FACTS about McCain

Here are some facts and citations for your reading pleasure.
There are some important things you won't learn about him from the TV networks. His carefully crafted positive image relies on people not knowing this stuff—and you might be surprised by some of it.

Please check out the list below, and then forward it to your friends, family, and coworkers. We can't rely on the media to tell folks about the real John McCain—but if we all pass this along, we can reach as many people as CNN Headline News does on a good night.


10 things you should know about John McCain (but probably don't):

1. John McCain voted against establishing a national holiday in honor of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Now he says his position has "evolved," yet he's continued to oppose key civil rights laws.1
2. According to Bloomberg News, McCain is more hawkish than Bush on Iraq, Russia and China. Conservative columnist Pat Buchanan says McCain "will make Cheney look like Gandhi."2
3. His reputation is built on his opposition to torture, but McCain voted against a bill to ban waterboarding, and then applauded President Bush for vetoing that ban.3
4. McCain opposes a woman's right to choose. He said, "I do not support Roe versus Wade. It should be overturned."4
5. The Children's Defense Fund rated McCain as the worst senator in Congress for children. He voted against the children's health care bill last year, then defended Bush's veto of the bill.5
6. He's one of the richest people in a Senate filled with millionaires. The Associated Press reports he and his wife own at least eight homes! Yet McCain says the solution to the housing crisis is for people facing foreclosure to get a "second job" and skip their vacations.6
7. Many of McCain's fellow Republican senators say he's too reckless to be commander in chief. One Republican senator said: "The thought of his being president sends a cold chill down my spine. He's erratic. He's hotheaded. He loses his temper and he worries me."7
8. McCain talks a lot about taking on special interests, but his campaign manager and top advisers are actually lobbyists. The government watchdog group Public Citizen says McCain has 59 lobbyists raising money for his campaign, more than any of the other presidential candidates.8
9. McCain has sought closer ties to the extreme religious right in recent years. The pastor McCain calls his "spiritual guide," Rod Parsley, believes America's founding mission is to destroy Islam, which he calls a "false religion." McCain sought the political support of right-wing preacher John Hagee, who believes Hurricane Katrina was God's punishment for gay rights and called the Catholic Church "the Antichrist" and a "false cult."9
10. He positions himself as pro-environment, but he scored a 0—yes, zero—from the League of Conservation Voters last year.10

John McCain is not who the Washington press corps make him out to be. Please help get the word out—forward this email to your personal network. And if you want us to keep you posted on MoveOn's work to get the truth out about John McCain, sign up here:

http://pol.moveon.org/mccaintruth/

Sources:
1. "The Complicated History of John McCain and MLK Day," ABC News, April 3, 2008
http://blogs.abcnews.com/politicalpunch/2008/04/the-complicated.html

"McCain Facts," ColorOfChange.org, April 4, 2008
http://colorofchange.org/mccain_facts/

2. "McCain More Hawkish Than Bush on Russia, China, Iraq," Bloomberg News, March 12, 2008
http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601103&sid=aF28rSCtk0ZM&refer=us

"Buchanan: John McCain 'Will Make Cheney Look Like Gandhi,'" ThinkProgress, February 6, 2008
http://thinkprogress.org/2008/02/06/buchanan-gandhi-mccain/

3. "McCain Sides With Bush On Torture Again, Supports Veto Of Anti-Waterboarding Bill," ThinkProgress, February 20, 2008
http://thinkprogress.org/2008/02/20/mccain-torture-veto/

4. "McCain says Roe v. Wade should be overturned," MSNBC, February 18, 2007
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/17222147/

5. "2007 Children's Defense Fund Action Council® Nonpartisan Congressional Scorecard," February 2008
http://www.childrensdefense.org/site/PageServer?pagename=act_learn_scorecard2007

"McCain: Bush right to veto kids health insurance expansion," CNN, October 3, 2007
http://www.cnn.com/2007/POLITICS/10/03/mccain.interview/

6. "Beer Executive Could Be Next First Lady," Associated Press, April 3, 2008
http://ap.google.com/article/ALeqM5h-S1sWHm0tchtdMP5LcLywg5ZtMgD8VQ86M80

"McCain Says Bank Bailout Should End `Systemic Risk,'" Bloomberg News, March 25, 2008
http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601087&sid=aHMiDVYaXZFM&refer=home

