WAGE INSURANCE….Here’s an interesting passage from John McCain’s speech tonight:
Government assistance for the unemployed workers was designed for the economy of the 1950s. That’s going to change on my watch….For workers in industries that have been hard-hit, we’ll help make up part of the difference in wages between their old job and a temporary, lower paid one, while they receive re-training that will help them find secure new employment at a decent wage.
McCain is talking here about “wage insurance,” a proposal that’s been bubbling around in neoliberal circles for over a decade and has considerable (though not unanimous) support among Democrats. McCain, I think, has mentioned wage insurance in passing a few times before, but as far as I know he’s never really committed himself to it. And unless it’s buried somewhere that I missed, it’s not part of the economic plan on his website.
But tonight, in a speech with very few specific policy details, he committed himself firmly to supporting a wage insurance plan if he becomes president. Why? Was it just because he didn’t really have much else in the way of economic proposals that he thought might appeal to ordinary families? Was it a throwaway line? Or is he serious about it?
