In an announcement today, John McCain says that the U. S. government was "forced" to bail out AIG amid looming consequences to millions whose insurance, investments, and retirement accounts rested in the hands of the multinational insurance giant.

According to the report filed by Glen Johnson, AP business sector writer:

...both McCain and Obama support sending billions to the auto industry in what critics call yet another bailout by taxpayers. McCain, who lost Michigan primary after saying some U.S. jobs will never come back from overseas, now is behind a plan in Congress to give automakers $25 billion in federal loans to help them retool for cleaner cars.

"It's time to get our auto industry back on its feet," McCain said. "And it's time for a new generation of cars and for loans to build the facilities to make them."

Although McCain has stepped up criticism of government regulators as he seeks the presidency, he has long favored a reduction in corporate regulation.

McCain had a hand in economic matters as a member of the Senate Commerce Committee, which he once chaired. His campaign has noted that McCain was heavily involved in telecommunications regulation and deregulation.

McCain said in an interview that he didn't want the government to bail out AIG. "But there are literally millions of people whose retirement, whose investment, whose insurance were at risk here," he said on ABC's "Good Morning America." "They were going to have their lives destroyed because of the greed and excess and corruption."

Given McCain's past criticism of regulation for Corporate America, can he now be trusted to put regulations in place that will force Wall St. to walk a thinner line in spite of his acknowledgment that "greed and excess and corruption" are rife within their hallowed institutions? By his own words, "the economy is fundamentally sound" and on the other hand, "the economy is clearly broken". He wants us to trust that jobs will be created by these same corrupt and morally bankrupt corporations if we will simply trust in the divinity of the free market economy without the need for more stringent regulation.

I can't speak for McCain, but as a victim of these multinational giants, I know first-hand what it is like to frequently be tossed on the trash heap in favor of outsourcing jobs in a totally deregulated free market economy. Corporate America can be counted on to do one thing -- screw the American voters who make the gears turn inside the machinery. Trusting them is, I can assure you, THE farthest thing from MY mind, right next to voting for the economic imbecile known as Senator John McCain.