Keep it Real!
The Economy
First let us examine John McCain Republican Party Candidate. (As if you had been living on mars under a rock with your eyes closed and your fingers in your ears)
So what does John McCain say about the issues that you the American voter are concerned with this election cycle? Can he deliver on his promises?
A pro-growth, pro-jobs strategy to get our economy back on track. John McCain's strategy includes taking the near-term actions needed to provide immediate help to American families while also taking the longer-term steps necessary to secure America's economic prosperity and leadership in the world.
Is this true? Let’s Keep it Real!
Workplace Flexibility in a Changing Economy
John McCain was proud to support the Family Medical Leave Act in 1993 that ensured men and women are able to take leave to care for a newborn child, adopt a child or care for an immediate family member with a serious health condition and return to a position that is substantially equal in pay, benefits, and responsibility. This was a needed minimum standard to ensure that parents were not penalized for making the important decision to raise a family.
Let’s see shall we, did he support that act? The fact is, that yes John McCain did vote yes for the original FMLA of 1993. Let’s Keep it Real! shall we? McCain did however reject and eventually help Gut the FMLA so in order to Keep it Real! we have to say that no McCain does not now support the FMLA.
McCain Voted to Gut the Family and Medical Leave Act. In 1993, before finally voting for the Family and Medical Leave Act, McCain voted to jeopardize leave for millions of workers by gutting the bill. He voted to suspend the Family and Medical Leave Act unless the federal government certified that compliance would not increase business expenses or provide financial assistance to businesses to cover any related costs. (S.Amdt. 16, S. 5, Vote 7, 2/4/93; H.R. 1, Vote 11, 2/4/93)
Also McCain has consistently been against any sort of help for working families.
Health Care Reforms: Better Care, At Lower Cost, for Every American
Really? John McCain? Healthcare reform? Let’s look at the record again shall we?
McCain voted yes 16 times, no 9 times and abstained from voting 22 times on a variety of health care issues that were presented to congress. Again Sen. McCain doesn’t seem to care about health care issues.
Taxes: Simpler, Fair, Pro-Growth and Competitive
McCain’s tax cut plans help out the Wealthy more than it does the middle or working class. His plan calls for the reduction of taxes on Corporations from 35% to 25%
He calls his plan a pro growth tax policy, the theory behind it is that the more that a company saves in taxes they will pass those savings on to the consumer and pay their employees better. Ask the oil companies about this idea, Record high gas prices coupled with posting record profits each quarter. Keep it Real!
Trade
Lower Barriers to Trade = NAFTA, and as those people that lost their jobs to overseas companies and companies moving to Mexico will tell you that lowering barriers to trade is a risky move.
Competitive American Workers I wonder how Mr. McCain’s congressional record would say about his idea of educating the next generation of competitive American workers?
McCain voted Yes for 9 Education programs including the No Child Left Behind Act. Voted No on 6 programs including, To Increase The Maximum Federal Pell Grant Amendment and abstained from voting on 9 Education bills that passed through the Senate. Doesn’t seem to me that Sen. McCain is too interested in the education of the next generation of competitive American workers.
Immediate Relief for American Families
Boy we love instant gratification in this country don’t we? John McCain knows this and has played on it in his instant gratification plan. Who knows what really he is able to accomplish with this plan. Most of it is dependent on congress and the states to make the necessary accommodations. McCain also believes that telling the Oil companies that we aren’t going to be dependent on foreign oil anymore is going to make them lower their gas prices. When all is said and done, the refineries are in this country and the oil companies would love cheaper oil to increase their profit margins.
Reforming Washington to Regain the Trust of Taxpayers
And we see here the sneaky republican head of Contract with America come back. This is also where we find McCain’s little tidbit of he will tell us the name of the congressman who put an earmarked proposal on the desk of the president, which he promises to veto. But, Senator? All congressional records of this type are available to the public, I have shown this through your own voting record. You don’t need to tell us, this is the information age, we can go and look it up ourselves.
Supporting Small Businesses
John McCain's Lexington Project will address the rising costs of energy that are hurting small businesses. He strongly supports increased domestic exploration of oil and natural gas. This will send a strong signal to oil markets that future supplies will be more plentiful, countering the rise in oil prices. The market for natural gas is less internationally integrated than that of oil - increased domestic production will lower the cost of this key energy source.
Drill Baby Drill, this is what John McCain is telling us. John McCain believes that we can curb our foreign oil dependence by exploiting our own domestic oil reserves. Cutting short our future oil security for a temporary immediate fix. But he does have a point as outlined here in a 2006 UDOR report. And the Bureau of Land Management in 2005 released a report about Shale Oil as another potential source for domestic oil production.
However to Keep it Real! we have to remember that Oil companies are not government agencies and even if they were flooded with new oil reserves and access to drill more oil, this does not mean they will drop gas prices. After all, why would Oil Companies willingly gut their own profit margins and stop their abilities to post record profits every quarter in order to pass savings on to the American consumer? Honestly that would be bad business and it would be counterproductive to the promise the oil CEOs make to their investors.
Cheap, Clean, Secure Energy for America
Nuclear Power: Nuclear power is a proven, reliable, zero-emission source of energy, and it is time to recommit to advancing our use of nuclear power.
Because Nuclear Power is of course Reliable, and Safe.
And of course we all know that Nuclear Power has Zero Emissions
The development of clean coal technology will revitalize coal mining and return jobs to some of America's most economically disadvantaged areas. The demonstration projects alone will employ over 30,000 Americans.
This is correct, this will bring new jobs to Americans. His plan for developing clean coal technology is also on par with creating more jobs and can invigorate a rather stagnant section of the energy sector.
This wraps it up for this Keep it Real! segment looking at John McCain’s position on the economy. Next up on the chopping block we will look at the Senator’s position on Energy and The Lexington Project.
[edit on 9/15/2008 by whatukno]
And please, keep it going! Comparing in a rational, unbiased manner is what we need to be reading so that the voters can
be making well-informed decisions. 
