John McCain
Straight Talk Town Hall
Scranton, PA 09/22/08
TRANSCRIPTION
QUESTIONER: "My question has to do with jobs offshoring. The company I work for is a Fortune 500 company, I've been there for 21 years, and speculation is that over the next two weeks or so they're going to downsize or offshore 1,500 jobs. My father retired from the company, I had hoped to retire, but I'm a father of four children, and I was just wondering, what can we do about getting these jobs to stay here in the United States, instead of going to places like India?"
MCCAIN: "I thank you for the question and I want to give you, to start with, my utmost sympathy in the challenge that you may be facing. And this is happening all over America, it's happened in the heartland of America, as you well know. States like Pennsylvania, Michigan, Ohio, where we've lost the manufacturing jobs. And I've got a lot of answers, but I've like to give you two. One of them is, we have such a high business tax in America that it makes it attractive for these companies and corporations to go overseas. The business tax in Ireland, in the country of Ireland, is 11 percent. The business tax in the United States of America is 35 percent. Now you are a business or a corporation, you're a business and you have a decision to make. It's obvious that you are probably going to go where you can maximize your profits, etc. etc. And I don't need to tell you how well trained and educated the work force in Ireland is. So that's the first thing. And the long term answer is we got to an education and retraining program for displaced workers so that we go to the community colleges, they take the responsibility and the ability to design programs and training and education so that people can enter what is going to be the new economy in America. And that new economy, to a large degree in my view is going to be based on alternate energy. It's going to be based on the innovation, the talent, the entrepreneurship of America as we develop hydrogen cars and battery driven cars, and we build 45 new nuclear power plants by the year 2030, which creates 700,000 new jobs. Where we address the issue of climate change and energy independence so that the new technologies and the new ideas and the innovation of America will bring millions of jobs to America. And that's going to be key to a great degree to this national security issue I mentioned before of our dependency on foreign oil, which now causes us to develop these new technologies, create millions of new jobs in America. But we got to have the right kind of education in America and education and training programs for displaced workers. And if an older worker loses his job because of a manufacturing job, then I'm willing if that worker has to take a much lower paying job while they're undergoing that reeducation and training, let's subsidize their wages. We know how sacred a job is in America. We know a job is more than a job. So look, I got to look you in the eye and tell you these are tough times in America. We may be facing the greatest financial crisis since the end of World War II in the history of this country. These are tough times, but it's a time for tough leadership, it's a time for someone who knows how to work across the party aisle, who can work in a bi-partisan fashion, and get something done. We have to reform the way we do business, get rid in Washington, get rid of this cronyism and special interest and money that's washing around Washington, and the corruption, and at the same time we have to make government responsive. And let me just say, we have to bring back prosperity and jobs. I know how to reform and bring back prosperity and jobs. I know how to reach across the aisle to do that. And my friends, it's time for strong leadership in this country. I'm ready to provide it. And I have been prepared all my life, all my life, in doing one thing, that's what America wants more than anything else now in a President of the United States, its put our country first. That's what I'll do."
JM PA 09-22 (JR#68) GK - ClipJ
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