With Economy in Turmoil, McCain

In The Aftermath of Bank Failures, Buyouts, Bailouts,
McCain Out of Touch with Wisconsin Families

MADISON – In Wisconsin, families continue to struggle under the Bush-McCain economy. Many Wisconsin citizens were dealt another blow this week in the wake of the economic meltdown and massive government buyouts as they now are seeing their savings and retirement shrink. Instead of talking about the ways he would address this economic turmoil, John McCain has stubbornly insisted 16 times that the “fundamentals of our economy are strong.”

“The fundamentals of John McCain’s economy might be strong, but here in Wisconsin, families are spending more on everything from gas to groceries while wages are just not keeping up,” said Democratic Party of Wisconsin Chair Joe Wineke. “Despite the clear facts that Wisconsin citizens are being hurt by the Bush-McCain economic policies, John McCain has the nerve to tell them what they are seeing in their own lives isn’t true.” 

McCain has said that “the fundamentals of our economy are strong” at least 16 times over the past year and a half, even as Americans have struggled with decreasing incomes, mounting job losses, and rising costs. Meanwhile, top economic advisor Phil Gramm called Americans “a nation of whiners” and just this weekend McCain advisor Donald Luskin wrote in the Washington Post that “Things today just aren’t that bad,” and that Americans “have surely become a nation of exaggerators.” 

National unemployment is at a five year high, gas prices have soared in the last eight years, home values are plummeting, and the median income has dropped since Bush took office, according to a July report from the Democratic Policy Committee. John McCain’s answer is to do more of the same, with a plan to give away nearly $2 trillion in tax breaks for corporations over the next 10 years but provide no tax relief to 101 million families or to any small businesses. In fact, he’ll raise taxes by $3.6 trillion on health insurance for average Americans. And while Americans can barely afford a tank of gas, he’ll give billions in tax breaks to Big Oil.

“Having voted with George Bush 90 percent of the time, Wisconsin voters know that John McCain only offers more of the same failed economic policies that landed us in this mess, not the change we need,” Wineke said. 

Yesterday, the DPW released a new DNC web video, “Fundamentally Strong?” which captures 10 instances of McCain’s repeated insistence that “the fundamentals of the economy are strong” and the disturbingly out-of-touch remarks of his top economic advisors.

To see the new web ad, “Fundamentally Wrong,” click HERE.