7. "Will McCain's Temper Be a Liability?," Associated Press, February 16, 2008
http://abcnews.go.com/Politics/wireStory?id=4301022

"Famed McCain temper is tamed," Boston Globe, January 27, 2008
http://www.boston.com/news/nation/articles/2008/01/27/famed_mccain_temper_is_tamed/

8. "Black Claims McCain's Campaign Is Above Lobbyist Influence: 'I Don't Know What The Criticism Is,'" ThinkProgress, April 2, 2008
http://thinkprogress.org/2008/04/02/mccain-black-lobbyist/

"McCain's Lobbyist Friends Rally 'Round Their Man," ABC News, January 29, 2008
http://abcnews.go.com/Blotter/story?id=4210251

9. "McCain's Spiritual Guide: Destroy Islam," Mother Jones Magazine, March 12, 2008
http://www.motherjones.com/washington_dispatch/2008/03/john-mccain-rod-parsley-spiritual-guide.html

"Will McCain Specifically 'Repudiate' Hagee's Anti-Gay Comments?," ThinkProgress, March 12, 2008
http://thinkprogress.org/2008/03/12/mccain-hagee-anti-gay/

"McCain 'Very Honored' By Support Of Pastor Preaching 'End-Time Confrontation With Iran,'" ThinkProgress, February 28, 2008
http://thinkprogress.org/2008/02/28/hagee-mccain-endorsement/

10. "John McCain Gets a Zero Rating for His Environmental Record," Sierra Club, February 28, 2008
http://www.alternet.org/blogs/environment/77913/

Budget Facts are Budget Facts.

Since writing the book, many people attacked my criticisms of financial priorities in our country. Click on the graph that supports my research.

Additional Facts on Universal Healthcare

The Connecticut Coalition for Healthcare has some interesting FACTS regarding Universal Healthcare coverage. Here is a sampling. The link can be found on the right.

2. Myth One: The United States has the best health care system in the world.

• Fact One: The United States ranks 23rd in infant mortality, down from 12th in 1960 and 21st in 1990
  
  
• Fact Two: The United States ranks 20th in life expectancy for women down from 1st in 1945 and 13th in 1960
  
  
• Fact Three: The United States ranks 21st in life expectancy for men down from 1st in 1945 and 17th in 1960.
  
  
• Fact Four: The United States ranks between 50th and 100th in immunizations depending on the immunization. Overall US is 67th, right behind Botswana
  
  
• Fact Five: Outcome studies on a variety of diseases, such as coronary artery disease, and renal failure show the United States to rank below Canada and a wide variety of industrialized nations.
  
  
• Conclusion: The United States ranks poorly relative to other industrialized nations in health care despite having the best trained health care providers and the best medical infrastructure of any industrialized nation

Election Reform - Democratic Elections on the Horizon?

Maryland has approved a law reforming the Presidential election by dropping out of the electoral college. The remaining 49 states have similar bills on the docket. I will provide a direct link. The research supporting election reform within the article is compelling.

Corporate Welfare - Wal Mart is the Model

In my book, I stated that Wal Mart is the big target regarding reform. The research regarding the impact of Wal Mart is overwhelming.

For example, in my state(NY), Wal Mart floods the Welfare Rolls:

2005 - Total # of Wal-Mart Employees in State: 35,671
2005 - Estimated # of Wal-Mart Workers on Medicaid: 4,711
2005 - Estimated # of Wal-Mart Dependents on State Health Programs: 2,875
2005 - 2005 - Estimated Total Cost; Federal & State:$61,497,167

Remember, we give huge subsidies to Wal Mart and in kind, they repay us with additional tax burdens by requiring the taxpayers of New York to pick up the tab regarding the safety net.

I will be supplying research that supports the need for organizing labor to fight the unfair labor practices that impact our economy in a negative manner.

Universal Healthcare

My statistics came from many sites. To understand the importance of Universal Healthcare, you have to understand the impact being uninsured has on people. Consider the following facts:

• The United States spends nearly $100 billion per year to provide uninsured residents with health services, often for preventable diseases or diseases that physicians could treat more efficiently with earlier diagnosis (14).
• Hospitals provide about $34 billion worth of uncompensated care a year (14).
• Another $37 billion is paid by private and public payers for health services for the uninsured and $26 billion is paid out-of-pocket by those who lack coverage (14).
• The uninsured are 30 to 50 percent more likely to be hospitalized for an avoidable condition, with the average cost of an avoidable hospital stayed estimated to be about $3,300 (14).
• The increasing reliance of the uninsured on the emergency department has serious economic implications, since the cost of treating patients is higher in the emergency department than in other outpatient clinics and medical practices (11).

