Video: McCain “Americans Won’t Pick Lettuce for $50/hrâ€

McCain: Americans won't pick lettuce for $50 an hour? (UPDATED)

This is not new. Somehow the media ignored it. (Excuse me while I pretend to be shocked.) I don't have the vid, only the audio but in my opinion this is much more damning than forgetting how many houses you own.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature...9OoOU02M#at=18

I can't stick around to add more to this, but I felt this needed to be brought to the attention of the community. I can think of millions of laid off autoworkers who would LOVE to take McCain up on his offer. I'm sure those 8600 DHL workers in Ohio would too.
UPDATE: For those who can't listen to the audio, here's the transcript of McCain's challenge to the AFL-CIO workers. Courtesy of Icky People.com:

Here's the transcript of the lettuce picking part:


John McCain: "I don't think I need to tell you that there are jobs that Americans will not do. I don't think I have to tell you that there are ... the backbone of our economy...


Audience members: "Pay them the right wages."


John McCain: "You know I've heard that statement before. Now, my friends, I'll offer anybody here fifty dollars an hour if you'll go pick lettuce in Yuma this season and pick for the whole season. So, ok, sign up! Ok, when you sign up, you sign up, and you'll be there for the whole season, the whole season, ok, not just one day. Because you can't do it, my friend."


http://www.dailykos.com/story/2008/0...-hour-UPDATED#

http://transcripts.cnn.com/TRANSCRIPTS/ ... dt.01.html

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SEN. JOHN MCCAIN (R), ARIZONA: Now, my friends, I'll offer anybody here $50 an hour if you'll go pick lettuce in Yuma this season and pick for the whole season. So -- OK? Sign up. OK.

You sign up. You sign up, and you'll be there for the whole season, the whole season. OK? Not just one day. Because you can't do it, my friend.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

DOBBS: Senator McCain getting some straight talk of his own. Senator McCain offering to leave when the crowd jeered him earlier, but he decided to stay. And in general, at least in my opinion, handled it with pretty good humor.

Supporters of the amnesty agenda say illegal aliens fill jobs that Americans won't do. They also say paying farm workers decent wages would just drastically raise the price of groceries that we have to buy in this country. But guess what? Like so many arguments in this illegal alien discussion, this illegal immigration crisis, it's just an argument that is totally refuted by the facts.

Here now with the facts, Bill Tucker.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

BILL TUCKER, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice over): The average farm worker works for a below-poverty wage, earning $9,570 per year, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture. There is no argument it is hard, low-paying work.

SEN. LARRY CRAIG (R), IDAHO: Much of what we do in agriculture is hand labor. It's intensive, hard-working, back-breaking, in the hot sun kind of labor. And the average American citizens says, I don't do that kind of work anymore.

TUCKER: Estimates vary about the number of illegal workers in the field, raising the question of whether this is work Americans don't want to do are simply the way the agriculture industry likes it.

DAN STEIN, FED. OF AMERICAN IMMIGRATION REFORM: They continue to supply (ph) illegal aliens as retarded. The introduction not only of labor-saving mechanization, but also of improved housing and labor standards.

TUCKER: So what if wages rose and conditions improved dramatically? Would consumers have to dig a lot deeper into their pocket to pay for their fruits and vegetables?

The simple, bottom-line answer is no. In fact, wages could rise by 40 percent, according to one study, rising above the poverty level. And the average food bill for fresh fruits and vegetables would increase by less than $10 a year.

PROF. PHIL MARTIN, UNIV. OF CALIF. DAVIS: The important thing for Americans to understand is that they don't spend much on fresh fruits and vegetables, and farmers don't get very much of the retail dollar. On a $1 head of lettuce, the farmer gets about 18 cents, and the cost of wages and benefits is about six cents.

TUCKER: The average American family spends $370 on fresh fruits and veggies. Of that, only $65 goes to the farmer. Farm workers get $22 of the farmer's share. The remaining $305 is split up by the companies which transport the food, wholesalers, marketers, and grocery stores.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

TUCKER: Martin points out that increases in wages typically lead to the increase use of machinery. And he argues that farmers should be pressing the government for subsidies for machines in their fields to increase productivity instead of what they are doing now, Lou, which is, in effect, arguing for subsidies for labor.

DOBBS: Well, arguing, hell. The American taxpayer is subsidizing those growers, those farmers, because we permit them to use illegal labor and exploit them.

TUCKER: Correct.

DOBBS: It's -- I think most people have got to be astonished that we're talking about $10 to provide a decent wage, not, in my opinion, an adequate wage, but a decent wage, to a man or woman working in those fields, in this case produce fields. And Senator Craig said this is hard work.

I've actually done it as a young fellow, working in bean fields, in potato fields. This is tough work. These people deserve to be paid more. And we're sitting here talking about more of the same, allowing people to be exploited in this country.

It is just denigrating to this nation.

TUCKER: It is.

DOBBS: As well as to the people principally of Mexico, but Central America and parts of South America.

Thank you very much, Bill Tucker. Appreciate having some facts here. I'm sure that the proponents of all of this don't, but to heck with them.

That brings us to the subject of our poll tonight. How much more would you be willing to pay each year for fruits and vegetables if it would improve working conditions and raise wages for farm workers? Nothing? Would you pay $10 a year more, $20, $50 a year, maybe $100 a year?

Cast your vote at LouDobbs.com. We'll have the results here tonight in this broadcast.

