McCain Myth Buster: John McCain and American Jobs
March 21, 2008
John McCain is a self-professed expert on foreign policy and says America needs a president who will "protect the American worker." But time and time again, he has shown that's not his top priority. [johnmcain.com, accessed 3/20/08]
The reality is, reports show McCain helped steer a $35 billion Air Tanker contract to a European company three of his close campaign advisors lobbied for, shipping 44,000 potential American jobs in 40 states overseas. Now McCain is in France, one of the countries that would benefit from the tanker deal, meeting with French President Nicolas Sarkozy. Since he calls himself a foreign policy expert, McCain's trip is the perfect chance for him to show off his skills and pressure Sarkozy to move those jobs back to the United States. [AP, 3/8/2008; Business Week, 3/3/08]
But from what we've seen of McCain's attitude towards American workers in the past, this conversation with Sarkozy is probably a long-shot.
Air Force Tanker Deal to Outsource Tens of Thousands of Defense Jobs. According to reports, McCain consistently weighed in against Boeing getting a contract that would have resulted in the immediate creation of 44,000 new manufacturing jobs in at least 40 states and instead worked to tip the scale towards EADS's. Under best case scenarios, the European tanker deal will create 20,000 fewer U.S. jobs, and most that are created will not be in the United States until 2010 when assembly is scheduled to move from France to Alabama. [AP, 3/8/2008:
http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/politics/5603827.html;
Business Week, 3/3/08; http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/23448928/]
McCain Dismissed Impact of Tanker Deal on U.S. Workforce. Asked about the deal, McCain said: "I've never believed that defense programs, that the major reason for them should be to create jobs." [Associated Press, 3/3/08]
