McCain's 'straight talk' for auto industry
Posted: Friday, July 18, 2008 2:36 PM by Domenico Montanaro
From NBC/NJ's Adam Aigner-Treworgy
WARREN, Mich. --
McCain took questions from auto employees at the GM Technology Center here this morning and gave them some of his patented "straight talk" on the future of their industry.
After telling the audience in his opening remarks that "there'll be times when you and I disagree on issues and one of them probably is trade," McCain quickly stumbled on another point of contention between his position and theirs -- the right of states to set their own fuel standards.
VIDEO: Defending free trade, John McCain says, "Lowering barriers to trade creates more and better jobs and higher wages."
This has been a controversial issue of late, most notably between the Bush administration and the auto companies on one side and the California legislature on the other in the western state's attempt to set stricter carbon emission standards than those currently in place nationwide.
"I'm torn on the issue because I am at heart a federalist that believes that the states should make decisions as to what happens within their states," McCain said. He then added, "but it also is complicated because every state doesn't manufacture automobiles and they don't stay within their states. …So I have to say I guess at the end of the day I support the states being able to do that, but I also think there's no reason why we shouldn't be able to sit down and work this out."
McCain defended this position again at a press conference after his town hall, but when asked specifically by a reporter from the Detroit News about comments he had made last month in support of a national emission standard that would overrule state standards, he seemed confused.
"I'll get back to you on that," McCain said. "It's a complicated issue. I'll have my folks get to you."
The CA issue is a matter of regulating carbon emissions, which the Bush Administration has argued is tantamount to regulated fuel economy, something that only the federal government is allowed to do under the Clean Air Act. So the issue of whether states should be allowed to set individual fuel economy standards – something McCain said he was in favor of at the town hall – is central to the current conflict.
Overall McCain said there are many ways he could help the struggling American auto industry from the Oval Office, but he challenged the industry to solve some of its own problems first.
"There are may ways I'd be glad to support this industry, but at the end of the day, there are problems, some of which have been addressed, between labor and management," McCain said. "I have to give you some straight talk, you can't compete with other automobile manufacturers if you lay somebody off and pay them full salary for the rest of their life. Can't do it. That's not going to be competitive."
He also challenged the industry to adapt with the times and said that the Chevy Volt, which he had been briefed on before the event, was a perfect example of the new technology that would revive the industry.
