As the 2008 election has heated up, and George Bush’s approval rating has continued to drop, John McCain has been on the lookout for ways to differentiate himself from the president. Seems like he’s finally found the issue: international labor and environmental standards. Bush likes them and McCain doesn’t.

On May 10, 2007, President Bush reached an agreement with Congressional trade committee leaders on specific stipulations for any future international trade deal signed by the United States. With particular emphasis on strengthening labor and environmental standards, this announcement showed the first step in bipartisan agreement in US trade policy. Under the new regulations:

– Free trade agreement countries would be committed to adopting and enforcing laws that abide by basic international labor standards, such as child labor, the right to collective bargaining and the elimination of employment discrimination

– Countries that reach trade agreements with the United States would have to adopt and enforce laws that are in line with seven major multilateral environmental agreements.

– The US would have full, non-challengeable authority to prevent foreign companies from operating U.S. ports, based on national security concerns.

John McCain, however, has a very different stance on these types of standards. He doesn’t believe in them at all:

McCain would reject the use of labor and environmental issues to block trade, said Douglas Holtz-Eakin, McCain’s chief economic policy adviser. His preference would be to monitor trading partners in order to determine if they are improving their standards, he believes this approach would be far more effective than requiring labor and environmental standards in trade agreements.

McCain’s rhetoric on labor and environmental standards extends into his long Senate voting record, as well. In the deeply contested 2000-2001 debate on China’s accession into the World Trade Organization, McCain repeatedly voted down measures forcing China to change their policies towards civil and humanitarian rights before gaining acceptance into the WTO. During the 2002 debate on presidential fast track authority, McCain’s votes were no different — he repeatedly voted against establishing labor standards in trade deals negotiated by the president:

I don’t believe in walls. I believe in freedom. If I were president, I would negotiate a free trade agreement with almost any country willing to negotiate fairly with us. Only risks to the security of our vital interests or egregious offenses to our most cherished political values should disqualify a nation from entering into a free trade agreement with us.

Kudos to McCain for finally finding an issue that separates him from the president. Unfortunately for his campaign, however, he picked one of the thing that he should be following Bush’s lead.

UPDATE: McCain seems to have divorced himself from his own position. In his May 12, 2008 speech on global warming, McCain said:

We will apply the same environmental standards to industries in China, India, and elsewhere that we apply to our own industries.

Or does McCain intend to lower the environmental standards of the United States to those of China and India?

Sen. John McCain has a strong record on taxes. In 2001 and 2003, he voted staunchly against tax cuts proposed by President Bush, calling them both a giveaway for the wealthy and unfair to low and middle-income wage earners. In 2001, McCain broke ranks and became one of two members of his party to vote against Bush’s most extensive tax cut plan. McCain explained on the Senate floor:

I cannot in good conscience support a tax cut in which so many of the benefits go to the most fortunate among us at the expense of middle-class Americans who need tax relief.

Over the years, McCain has consistently advocated for middle class tax relief. He offered, and voted for, measures that gave savings to lower income tax earners by shrinking the cut in the top tax rate for the wealthiest individuals, allowed service members on active duty to qualify for tax relief as they sold their primary residence, and blocked a repeal of the estate tax.

But now, almost seven years to the day since the first Bush tax cut (which is set to expire in 2010), John McCain is singing a different tune in order to appease his GOP base. Over and over again, McCain has endorsed making Bush’s tax cuts permanent, directly contradicting his years of Congressional votes:

Well, I think the worst thing we can do right now is — we’ve got some shaky economic times — is to increase people’s taxes. And I think that what we need is more tax cuts. We need to make Bush tax cuts permanent. [3/08]

John McCain is a rare breed of politician — the kind that can wipe out an admirable legislative record that spans more than a quarter century with two years of opportunistic, self-serving rhetoric. Nobody said running for president was easy, but trading in long-standing beliefs for a presidential nomination is the worst kind of flip-flopping.