McCain's judgment gets worse

The Wall Street meltdown is a wake-up call for any voter considering a McCain presidency. Failed banks and investment giants are the same ones that Bush and McCain wanted us to “invest” in under the Social Security Privatization Act of 2006, which McCain supported and voted for and from which financial firms stood to gain billions of dollars in fees.

In 1998, McCain voted twice to replace Social Security’s guaranteed benefits with income from risk-based private investments. A centerpiece of McCain’s 2000 presidential bid was a plan to divert a portion of Social Security payroll taxes to fund private accounts. In 2003, McCain voted to use Social Security funds to pay off federal debt.

McCain remains a strong advocate of privatization. Referring to privatized market investments, he told the Wall Street Journal (3/3/08), “…as part of Social Security reform, I believe that private savings accounts are a part of it – along the lines that President Bush proposed,” reference to which was just removed from the McCain campaign Web site.

McCain’s judgment and grasp of economic policy was wrong then and worse now with daily flip-flop answers to this financial crisis.

“We need Leadership, not leadersheep.”

We must elect fiscally conservative leaders with the wisdom and courage to lead us out of this mess, and not allow the failed Bush/McCain policies to continue. Robert Hamilton, our own candidate for Congress, is just such a man, bringing decades of experience in finance and international banking to the table on our behalf.

Bill Gould