Subject: [big campaign] Tracking Update: McCain Speech to LULAC Washington, DC 07/08/09
From: "Cammie Croft" <[email-masked]>
To: [email-masked]
Date: Tue, 8 Jul 2008 13:15:42 -0400
List-Id: <bigcampaign.googlegroups.com>

Hello All,

Just off the phone with our tracker Kelli who made it into today's event.
Below are the notes from our call.

*BIG HIGHLIGHTS:*

   - McCain addresses struggling economy, highlights his job growth plan
   - Newest health care plan sound byte: ' I intend to make health care more
   available to more Americans by making it more affordable and portable.'
   - Highlights support for free trade: 'A little straight-talk, the global
   economy is here to stay.'
   - Characterizes the problems/inequities in education for Hispanic and
   African-American families as the biggest 'civil rights challenge of our
   time'
   - Highlights the key points of his Lexington Project plan
   - Talks about comprehensive immigration reform and our 'humanitarian
   responsibilities'
   - Works in a story about his experience as a POW: 'When I was in prison
   in Vietnam, I like other of my fellow POWs, was offered early release by my
   captors. Most of us refused because we were bound to our code of conduct,
   which said those who had been captured the earliest had to be released the
   soonest. My friend, Everett Alvarez, a brave American of Mexican descent,
   had been shot down years before I was, and had suffered for his country much
   more and much longer than I had. To leave him behind would have shamed us.'

*Washington, DC: McCain Speech to the League of United Latin American
Citizens 07/08/09*

*Background Details:
- *Audience 600-700 in size, predominately Hispanic, middle-age crowd
- Audience was noticeably more supportive of McCain in applause and campaign
chum than previous speech to NALEO
- Press included all major networks, traveling press and local networks as
well as Spanish speaking stations
- Tracker had no trouble getting in
- No noticeable demonstrators/protesters
*
FULL Remarks
LINK: *http://thepage.time.com/mccains-address-to-lulac/*
*

REMARKS BY JOHN MCCAIN TO THE 79th ANNUAL LULAC CONVENTION

Thank you. I'm very pleased to be here to discuss with you some of the
issues in this campaign that most concern Americans, particularly the issue
that worries us the most — the American economy.

All of us know what is happening to the economy. It is slowing. Over 400,000
people have lost their jobs since December, and the rate of new job creation
has fallen sharply. Some economists have noted that companies seem to be on
a "hiring strike." Americans are worried about the security of their current
job, and they're worried that they, their kids and their neighbors may not
find good jobs and new opportunities in the future. To make matters worse,
gas is over $4 a gallon and the price of oil has nearly doubled in the last
year. The cost of everything from energy to food is rising.

I have a plan to grow the economy, create more and better jobs, and get
America moving again. I have a plan to reform government, achieve energy
security, and ensure that healthcare and a quality education are affordable
and available for all. I believe the role of government is to unleash the
creativity, ingenuity and hard work of the American people, and make it
easier to create jobs.

At its core, the economy isn't the sum of an array of bewildering
statistics. It's about where Americans work, how theylive, how the pay their
bills today and save for tomorrow. It's about small businesses opening their
doors, hiring employees and growing. It's about giving workers the education
and training to find a good job and prosper in it. It's about the
aspirations of the American people to build a better life for their
families; dreams that begin with a job.

So how are we going to create good jobs? Let's start with small businesses,
which create the majority of all jobs. A recent report says small businesses
have created 233,000 jobs so far this year while other sectors are losing
jobs. Small businesses are the job engine of America, and I will make it
easier for them to grow and create more jobs. There are two million Latino
owned businesses in America, a number that is growing very rapidly. The
first consideration we should have when debating tax policy is how we can
help those companies grow and increase the prosperity of the millions of
American families whose economic security depends on their success.

