Republican Candidates and Our Money

[Omaha Steve]

http://blog.aflcio.org/2008/01/10/republican-candidates-and-our-money/

by Tula Connell, Jan 10, 2008

The Republican candidates for president are coagulating in Michigan now, vying for top spots in the Jan. 15 primaries. Media reports say the GOP-ers will focus on the economy.

That’s quite a shift from just a few months ago, when entire Republican debates went by with no acknowledgement from any of the contenders, with the occasional exception of former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee, that working families are suffering through the nation’s biggest subprime mortgage disaster, record gas prices, a lack of guaranteed health care, sinking wages, trade policies that outsource U.S. jobs—to mention a few.



In contrast, when it comes to our pocketbook issues, the major Democratic candidates all have strongly defined their pro-working family positions in the debates and on the stumps. So, given that the Republican candidates haven’t said much to date on their domestic economic agenda, let’s take a look at their records. (Much of the info below comes from our Working Families Vote site here.) http://www.aflcio.org/issues/politics/

Rudy Giuliani. Here’s how the former New York Mayor describes his position supporting unfettered trade deals:

We no longer have separation between a domestic economy and a global economy. It’s one in the same thing. And I generally agree with the principles of free trade and…increasingly have become more convinced of those principles because I almost think they are inevitable. If we fight them, we hurt ourselves. If we embrace them, we kind of move to the future.

Mike Huckabee. Huckabee’s attacks on CEO pay and job outsourcing offer an appealing message. But check out the details. Although he backed raising the minimum wage in Arkansas from $5.15 to $6.25 an hour, he did so “as a safeguard against a proposed constitutional amendment that would have increased the minimum wage yearly for inflation.” Huckabee’s support of Bush’s privatized Social Security plan doesn’t bode well for the millions of America’s workers looking for a secure retirement: The plan Bush proposed a few years back would have slashed guaranteed benefits by as much as $9,000 per year and prevented individuals from controlling the money in their private accounts.

John McCain. The senator from Arizona has voted against raising the federal minimum wage to $7.25 an hour (Congress finally approved the pay boost last year). McCain also has voted to allow states to opt out of future federal minimum wage increases, which effectively would repeal the federal minimum wage requirement.

FULL story at link.