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SEPT. 5, 2008:NWLP 9/2/08 9:46 AM Page 2 ...McCain supports Social Security privatization, right-to-work (From Page1) having to pay any share of the costs of union representation.” Right-to-work comes from a provision of the anti- union Taft-Hartley Act, passed in 1947, which says states can pass laws banning union contracts that require workers to pay union dues as a condi- tion of employment. Twenty-two states, mostly in the South, are right- to-work, and generally those states are where unions are weakest. In Mc- Cain’s “right-to-work” Arizona, for example, less than 9 percent of work- ers belong to unions. McCain also voted against the Em- ployee Free Choice Act, labor’s top priority, which would make it easier for workers to unionize and get a first contract, and would crack down on employer abuse of workers’ rights. Obama voted for the Employee Free Choice Act, and has promised to sign it into law if elected president. McCain came to be known as a “maverick” Republican mainly be- cause his best-known achievement in the Senate is a campaign finance re- form law that was opposed by most of his fellow Republicans. McCain be- b h m k came a campaign finance reform ad- vocate after he was tainted in the “Keating Five” scandal. In the 1980s, he was one of five U.S. senators who intervened with federal regulators on behalf of Lincoln Savings & Loan — after having received sizable campaign contributions from Lincoln executive Charles Keating. Keating went to jail; McCain got a rebuke from the Senate Ethics Committee for bad judgment. After that, McCain spoke out against the influence of big money in politics, and co-sponsored a bill with Wiscon- sin Democrat Russ Feingold. It finally passed in 2002, and it limits campaign contributions to political parties. McCain also showed an independ- ent streak when he opposed the 2001 and 2003 Bush tax cuts, which gave the biggest cuts to the wealthiest tax- payers. The cuts lowered the top mar- ginal income tax rate (the nominal rate paid on income above $300,000 a year) from 39.6 percent to 35 percent. [For comparison, the top income tax rate was 91 percent during the Eisen- hower Administration, the era of America’s greatest growth.] But Mc- Cain has since changed his position, and now he wants to make the Bush Bennett Hartman Morris & Kaplan, llp tax cuts permanent. What does that mean? The Bush tax cuts were set to expire after 10 years as an accounting gimmick to get around a balanced budget law that is supposed to force cuts in government if Congress does- n’t come close enough to balancing the budget. The Bush tax cuts led to the biggest federal budget deficits in U.S. history. Obama has said he wants to repeal the tax cuts on the wealthy but keep the parts of the Bush cuts that reduced taxes for low and middle-income tax- payers. On trade, McCain voted for the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) in 1993 and for every subse- quent NAFTA-style trade treaty, in- cluding CAFTA, which created a free trade area for five Central American countries plus the Dominican Repub- lic. Labor union leaders say the treaties grease the skids for corporations to off- shore U.S. manufacturing jobs. Obama voted against CAFTA, but he voted for a NAFTA-style free trade agreement with the Gulf state Oman in 2006. On the campaign trail, he has said he would consider renegotiating NAFTA to strengthen labor and envi- ronmental commitments. Some doubt was cast on that pledge by a leaked memo describing a private meeting in which Obama’s senior economic pol- icy adviser told the Canadian ambassa- dor that Obama’s NAFTA-bashing “should be viewed as more about po- litical positioning than a clear articula- tion of policy plans.” But even if that’s the case, Obama is nowhere near the ardent free-trader that McCain is, or that President Bill Clinton was when he fought for passage of NAFTA against the majority of congressional Democrats. On health care, no major legislation has passed Congress since Obama joined the Senate. But Obama’s and McCain’s campaign proposals on health care are worlds apart. Obama proposes requiring all chil- dren to be insured, and allowing indi- viduals and small businesses to buy into a new national health plan that is similar to what members of Congress get. Large employers that don’t al- ready provide health benefits would have to pay something to support the program. Small businesses would get a tax credit reimbursing half the cost of providing health insurance to employ- ees. Obama also wants to see a gov- ernment watchdog agency set up to regulate and evaluate private insurance company offerings. And he proposes to make it legal for Americans to im- port prescription drugs from countries where government action keeps the price affordable. McCain, on the other hand, is pro- posing to end the tax rules that encour- age employers to offer health care. In- stead, McCain wants government to offer tax credits to encourage individu- als to buy private health insurance for catastrophic expenses and set aside money in special savings accounts to pay for routine medical expenses. McCain has also said he supports privatization of Social Security along the lines Bush proposed in 2001. Obama opposes that. “America’s voters are faced with a fundamental choice,” said AFL-CIO President John Sweeney in a Labor Day press statement, “to continue down the road we’ve taken and end up in a swamp of inequality where corpo- rations and the wealthy always get more — or to turn around America and ensure health care for all, fair trade, the freedom to improve our lives through unions, and a fair share of the wealth that working people create.” “Senator Barack Obama has a record of putting communities — not corporations — first, and helping aver- age people get our fair share,” Sweeney said. “Senator John McCain plans to continue the Bush record of putting corporate profit over working families’ needs.” The two candidates will face off in three televised presidential debates, scheduled for Sept. 26, Oct. 7, and Oct. 15. The election will be decided Nov. 4. Attorneys at Law HOW LABOR CAN Oregon’s Full Service Union Law Firm Representing Workers Since 1960 LIVE UNITED: JOIN HANDS. Serious Injury and Death Cases OPEN YOUR HEART. LEND YOUR MUSCLE. FIND YOUR VOICE. • Construction Injuries • Automobile Accidents • Medical, Dental, and Legal Malpractice • Bicycle and Motorcycle Accidents • Pedestrian Accidents • Premises Liability (injuries on premises) • Workers’ Compensation Injuries • Social Security Claims GIVE 10% GIVE 100% GIVE 110%. GIVE AN HOUR. THINK OF WE BEFORE ME. REACH OUT A HAND TO ONE AND INFLUENCE THE CONDITION OF ALL. We Work Hard for Hard-Working People! GIVE. ADVOCATE. VOLUNTEER. 111 SW Fifth Avenue, Suite 1650 Portland, Oregon 97204 (503) 227-4600 www.bennetthartman.com Our Legal Staff are Proud Members of UFCW Local 555 PAGE 2 TM United Way of the Columbia-Willamette www.unitedway-pdx.org NORTHWEST LABOR PRESS SEPTEMBER 5, 2008
