Sanchez Campaign Fights Back Against Chamber’s Lies in New Ad

We received the following from the Loretta Sanchez Campaign:

SANTA ANA, CA – Thursday, the U.S. Chamber of Commerce launched a massive negative ad campaign against Loretta Sanchez to help elect Sacramento politician Van Tran to Congress. In the spot, the Chamber falsely accuses Rep. Sanchez of hurting Orange County seniors. What the group fails to mention is its underlying agenda to privatize Social Security, create tax breaks for big corporations that outsource American jobs, and repeal rules to bring transparency and accountability to Wall Street – an agenda that is shared by Assemblyman Tran.

“It’s no secret that the Chamber of Commerce’s top priority is the Chamber’s bottom line,” said Caroline Hogan, press secretary for the Committee to Re-Elect Loretta Sanchez. “The Chamber is targeting Rep. Sanchez because she isn’t afraid to say ‘no’ to Wall Street and the Big Banks. Given the choice, they’d rather have a rubber stamp like Van Tran in Congress than a real, independent leader like Loretta.”

“If you look at the facts, Assemblyman Van Tran is the real threat to Orange County seniors,” continued Hogan. “He has consistently supported proposals to gut Social Security for older Californians and raise drug costs for seniors. And like the Chamber, Van Tran wants to give Wall Street control of your retirement benefits. Local seniors can’t afford to have someone like Van Tran in Congress.”

Assemblyman Van Tran has a well-documented history of voting against the interests of Orange County seniors in the California State Legislature:

• In 2010, Van Tran received a 24% rating from the Congress of California Seniors (CCS) due to his abysmal voting record in the current session of the Assembly. CCS identified 21 bills that were of key importance to seniors and ranked legislators based upon their votes on the identified bills. Tran supported only 5 of the 21 bills, and he did not vote on 1 bill.
• In February 2009, Van Tran voted to stop property tax deferrals for low-income seniors. (The proposal in question would have allowed low-income seniors to pay back state property taxes, with interest, when their properties were sold). But Van Tran was content putting some of the most vulnerable members of our community out on the street.
• In August 2006, Van Tran voted against the creation of a program that would use manufacturer rebates and pharmacy discounts to reduce prescription drug prices for millions of Californians, including seniors.
• Perhaps most alarmingly, in April 2005, Van Tran voted against a resolution rejecting the Bush Administration’s plan to privatize Social Security – a plan that would have put the retirement funds of over 400,000 Orange County seniors at risk. Had President Bush’s plan been successful, the financial crisis would have wiped out a safety net for millions of American families and required the federal government to bail out the Wall Street firms managing private Social Security accounts.

If it’s not bad enough that Van Tran’s corporate backers want to privatize Social Security, they also support the unchecked outsourcing of American jobs. Since 2000, the U.S. has lost 5.5 million manufacturing jobs. Since 2001, over 42,400 factories have closed in the U.S., and another 90,000 are considered at severe risk of closing. With unemployment at its highest levels in decades, the Chamber’s solution is to send American jobs abroad – and Van Tran is along for the ride:

“Stop Whining” Donohue Tells Unemployed.  “[U.S. Chamber President and CEO Thomas] Donohue acknowledged the pain for people who have lost jobs to offshoring – an estimated 250,000 a year, according to government estimates. But pockets of unemployment shouldn’t lead to ‘anecdotal politics and policies,’ he said, and people affected by offshoring should ‘stop whining.’”  [Associated Press, 7/5/2004]

U.S. Chamber President Defended Outsourcing of U.S. Jobs, Arguing That Americans Are “Short of Skills.” Defending outsourcing in 2004, U.S. Chamber of Commerce President Tom Donohue said, “The big fundamental issue that we need to understand is we are short of skills in this country.” [CNNFN, 5/3/04]

Chamber Brags That it Helps Corporations Move American Manufacturing Jobs to India. According to the U.S.-India Business Council which is an affiliate of the US Chamber, they “can play a helpful role in guiding U.S. companies to India, while supporting various policy initiatives that will enhance India’s reputation as a major manufacturing and investment hub.” [US India Business Council]

Donohue Visits India to View Effects of Outsourcing, Backs Sending More American Jobs Overseas.  “I don’t know why we should want to curb outsourcing when it creates jobs, insourcing encourages trade by companies to fulfill obligations under outsourcing contracts,” said Donohue, who was on four-day visit to India to interact with industry and government representatives to exchange views and see first hand the chain effects of [outsourcing].” [News India, 4/30/2004]

Opponents Guilty of “Uninformed Political Chatter;” Outsourcing “Benefits Everybody.”  “‘There’s just a whole lot of uninformed political chatter in the US,’ Mr. Donohue said yesterday during an interview here with The Straits Times. ‘There’s a backlash against business process outsourcing (BPO) based not on facts but on emotions…. During his time in [India], Mr. Donohue was feted by numerous business groups, including the Confederation of Indian Industry. At these events, he repeatedly heard concerns that, faced with political pressure, US companies may start cutting back on outsourcing jobs. But ‘that’s not going to happen’, he said in response to such concerns. ‘The criticism about outsourcing is simply political posturing. We are very confident that outsourcing is here to stay. And why not? It benefits everybody.’”  [The Straits Times (Singapore), 4/3/2004].

Donohue Vows to Fight Any Attempts to Reduce Outsourcing.  “The chamber’s message is clear: The US must be able to source around the world to stay competitive in the global economy and the business community will fight any attempts by our government to restrict outsourcing,” Thomas Donohue, the chamber’s president, told a news conference.”  [Agence France Presse, 4/14/2004]

U.S. Chamber President: “There Are Legitimate Values in Outsourcing.” In 2004, U.S. Chamber of Commerce President Tom Donohue said, “there are legitimate values in outsourcing — not only jobs, but work — to gain technical experience and benefit we don’t have here, to lower the price of products.” [CNNFN, 2/10/04]

Donohue Says Outsourcing Will Cost Only Two, Three, Maybe Four Million Jobs.  “We employ — American companies employ 140 million Americans. They provide health care for 160 million Americans. They provide training in terms of 40 billion a year. The outsourcing deal over three or four or five years and the two or three sets of numbers are only going to be, you know, maybe two, maybe three million jobs, maybe four.” [CNNFN, 2/10/04]