second, the stunning collapse of these major institutions is a direct result of a fairly recent development in the current U.S. economy—the deregulation of the nation’s financial markets.
Stunningly, when Sen. John McCain’s former economic adviser and close friend Phil Gramm was in the U.S. Senate, he helped push through legislation that repealed a decades-long protection that prevented financial institutions from combining commercial banking and investment services. These new combined institutions bought up subprime and other mortgage instruments without knowing the risks they were taking. The gamble went bad, and these institutions are tanking.
Yet, as recently as yesterday—when the Dow Jones sunk by more than 500 points and Lehman Brothers employees were packing up their coffee mugs—McCain declared, “The fundamentals of our economy are strong.”
How out of touch can he be? Oh, wait, that’s right. McCain built his campaign and fundraising team of lobbyists, Wall Streeters and people who deregulated banking and exploited loopholes to make the financial meltdown possible.
McCain has put a misleading and downright erroneous ad on the air about the economic meltdown and has cast himself as a “reformer” who will “clean up Wall Street.” The fact is his voting record has helped create this crisis facing us. He has no credibility to promote himself as a reformer, as AFL-CIO President John Sweeney says, adding that McCain
has voted repeatedly for the same policies that brought us the financial catastrophe, and he is surrounded by the architects of financial deregulation. McCain’s record is one of the most anti-worker in Washington. In his 26 years in Congress, John McCain has earned a voting record on workers’ issues of 16 percent. Trying to cover that up with new rhetoric is an insult to our country’s hard working families who have struggled mightily against the policies he has championed throughout his career.
McCain is trying to run from the Republican record in Washington because he knows that the crisis on Wall Street happened under a Bush-McCain economic agenda. McCain isn’t proposing any real solutions to fix the crisis. In fact, he won’t even help America’s workers—he refused to vote on the recent economic stimulus package in Congress.
McCain has said, if he were elected, he would appoint Gramm as U.S. Treasury Secretary. The same Gramm who said America’s workers are in a mental recession and we’re just “a country of whiners.”
His strong admiration for Gramm’s economic policies tells working families a lot about McCain: It tells us he is not on our side when it comes to jobs, the economy or making the changes needed to get this nation back on track.
In contrast, Sen. Barack Obama made sure he was on the Senate floor to vote in favor of an economic stimulus plan and will do so again if the current stimulus plan in the House makes it to the Senate. Obama has a plan to create millions of new jobs by rebuilding our infrastructure and developing clean energy.
And, unlike McCain, Obama strongly supports our freedom to form unions and bargain for better wages, benefits and working conditions.
When it comes to fundamentals, Sen. Obama understands our bottom line.
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Paid for by the AFL-CIO Committee on Political Education Political Contributions Committee, www.aflcio.org, and not authorized by any candidate or candidate’s committee.
8 Comments
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McCain was one of the five in the Keating Five Savings and Loan Scandal of the 80’s. This is something people need to know about. This shows just how well connected McCain can be to the powerful, wealthy and corrupt when it suits his interests. He made a lot of money and received many perks in his help to bail out Lincoln Keating, who was prosecuted for racketeering and served four years in jail. Technicalities got McCain off, but the scandal remained to haunt him to this day. It could not be said that he was not guilty of conspiracy.
Correction: I meant to say ‘Lincoln Savings and Loan’. The person is Charles Keating.
No suprise. McBush is just like all of the other GOP (Greedy Oposition Party) republicans.
What kind of leadership to working people, organized and unorganized, is the AFL-CIO providing?
“And, unlike McCain, Obama strongly supports our freedom to form unions and bargain for better wages, benefits and working conditions.”
“Our freedom to form unions” is a worthless illusion! Not even a crumb
of nourishment! Why? Because U.S. capitalism has shown for the past 30 years it is unwilling and actually unable to provide “better wages, benefits, and working conditions”.
Time and again, when demands are made upon corporations and business to provide the essential needs of working peopole, they will do everything possible to NOT provide these needs. By promoting illegal immigration massively, wages are continually undercut. Benefits once the standard of organized working people are being slashed. The UAW now has to manage (VEBA?)the retirement benefits of former workers. When all else fails, companies close and move to China.
THE SIMPLISTIC TRADE UNION AGENDA OF TRYING TO ORGANIZE WORKERS AT INDIVIDUAL CORPORATIONS TO ACQUIRE BENEFITS UNDER CURRENT CONDITIONS OF GLOBALIZED CAPITALISM IS VIRTUALLY POWERLESS! (WHY HAS THE UNION MOVEMENT DECLINED?)
THE SIMPLISTIC TRADE UNION AGENDA OF BEGGING THE DEMOCRATIC PARTY FOR A FEW CRUMBS FOR LABOR’S POLITICAL SUPPORT MUST BE REALIZED IS A VIRTUAL FAILURE!
Obama and the Democratic Party are “partners” with the Republicans in support of undending war (for profit), support of financial capitalism in looting the economy (massive tax cuts for corporations and the wealthy), allowing corporate capitalism total control of mass media to continually propagandise THEIR GREED and NEVER allow a voice on mass media to reflect the NEEDS of working people or society’s absolute need for PEACE, UNIVERSAL HEALTH CARE, AFFORDABLE HOUSING, ETC.
