> Press Releases > News > Press Releases > John McCain: Standing up...
Printable Version
Tell a friend
John McCain: Standing up For Lobbyist Friends Instead of Wisconsin's Families
Tuesday, March 11, 2008
John McCain: Standing up For
Lobbyist Friends Instead of
Washington
DC - While Democrats in Congress fight for a
budget that will help American
families in this struggling economy and help
displaced workers find new jobs,
John McCain put his lobbyist buddies and
campaign advisors ahead of the
American people.
Despite claiming
lobbyists don't have any influence on him,
John McCain helped a European
company win a $35 billion Air Force tanker
contract – a company that many of
his top campaign advisors lobbied for. With
John McCain’s help, the European
company beat out an American company that
would have kept these jobs here at
home. [U.S. House of Representative's
Committee on the Budget, 2/4/08;
Associated Press, 3/7/08; Associated Press,
3/11/08]
McCain reportedly
pressed the Pentagon to ignore the fact that
EADS, the foreign-owned
company that received the contract,
receives government subsidies from European
governments that give it an unfair
advantage over its
After the
Pentagon awarded the contract, McCain defended
the process, saying he's
"never believed that defense programs, that
the major reason for them
should be to create jobs." This isn't the
first time McCain has helped
ship American jobs overseas. McCain has
been the leading opponent of "Buy American"
rules that encourage the
Pentagon to buy American-made goods for the
American military. [The Hill,
3/7/08; Associated Press, 3/3/08; Senate Vote 191,
5/21/03]
It's no
surprise, considering that McCain himself has
said he doesn't understand the
economy. Just last week, despite
record-breaking gas prices, skyrocketing
health care costs, and a housing crisis that
has many Wisconsinites struggling
to pay their mortgages, McCain said the
"fundamentals of our economy are
still strong" and
that the loss of
63,000 Americans jobs in February was "not
terrible."
["60
Minutes," 3/9/08;
"John
McCain doesn't understand the challenges
facing
- 30
-
