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JOHN McCAIN : AN OVERVIEW

• Will Increase Health Care Costs and Reduce Access. McCain’s plan undermines existing employerbased health care and pushes workers into the private market to fight big insurance companies on their own. He will make health care premiums part of taxable income, essentially creating a new tax for working families. His plan will reduce benefits, increase costs and leave many with no health care at all. (CBPP, 4/5/06; Health08.org, Forum, 10/31/07; Los Angeles Times, 11/20/07; Commonwealth Fund, 6/2005) 
  
  
• Supports Unfair Trade Deals. McCain voted for NAFTA and CAFTA, and to allow China to enter the WTO although the United States has lost more than 1 million jobs because of NAFTA and 1.8 million jobs since China entered the WTO. (H.R. 3450, Vote #395, 11/20/93; S. 1307, Vote #170, 6/30/05; H.R. 4444, Vote #251, 9/19/00; Economic Policy Institute, 10/9/07)
  
  
• More of the Same. McCain supported President Bush’s positions 95 percent of the time in 2007 and an average of 89 percent over Bush’s two terms in office. (Congressional Quarterly Voting Study, 110th Congress)
  
  
• Opposes Our Right to Bargain. McCain voted against the Employee Free Choice Act, which would level the playing field for workers trying to form unions, and for a national Right-to-Work-for-Less law that would attempt to eliminate unions altogether. (H.R. 800, Vote #227, 6/26/07; S. 1788, Vote #188, 7/10/96)
  
  
• Jeopardized Our Retirement Security. McCain supports privatizing Social Security, putting our retirement at risk, and raising the Medicare eligibility age. (SCR 83, Vote #68, 3/16/06; SCR 18, Vote #49, 3/15/05; S. Amdt.144 to SCR 18, Vote #47, 3/15/05; SCR 86, Vote #56, 4/1/98; SCR 86, Vote #77, 4/1/98; S. 947, Vote #112, S. Amdt. 445, Vote #115, 6/25/97)

Paid for by the AFL-CIO Committee on Political Education (COPE) Political Contributions Committee, www.aflcio.org, and not authorized by any candidate or candidate’s committee.