The simplistic perspective of trade unions must be thrown into the “ash can” of history. The essential benefits sought by unions in collective bargaining can no longer be won from struggles, strikes, boycotts, etc. Corporate capitalism has infinite resources to defeat these efforts.
The trade union movement, if it has any relevance or future, must realize that the problem is not individual corporations but the entire of system of corpoate capitalism that has completely RUN AMOK and has become GANGSTER CAPITALISM.
CORPORATE CAPITALISM RULES THROUGH IT’S TOTAL CONTROL OF BOTH DEMOCRATIC AND REPUBLICAN PARTIES. (Observe how Obama over lthe last few months TOTALLY capitulated to the demands of the Bush/Cheney agenda. See “the real difference” at http://www.therealdifference.org which shows both Republican and Democratic parties position on the major issues ARE IDENDTICAL.)
What to do?
1. Realize the nature of the power of corporate capitalism.
2. Realize that the struggle for the needs of working people is now almost exclusively a struggle for POLITICAL POWER at every level of government.
3. Organize a new mass media to inform and educate all working people the cause of the economic survival crises that we face.
4. To initiate a call for a new political party that is organized to promote and protect the economic needs of the vast majority, the working people of this country. NOT just a organized labor union party. But a party that brings together many people and groups that have been waging a lonely struggle to make positive changes in society. (anti-war, public health, public education, economic reform groups and individuals.)
The vast economic and social inequality is not sustainable! The organized labor movement must act now or we all further decline into civil war, anarchy and destruction as the essential for life (food, water, shelter) become further privatized and destroyed by capitalism.
(Here is a link on the financial collapse that is taking place and a socialist
working class perspective to help solve this collapse.)
No return to the 1930s! For the public ownership of the banks!
Statement by SEP presidential candidate Jerome White
17 September 2008
http://www.wsws.org/articles/2008/sep2008/stat-s17.shtml
OK, OK, I get it. I think all of us who read this site are more than aware of the crucial changes that have to occur. But change takes time, and only immediate anarchy is going to result in an immediate solution, if you can call it that, and I certainly hope it does not come to that.
I agree with the first three of your proposals. However, I still would like to believe that the true Democratic Party can address these issues favorably to what we all need. Let’s see.
“union friend” final remark:
“However, I still would like to believe that the true Democratic Party can address these issues favorably to what we all need. Let’s see.”
In order to think critically about this question (rather than merely “believe”) we should first learn about the actual history of what has happened. I happened to locate this rather long article which address this question. It is from the current ISR (International Socialist Review) bi-monthly magazine, Sept Oct 2008 issue.
Here is a brief introduction the article by Lance Selfa, Editor of ISR.
“Lance’s second article, “Can the Left Take Over the Democratic Party?,” is a chapter from his new book The Democrats: A Critical History (Haymarket, 2008). His key argument is that rather than effecting any change in the party’s essentially pro-capitalist character, efforts to change the party from within always end up being vehicles for extinguishing third-party movements by “keeping hope alive” in the Democrats.”
Can the Left take over the Democratic Party?
By LANCE SELFA
http://www.isreview.org/issues/61/feat-pushdemsleft.shtml
“Since at least the time of the New Deal, when organized labor gained a solid institutional foothold in the Democratic Party, liberals and activists have proposed that popular forces or “the left” can democratically take over the Democratic Party. If the left could accomplish this, the argument goes, it could transform the Democrats into a vehicle for progressive social change. This is very much on the agenda of a present-day embodiment of this idea, the Progressive Democrats of American (PDA).
…”
Worth reading!
(On line home page, with other articles of interest)
http://www.isreview.org/index.shtml
I’m sorry but I don’t believe there is a true Democratic Party any longer.What few politicans that truly got elected to do the work of the people are to few to make any changes in this corrupt system where money is the key to everything.We need some thrid party that is the working man’s friend.I have become an Independent I’m not sure that this is the best Party but we must begin somewhere.So long as we keep voting these same two parties back into office very little will change.Large numbers of people joining a thrid party should help bring change in the system.We need term limits,campaign finance reform and a host of other things that we are never going to see so long as either of the current parties are in power.Already enough people have joined the Independents that they are looking at us as a large enough percentage of voters, to swing this election,we need more people to join us.
In a single day, about $700 billion evaporated from people’s retirement plans, government pension funds and other investment portfolios; tens of thousands lost jobs;
and realtors and automakers couldn’t sell their products.
The day after the collapse of investment moguls Merrill Lynch and Lehman Brothers, the New York Times concluded that “The nation needs a new perspective on the markets, one that acknowledges the self-destructive bent of unfettered capitalism.”
Stringent new regulations won’t help because big business will ignore or repeal them.
The chaos of capitalism proves once again unable to meet the needs of the majority of people. Karl Marx called for a new perspective 150 years ago, one much broader than just regulating the thieves on Wall Street. He called for replacing our corporate masters with a rational,planned socialist economy.
For today, only the union movement can protect U.S. workers from a future of homelessness, breadlines and poor health. For tomorrow, capitalism has got to go.