It is a terrible mistake to raise taxes during an economic downturn.
Increasing the tax burden on Americans impedes job growth, discourages
innovation and makes us less competitive. Small businesses are the biggest
job creators in our economy. Keeping individual rates low isn't intended as
a favor to wealthy Americans. 23 million small business owners pay those
rates, and taking more money from them deprives them of the capital they
need to invest and grow and hire. If you believe you should pay more taxes,
I am the wrong candidate for you. Jobs are the most important thing our
economy creates. When you raise taxes in a bad economy you eliminate jobs.
I'm not going to let that happen. I will keep current rates low and cut them
where I can. For those of you with children, I will double the child
deduction from $3500 to $7000 for every dependent, in every family in
America. I will reduce the estate tax to fifteen percent, so parents who
have spent long years working hard to build a business, and provide a decent
living to their employees, can leave the product of a lifetime of labor and
love to their children.

My health care plan is careful not to impose greater burdens on small
business. A "pay or play" health mandate on small business would add a
crushing $12,000 to the cost of employing anyone with a family. That would
not only prevent them from creating new jobs, but will force them to cut
jobs, and reduce the wages of current employees to pay for it. I intend to
make health care more available to more Americans by making it more
affordable and portable. The answer is to get health care costs under
control by creating real competition among insurance companies, reforming
the way medical treatment is billed, and helping American families make
their own health care decisions with a $5000 tax credit.

Our current business tax rate, the second highest in the world, will
postpone our recovery from this downturn and make us increasingly less
competitive in the world economy. When a corporation plans to expand and
hire more workers, they face a choice between building a new plant here at
home or building it in a country where they will pay a third or a half the
tax rate they pay in America. Employers can hire more people, or they can
pay more taxes. They can rarely do both. We can no longer afford the luxury
of nostalgia for past times when American business faced little serious
competition in the world. I propose to reduce the business tax rate from 35
percent to 25 percent.

The global economy is here to stay. We cannot build walls to foreign
competition, and we shouldn't want to. When have Americans ever been afraid
of competition? America is the biggest exporter, importer, producer,
manufacturer, and innovator in the world. That's why I reject the false
virtues of economic isolationism. Any confident, competent country and its
government should embrace competition - it makes us stronger - not hide from
our competitors and cheat our consumers and workers. We can compete and win,
as we always have, or we can be left behind. Lowering barriers to trade
creates more and better jobs, and higher wages. It keeps inflation under
control. It makes goods more affordable for low and middle income consumers.
Ninety-five percent of the world's consumers live outside the U.S. Our
future prosperity depends on opening more of these markets, not closing
them.

For Americans who have lost their job to foreign competition, I have
proposed a comprehensive reform of our unemployment insurance and worker
retraining programs. We will use our community colleges to help train
workers for specific opportunities in their communities. And for workers of
a certain age who have lost a job that won't come back, we'll help make up
the difference in wages between their old job and a temporary, lower paid
one until they've completed retraining and found secure new employment at a
decent wage.

In the global economy what you learn is what you earn. Today, studies show
that half of Hispanics and half of AfricanAmericans entering high school do
not graduate with their class. By the 12th grade, U.S. students in math and
science score near the bottom of all industrialized nations. Many parents
fear their children won't have the same opportunities they had. That is
unacceptable in a country as great as ours. In many schools, particularly
where people are struggling the hardest, the situation is dire, and I
believe poses the civil rights challenge of our time. We need to shake up
failed school bureaucracies with competition; hold schools accountable for
results; strengthen math, science, technology and engineering curriculums;
empower parents with choice; remove barriers to qualified instructors,
attract and reward superior teachers, and have a fair but sure process to
weed out incompetents.

Few problems hurt Americans more than our dangerous dependence on foreign
oil, and the rapid and dramatic increase in the price of gasoline it has
caused. Obviously, the crisis hurts lower income Americans, who often drive
the furthest to work and own the oldest cars. But because the cost of almost
everything is affected directly by the cost of oil, the quality of life for
many millions of Americans and the growth and hiring plans of millions of
small businesses are suffering. Our dependence on foreign oil has been
thirty years in the making, and was caused by the failure of politicians in
Washington to think long term about the future of the country. If we don't
act now to achieve energy security, we are putting our national security,
our economy and our environment at grave risk. By 2030, America's demand for
energy will rise by nearly twenty percent. Our jobs and our very way of life
depend on the next President beginnin g to solve this challenge.

