AFL-CIO President: ‘John McCain Is Wrong’ About His Claim That Economy Is Strong
AFL-CIO President: ‘John McCain Is Wrong’ About His Claim That Economy Is Strong
Last week, Sen. John McCain (R-AZ) said again, “I still believe the fundamentals of the economy are strong.” Though he has waffled on this point in the past — declaring in April we had made “great progress economically” during Bush’s presidency before reversing himself 24 hours later — he was clear last week in declaring the U.S. “still the most innovative, the most productive” country.
ThinkProgress spoke with AFL-CIO President John Sweeney today at the Democratic National Convention, and asked if he agreed with McCain’s assessment. Sweeney replied, “McCain is wrong”:
I think John McCain is wrong. He doesn’t even know how many homes he has. … We’ve seen the McCain position as just a continuation of the Bush Administration. It’s President Bush’s policies that got us into the mess that we have now. And it’s not only a short term crisis, it’s long term and it has to be addressed. Workers are having a tough time. The wage inequality that’s out there is unbelievable, and health care and retirement security are threatened. Those are some of the reasons that we’re not supporting John McCain.
Earlier today, the U.S. Census’ poverty figures revealed just how far the American economy has sunk under Bush-McCain policies: 37.3 million people were living in poverty in 2007, and 45.7 million, or 15.3 percent of the population, lack health insurance — 6 million more than when Bush took office 2001.
Speaking to the Rocky Mountain News, Sweeney “said the growing pay gap between CEOs and workers can be tied directly to the increasing difficulty in workers’ ability to form unions.” Unfortunately, McCain opposes the Employee Free Choice Act, which would make it easier for workers to unionize. In a debate last fall, he said that while unions played “a very important role in the history of the country,” unions “have been serious excesses.”
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27 Responses to “AFL-CIO President: ‘John McCain Is Wrong’ About His Claim That Economy Is Strong”
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I heard his speech on CSPAN. Who says "the water isn't strong enough", other than a rich drunk?
The retired steelworker who agonized over who to cover with health insurance, him or his wife, did a much better job with his few minutes on the podium.
Sweeney's part of the group selling the worker down the river. His counterpart, Andy Stern of the SEIU, called employer sponsored health insurance "dead and not coming back".
From AT&T to the Energy Lobby to Unions, we have a failure of leadership. Greed is not the basis for a great nation. C'mon guys, you can do better than stronger water!
August 26th, 2008 at 4:55 pmGoldilocks asks, wouldn't one house with seven bedrooms make more sense?
August 26th, 2008 at 4:56 pmstateofthedivision,
I'd rather have a fatcat at the head of my union than not have a union at all. Ask any walmart employee who is selling the country down the river and you'll get a very different answer.
August 26th, 2008 at 5:04 pmWhere is Faux & Friends to attempt to debunk and discredit what Mr. Sweeney has to say?! Because the Faux crew is only in Denver for one thing: smut!
August 26th, 2008 at 5:05 pmBobwurst, I'm with you. These emphatic statements directly from the AFL-CIO is good news for pulling more blue collars into the fold.
I've often wondered how anyone who isn't a rich, white, straight, Christian male would ever want to be associated with the GOP.
PEACE
August 26th, 2008 at 5:08 pm"Dick Cheney and I do not want this nation to be in a recession. We want anybody who can find work to be able to find work." --George W. Bush, 60 minutes II, CBS, December 5, 2000
"My plan reduces the national debt, and fast. So fast, in fact, that economists worry that we're going to run out of debt to retire." —George W. Bush, radio address, Feb. 24, 2001
"See, without the tax relief package, there would have been a deficit, but there wouldn't have been the commiserate — not 'commiserate' — the kick to our economy that occurred as a result of the tax relief." —George W. Bush, Washington, D.C., Dec. 15, 2003
"Recession means that people's incomes, at the employer level, are going down, basically, relative to costs, people are getting laid off." --George W. Bush, Washington, D.C., Feb. 19, 2004
Since 2004 Bush has been claiming the "fundamental" economy is "strong". McCain is saying the same thing.
The economy has been collapsing since Bush took office as predicted by anyone who understood the premise of "voodoo economics" (identified by Bush Sr.).
The only strength in the US economy is the resilience of working middle classes, and McCain is bent on screwing them even more than ever.
8 years of Bush's voodoo economics have resulted in the worst economic indicators in 15,20,25,30 and 50 years depending on which indicator is chosen but in a major confluence and where almost all of them are still trending down.
McCain 's economic plan is to not only continue Bush's economics but to expand upon them with even greater tax-cuts for wealthy individuals and ridiculously wealthy non-taxpaying corporations, just as Reagan did.
August 26th, 2008 at 5:08 pmThe head of the AFL-CIO disagrees with the GOP candidate for president.
That's a dog bites man story if I've ever heard one.
August 26th, 2008 at 5:10 pmBush wrong about everything. McCain wronger about everything.
August 26th, 2008 at 5:13 pmMcIIIrd secret decoder ring text on the economy:
Muck the fiddle class!
August 26th, 2008 at 5:18 pmstateofthedivision Says:
Can you point out anything he said in the statement in this article you disagree with or are you just attacking the messenger?
August 26th, 2008 at 5:26 pmNowhere is corporate media's ability to make fools out of people more evident than in their opinions on labor unions.
