Exposing Five Dangerous Lies in McCain’s Big Speech

By AlterNet

Editor’s note: Much of the best information on the 2008 election can’t be found in newspapers or magazines, or TV and radio, or websites — it’s on email. The article below is an email response sent out by critics of McCain’s RNC speech singling out inaccurate statements the GOP nominee made to the nation on critical issues of the day.

 

False McCain Claim: “My health care plan will make it easier for more Americans to find and keep good health care insurance.”

Facts: McCain’s Health Care Plan Does Little to Reduce the Ranks of America’s Uninsured and Would Erode the Employer-Based System

Under McCain’s Plan, Health Insurance Benefits Would be Taxed For The First Time, Resulting In A $3.6 Trillion Tax Increase On Working Families. McCain’s health care plan would eliminate the payroll deduction on health care benefits, which would have the effect of raising taxes on working families by $3.6 trillion. [New York Times, 5/1/08]

McCain’s Plan Undermines The Employer-Based Health Care System And Will Lead To Workers Losing Coverage. McCain’s health care plan would begin to dismantle the employer-based health care system, removing the incentives employers have to provide health care coverage, resulting in employees losing their health care. [New York Times, 4/30/08;Washington Post, 4/30/08]

The Health Care Tax Credit McCain Offers Would Cover Less Than Half The Cost Of An Average Health Care Plan. The McCain health plan would give families a $5,000 tax credit to purchase health insurance. However, in 2007, the average family health insurance plan cost $12,000 – more than double the value of McCain’s health care tax credit. ["Employer Health Benefits 2007 Annual Survey," Kaiser Family Foundation, 9/11/07; "'Call To Action' On Health Care Reform," John McCain 2008 press release, 4/29/08; Wall Street Journal, 10/11/07]

McCain’s Health Care Plan Does Little to Help America’s Uninsured. McCain’s plan does not focus on “reducing the ranks of the uninsured,” of which there are about 47 million, or one in seven Americans. According to the New York Times, “The McCain campaign has no estimate of how many of America’s 47 million uninsured would likely gain coverage under its plan.” It “has been estimated to reduce the number of uninsured in the U.Sby three to nine million.” [Wall Street Journal, 10/11/2007, 4/30/2008; New York Times, 3/2/2008]

McCain’s Erosion Of Employer System Would Take Away Millions of Americans’ Insurance. According to the Kaiser Family Foundation, “158 million people nationally” had “employer-sponsored health insurance” in 2007. McCain’s elimination of the employer tax incentive to provide coverage would put these 158 million Americans’ coverage in jeopardy. According to an analysis conducted by the Center For American Progress, “business owners would no longer need to cover their workers to get tax benefits for their own coverageThe entire employer health insurance system could unravel, ending this as an option for Americans who prefer it.” In addition, the McCain plan “would not require insurers to provide health coverage to people with pre-existing conditions.” [Kaiser Family Foundation, "Employer Health Benefits 2007 Annual Survey; Center For American Progress Action Fund, "Analysis of McCain's Health Care Announcement," 4/29/2008; New York Times Political Blog, "The Caucus," 4/29/2008,

Oil Companies:

False McCain Attack: "Both parties and Senator Obama passed another corporate welfare bill for oil companies."

The Facts: Energy Bill Actually Raised Taxes on Oil and Gas Industry, McCain Supports Tax Breaks for Big Oil

AP Fact Check: Congressional Research Service Showed That The Energy Bill Actually Raised Taxes On The Oil And Gas Industry. The AP reported, "Clinton is on shakier ground when attacking Obama for supporting "Dick Cheney's energy bill," and not just because it's a stretch to assign the vice president name - red meat to Democrats - to the legislation. The 2005 act that she describes as packed with billions of dollars in oil industry breaks actually raised taxes on the oil and gas industry by about $300 million over 11 years, according to the Congressional Research Service. The nonpartisan analysis found $2.6 billion in tax cuts for the oil and gas industry and $2.9 billion in tax increases. The bulk of tax breaks went to other sources of energy, including alternative fuels favored by both Clinton and Obama." [AP, 2/15/08]

McCain’s Tax Plan Will Cut Taxes For Oil Companies by Nearly $4 Billion – Including $1.2 Billion for Exxon. A study by the Center for American Progress Action Fund noted that the corporate tax rate cut included in the McCain tax plan “would deliver a $3.8 billion tax cut to the five largest American oil companies” – ExxonMobil, Chevron, ConocoPhillips, Valero Energy, and Marathon. According to their analysis ofExxon’s financial statements, the company would receive a tax savings of $1.2 billion under the McCain plan. ["The McCain Plan to Cut Oil CompanyTaxes by Nearly $4 Billion," Center for American Progress Action Fund, 3/27/08]

McCain Spokesman: McCain Opposes A Bipartisan Compromise to Expand Domestic Oil Production Because of Provisions that Would End Tax Breaks for Oil Companies. ”A spokesman for Sen. McCain said that while he ‘applauds the bipartisan effort,’ he wouldn’t support the proposal because ‘he cannot and will not support legislation that raises taxes.’” [Wall Street Journal,8/2/08] ###

Read more of the story here.

He Came, He Saw, He Conquered!

 

A record crowd of 84,000 witnessed Barack Obama accept his Presidential nomination.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The corporate media built up the expectations for Barack Obama’s speech tonight to a point at which the mainstream pundits were sharpening their scalping knives to proclaim that he didn’t meet those expectations. But once again the media blowhards underestimated Barack Obama’s talent, his oratorical skills, and his heart.

 

What impresses me the most about Barack Obama is his grasp of the engine of history. He knows that FDR’s New Deal was not passed from on high but was an expression of years of arduous organizing by ordinary workers, struggling to form successful industrial unions for the first time in this country.

Read the whole story here

Obama’s Speech Lures Some Fence-Sitters as Others Await McCain

Aug. 29 (Bloomberg) – Barack Obama‘s speech last night left Janell Mader, a 32-year-old lifelong Republican, “a little overwhelmed” — and likely to vote for him in November.

“All of the concerns or questions that I had have been answered,” Mader, a homemaker from York, Pennsylvania, said of Illinois Senator Obama, 47, the Democratic presidential candidate. “John McCain‘s going to have to do something pretty incredible next week for me to be convinced that theRepublican Party deserves another four years.”

Mader was one of a dozen undecided voters from across the U.S. who discussed their impressions both before and immediately after Obama accepted his party’s nomination at Invesco Field in Denver on the closing night of the Democratic National Convention.

Some of these persuadable voters had been leaning toward Obama and others were leaning toward the Republican candidate, Arizona Senator McCain, 72. Many said they were impressed by the address. While some of the voters said the first part of Obama’s speech was short on specifics, he ultimately allayed their concerns, and most had a positive view of the convention.

At 77, Elizabeth Roszel has never voted for a Democratic presidential candidate, though she is considering backing Obama this year.

`Very Good Case’

The Democrat “has a very good case and I’m feeling very positive about him,” said Roszel, who lives in Philpot, Kentucky. “Now, I have to hear the Republicans,” who are scheduled to gather next week in St. Paul, Minnesota.

Going into the convention, Obama’s task was to convince these undecided voters that he could match his campaign’s message of change with substantive proposals for addressing the economy, health care and the war in Iraq.

He made his case, said Kathryn Martin, a 64-year-old registered nurse from Miami Lakes, Florida, who voted for Senator Hillary Clinton, 60, in the Democratic primary.

“I’m sold,” Martin said. “I think we’re ready for him.”

Michelle Obama’s Convention Speech