In my book, I also discuss the impact being uninsured has on children. Here is supporting evidence:

Regardless of age, race, ethnicity, income or health status, uninsured children were much less likely to have received a well-child checkup within the past year. One study shows that nearly 50 percent of uninsured children did not receive a checkup in 2003, almost twice the rate (26 percent) for insured children (12)

Finally, the statistics on who is uninsured is staggering. Consider the following facts:

• Nearly 47 million Americans, or 16 percent of the population, were without health insurance in 2005, the latest government data available (1).
• The number of uninsured rose 1.3 million between 2004 and 2005 and has increased by almost 7 million people since 2000 (1).
• The large majority of the uninsured (80 percent) are native or naturalized citizens (2).
• The increase in the number of uninsured in 2005 was focused among working age adults. The percentage of working adults (18 to 64) who had no health coverage climbed from 18.5 percent in 2004 to 20.5 percent in 2005 -- an increase of over 800,000 uninsured workers (1). Nearly one (1) million full-time workers lost their health insurance in 2005.
• Nearly 82 million people – about one-third of the population below the age of 65 spent a portion of either 2002 or 2003 without health coverage (3).

The research was based on:

1. DeNavas-Walt, C.B. Proctor, and C.H. Lee. Income, Poverty, and Health Insurance Coverage in the United States: 2005. U.S. Census Bureau., August 2006.
2. The Henry J. Kaiser Family Foundation. The Uninsured: A Primer, Key Facts About Americans without Health Insurance. October 2006
3. Families USA. One in Three: Non-elderly Americans Without Health Insurance in 2002-2003, July 2004
4. The Henry J. Kaiser Family Foundation. Employee Health Benefits: 2006 Annual Survey. 26 September 2006.
5. Center on Budget and Policy Priorities. The Number of Uninsured Americans is at an All-Time High. 29 August 2006
6. Clemens-Cope, Lisa, et al, Changes in Employees' Health Insurance Coverage, 2001-2005, Kaiser Commission on Medicaid and the Uninsured, October 2006.
7. The Henry J. Kaiser Family Foundation. The Uninsured: A Primer, Key Facts About Americans without Health Insurance. January 2006.
8. Hewitt Associates LLC. Health Care Expectations: Future Strategy and Direction 2005. 17 November 2004.
9. Dalrymple, M., "Senators Seek Tax Credit for Unemployed." Associated Press, 9 October 2003.
10. Institute of Medicine. Insuring America's Health – Principles and Recommendations. The National Academies Press, 2004.
11. Institute of Medicine. Care Without Coverage – Too Little, Too Late. The National Academies Press, 2002.
12. The Urban Institute. Key Findings from the 2002 National Health Interview Survey. 9 August 2004.
13. The Henry J. Kaiser Family Foundation. Access to Care for the Uninsured: An Update. 29 September 2003.
14. Institute of Medicine. Hidden Costs, Values Lost: Uninsurance in America. The National Academies Press. 17 June 2003.

For additional support Google NCHC for additional facts on health insurance coverage.

NCLB is Just or Unjust - Research Says....

-- The Harsh Bigotry of Flawed Strategies --

The seriously flawed NCLB strategies are hurting minority children the most according to recently released reports from the Project for Civil Rights at Harvard:

The reports demonstrate that federal accountability rules have derailed state reforms and assessment strategies, that the requirements have no common meaning across state lines, and that the sanctions fall especially hard on minority and integrated schools, asking for much less progress from affluent suburban schools.

Source: http://www.gse.harvard.edu/news/features/orfield02092004.html

Inspiring Vision, Disappointing Results:
Four Studies on Implementing the No Child
Left Behind Act

Authors: Gail L. Sunderman, Jimmy Kim and Gary Orfield

Additional Reports that failed to make the news: (Again from Havard Researchers)

Recent reports left out the fact that the Federal Government allowed states to ignore some two million minority students, comments from our current educational secretary regarding NCLB as being equitable are not only wrong but remarkably insentive.

For one who is fond (like the President) of accusing others of the "soft bigotry of low expectations," it seems odd that NCLB is considered equitable.