Two weeks ago, I announced the Lexington Project to secure our energy
future, named for the place where Americans first fought for their
independence. We will begin by producing more of our own oil and gas.
Increasing our own supply will send a message to the market and result in
lower prices for oil and gas.

We will develop more clean energy. Nuclear power is the most dependable
source of zero-emission energy we have. We will build at least 45 new
nuclear plants that will create over 700,000 good jobs to construct and
operate them.

The development of clean coal technology will create jobs in some of
America's most economically disadvantaged areas. Our coal reserves are
larger than Saudi Arabia's supply of oil. Clean coal demonstration projects
alone will employ over 30,000 Americans.

My proposal to help automakers design and sell new generations of cars that
don't depend on gasoline will re-invigorate that struggling industry. My
plan to develop wind and solar power and renewable technologies will drive
innovation and create high tech jobs. The Lexington Project will create
millions of jobs, help protect our environment, improve our security, and
solve the nation's energy problems. It is an ambitious plan, but I am
confident our American workers, industry and entrepreneurs are up to this
next great challenge in our history. The genius, hard work and courage of
Americans have never failed us, and will not fail us now.

Let me close by talking briefly about my respect and gratitude for the
contributions of Hispanic-Americans to the culture, economy and security of
the country I have served all my adult life. I represent Arizona where
Spanish was spoken before English was, and where the character and
prosperity of our state owes a great deal to the many Arizonans of Hispanic
descent who live there. And I know this country, which I love more than
almost anything, would be the poorer were we deprived of the patriotism,
industry and decency of those millions of Americans whose families came here
from other countries in our hemisphere. I will honor their contributions to
America for as long as I live.

I and many other colleagues twice attempted to pass comprehensive
immigration legislation to fix our broken borders; ensure respect for the
laws of this country; recognize the important economic necessity of
immigrant laborers; apprehend those who came here illegally to commit
crimes; and deal practically and humanely with those who came here, as my
distant ancestors did, to build a better, safer life for their families,
without excusing the fact they came here illegally or granting them
privileges before those who have been waiting their turn outside the
country. Many Americans, with good cause, did not believe us when we said we
would secure our borders, and so we failed in our efforts. We must prove to
them that we can and will secure our borders first, while respecting the
dignity and rights of citizens and legal residents of the United States. But
we must not make the mistake of thinking that our responsibility to meet
this challenge will end with that accomplishment. We have economic and
humanitarian responsibilities as well, and they require no less dedication
from us in meeting them.

When I was in prison in Vietnam, I like other of my fellow POWs, was offered
early release by my captors. Most of us refused because we were bound to our
code of conduct, which said those who had been captured the earliest had to
be released the soonest. My friend, Everett Alvarez, a brave American of
Mexican descent, had been shot down years before I was, and had suffered for
his country much more and much longer than I had. To leave him behind would
have shamed us. When you take the solemn stroll along that wall of black
granite on the national Mall, it is hard not to notice the many names such
as Rodriguez, Hernandez, and Lopez that so sadly adorn it. When you visit
Iraq and Afghanistan you will meet some of the thousands of
Hispanic-Americans who serve there, and many of those who risk their lives
to protect the rest of us do not yet possess the rights and privileges of
full citizenship in the country they love so well. To love your country, as
I discovered in Vietnam, is to love your countrymen. Those men and women are
my brothers and sisters, my fellow Americans, an association that means more
to me than any other. As a private citizen or as your President, I will
never, never do anything to dishonor our obligations to them and their
families or to forget what they and their ancestors have done to make this
country the beautiful, bountiful, blessed place we love.

Thank you.

-- 
Cammie L. Croft
Tracking/Media Monitoring Director
Progressive Accountability Office
[email-masked]
202-609-7679 (office)
206-999-3064 (cell)

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