August 26th, 2008 at 5:31 pmI listened to his speech on CSPAN. I've worked on the coporate side of healthcare. Their leadership didn't impress me.
But. I got very concerned when I heard Andy Stern, head of the SEIU, say the same thing as Denny Shelton, ex-CEO of Triad Hospitals.
"America cannot afford to keep employer sponsored healthcare and compete in a global economy."
The head of a health care workers union should be the last person to say "employer sponsored health insurance is dead and not coming back."
Next time you run into John Sweeney, please ask him exactly how he wants to address that threatened "health care and retirement security." He didn't make that clear in his comments.
August 26th, 2008 at 5:37 pm“America cannot afford to keep employer sponsored healthcare and compete in a global economy.”
I can't imagine how anyone could even begin to argue with that statement. Detroit has to add over $2000 to the cost of every vehicle to cover healthcare. Toyota has decided to put plants in Canada rather than the deep south even though labor is more expensive in Canada, strictly on the basis of healthcare costs. Take healthcare out of employers' hands and we may even be able to re-build our manufacturing sector which will rebuild our middle class.
August 26th, 2008 at 5:41 pmOur library is having to cut deep into the budget to afford employee health care and less than half of the small staff get coverage. The rise in costs this year alone was insane.
August 26th, 2008 at 5:46 pmPrepare to pick it up, 49erDem. The BlueDogs, Repugs, and Unions will be happy to give it to you.
August 26th, 2008 at 5:47 pmAnd don't forget that stronger water, 49er. It'll help wash that monthly health insurance premium down.
August 26th, 2008 at 5:48 pmAnd how is the European Union competing on the world stage with its health care system? Even China committed to cover all its citizens by 2018.
August 26th, 2008 at 5:50 pmCappy McPoopy-head is about as out-of-touch as anyone with 8 houses can get...
GOP Mess America...
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August 26th, 2008 at 6:00 pmAs somebody who pays union benefits for their employess I can tell you this country cannot be competitive until a universal programs that lowers costs for everybody is enacted. I pay over $200 per employee per week to cover healthcare. Since we are a service industry people have to come to us. If we manufactured they could just buy cheaper stuff from China. Every other developed and many non developed countries have national healthcare programs. How will employers ever compete? Also, it makes every employer reluctant to hire another employee because the cost is so great.
August 26th, 2008 at 6:06 pmAm I the only one getting bored with pixel105's hawking of their film. The polygyny threshold model is a classic hypothesis
August 26th, 2008 at 6:07 pmMcCain :" AFL-CIO president is wrong,my dear friends, I know that there is economic 'Surge',I just talked to Carly Fiorina".
August 26th, 2008 at 6:11 pmOf course McCain is wrong. Anyone with any knowledge/brains knows McCain is wrong on pretty well anything he remembers long enough to comment on (I have no idea how many houses I have; I don't know what car I drive, etc.) Although, to be honest, it's often hard to tell when he's wrong, since he changes his stand almost every time he speaks. The supreme flip-flopper, that's McCain, and the MSM lets him change his tune over & over, and never calls him on it. Lord help the U.S. with the sappy, wussy MSM that think they are journalists. They parrot, they never actually question or interview. Will news, newspapers, & true journalists ever recover from this bleak news period in the U.S.? Recover from this horrible time when so-called journalists became talking points spewers, when they stopped asking important questions, when they stopped caring about their own integrity & the integrity of true, insightful, factual news?? Maybe they never will recover from their truth vaccuum-- and they aren't even paying attention to the criticisms of the majority of the public, so we can't feel sorry for them. Talking Heads- there was never so true a description.
August 26th, 2008 at 6:14 pmI recognize that our current for pay health care system is a shambles.
August 26th, 2008 at 6:44 pmIt costs employers and employees (if they can even get it) as fortune.
A single payer system would be a much more efficient mode of operation. The administrative overhead of private for profit healthcare insurance is way out of line with what medicare does.
It's a shame that the unions are caving in on this, but the problem is systemic, and we need CHANGE WE CAN COUNT ON!!!
Shayne at 6:06 pm
At the last place I worked my employer paid my health insurance premium in full. If someone hired in with health problems they had to work as an independent contractor (self-employed, of course). I have even better coverage now, but if I wanted to work for a small firm, I couldn't risk it because of the health insurance I would give up. Oops, Dennis is on!
August 26th, 2008 at 6:52 pmHe's Gooooood! He's real good!
August 26th, 2008 at 6:59 pmWhy do these people have to be so courteous? Why doesn't he give John McCain some straight talk like "Is McCain on drugs or something?"
That's what wakes people up. Saying McCain is ‘wrong’ is like saying "naughty naughty boy, wash your mouth and don't do it again". Nobody is impressed with that kind of talk anymore.
August 26th, 2008 at 7:08 pmWatch out Goo-Goo, the Blue Dogs are horning in on the Repugnicant franchise.
First AT&T rolls out the red carpet. Then the energy boys give the Azure Chupacabres some of that Texas Tea. No wonder Mitt, Rudy and Karl rode into town.
Now which one is the Lone Ranger, I mean McCain Pioneer, Rancher, Ranger? And how much does one have to give to achieve that status?
August 26th, 2008 at 10:48 pm