"Change is hard, and while most of us gain, some industries, companies and workers are forced to struggle with very difficult choices. It wasn't the government's job to spend millions to save buggy whip factories and haberdashers when cars replaced carriages and men stopped wearing hats. But it is government's job to help workers get the education and training they need for the new jobs that will be created by new businesses in this new century.”
» Americans For Prosperity Michigan Summit, Arlington, Va., Jan. 12, 2008
Here is Sen. John McCain's, R-Ariz., plan for bettering the skills of our work force:
Improve education and increase parental choice in the schools that their children attend.
Reform unemployment insurance to turn it into a retraining program for people needing to re-enter the work force. He will also beef up training programs to "approaches that can be used to meet the bills, pay for training and get back to work."
Give older, displaced workers who start new jobs supplemental income for a few years.
*Sen. McCain's voting record on jobs:
Voted
Topic
Date
NO
Restricting employer interference in union organizing.
June 2007
YES
Increasing minimum wage to $7.25.
February 2007
NO
Raising the minimum wage to $7.25 rather than $6.25.
March 2005
YES
Repealing Clinton's ergonomic rules on repetitive stress.
March 2001
YES
Allowing workers to choose between overtime and comp-time.
May 1997
YES
Replacing farm price supports.
February 1996
N/A
Rated 15 percent by the American Federation of Labor-Congress of Industrial Unions (AFL-CIO), indicating an anti-union voting record.
December 2003
Source: On the Issues
*Members of Congress sometimes vote on different versions of a bill. Voting yes or no on one doesn't mean they'll vote the same way on succeeding versions.
"Change is hard, and while most of us gain, some industries, companies and workers are forced to struggle with very difficult choices. It wasn't the government's job to spend millions to save buggy whip factories and haberdashers when cars replaced carriages and men stopped wearing hats. But it is government's job to help workers get the education and training they need for the new jobs that will be created by new businesses in this new century.”