In Colorado tonight, yet another school is forbidding its students from showing their support for the American flag and their opposition to the illegal alien amnesty agenda. The Shaw Heights Middle School in Adams County, Colorado, has changed its dress code to ban any piece of clothing deemed patriotic. Even camouflage pants have been banned.

The principal says students wearing the American flag are using the flag to antagonize Mexican students. Students say the ban is simply outrageous.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

KIRISSA CORDOVA, 8TH GRADER: I think it's ironic, because it's USA, first of all, it's United States of America. And our colors are red, white and blue. And there's flags in this school already in those colors, and we can't even wear the colors.

COLTON BAKER, 8TH GRADER: Freedom of speech. I should be able to wear what I want, my First Amendment.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

DOBBS: Also tonight, outrage building after a decision by California's Oceanside school district to ban flags and patriotic symbols in class there. As we reported last night, Oceanside officials took the step after large demonstrations last week in favor of illegal alien rights.

Tonight, California state senator Bill Morrow says Oceanside must reverse its decision. The senator saying, "The decision to ban the wearing of American flags in order to achieve safety is terribly misguided. There's something very unfair when kids from any city in any state in this nation are prevented from displaying the stars and stripes."

Senator Morrow says that it is incredible that students from Oceanside who have parents serving in Iraq cannot display the flag that their loved ones are fighting for overseas. The senator could not be more correct.

If -- it wasn't just students who walked out of a San Antonio high school to protest illegal immigration legislation yesterday. The school principal joined them.

The principal of Lanier High School told reporters he didn't condone that walkout by some 200 students, but he wanted to make it a teaching experience. Many of the students admitted they used the protest as an excuse to miss class. They'll be required to write a paper on what they learned from the experience.

Well, last week, the president of La Raza, Janet Murguia, appeared on this broadcast, as she has often. I told her that I prefer holidays, as we were talking about multiculturalism, that I prefer holidays that celebrate our commonality, our similarities as people. In fact, I don't like holidays, I told Janet, like St. Patrick's Day, Columbus Day, that tend to stress differences. I think we could focus on, again, as I say, our commonalties.

The National Council of La Raza has released a statement publicly declaring its support for St. Patrick's Day. Now, there are a lot of things I don't like about La Raza, but I do like its sense of humor.

The statement advocates "drinking green beer" as well as eating a kielbasa and playing a glockenspiel at a parade.

Like I say, you've got to at least appreciate the sense of humor on the part of Janet Murguia and La Raza. I don't appreciate a lot of other things, however.

Coming up next, do you want to know how Congress has been spending your hard-earned money? You probably don't. But nonetheless, we'll take a look in the congressional "Pig Book."

And religious leaders raising their voices in the pulpits and the streets. They're pushing for amnesty for illegal aliens. We'll have that special report.

And new concerns about military ties ten Iran and our new nuclear alley, if the Bush administration has its way, India.

That report and more still ahead here. Please stay with us.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

DOBBS: Religious leaders from coast to coast continue their assault on efforts to secure this nation's borders. In Los Angeles and Washington, it now appears the clergy is working to dictate U.S. government policy.

Casey Wian has the story.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE) CASEY WIAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice over): Los Angeles Cardinal Roger Mahony wasted no time injecting politics into the midday service at Our Lady of the Angels cathedral.

I would pick it for $50 an hour, especially since they grow it only during winter time. A farmer I know grows lettuce here in the summer, and moves his operation to Yuma during the winter.

Lettuce does not grow in hot weather....it only wll grow in cooler weather. I will take that 50 bucks an hour. In fact I would do it for 20 bucks. If there was a genuine offer of money, then there would be lines going around the field for those jobs. Another thing about those kinds of jobs....the employers are kind of into the "slave and master" thing. That would have to change too.

This whole thing isn't about whether Americans would work these jobs or the prices going up. The whole thing has to do with the very farmers that hire these people and mistreat them and under pay them.

It is NOT the American public that hire them or pay them low wages. But the American people have to pay for their medical and such when these people start getting sick.

So DO NOT put the blame on the American people!

And this DOES NOT make what they do illegally, LEGAL! I have no problem what-so-ever if they want to come here and work,but do it in accordance with our laws. Which by the way the farmers are also breaking those laws and knowingly doing so.

And also, hiring really cheap laborers to do those jobs stuns the growth of entrepeneurship and inventing new methods of doing these labor intensive jobs by machine.

And just a note but I think we already pay a lot for our fruit and vege's which for the most part are never of the correct ripeness and perish quickly once home.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by uniteasone

This whole thing isn't about whether Americans would work these jobs or the prices going up. The whole thing has to do with the very farmers that hire these people and mistreat them and under pay them.

It is NOT the American public that hire them or pay them low wages. But the American people have to pay for their medical and such when these people start getting sick.

So DO NOT put the blame on the American people!

And this DOES NOT make what they do illegally, LEGAL! I have no problem what-so-ever if they want to come here and work,but do it in accordance with our laws. Which by the way the farmers are also breaking those laws and knowingly doing so.

And also, hiring really cheap laborers to do those jobs stuns the growth of entrepeneurship and inventing new methods of doing these labor intensive jobs by machine.

And just a note but I think we already pay a lot for our fruit and vege's which for the most part are never of the correct ripeness and perish quickly once home.

---

That's right we do. Farmers charge whatever the market will bear. They do not give us cheaper produce because they have cheaper labor....they just pocket all the money they save in labor. Since they are already charging what the market will bear, they will not be able to charge more.

They will only be able to raise prices if Americans start making more money. So if farmers have to pay higher wages it will come directly out of their pockets...and they know it. So now they are trying to convince us that produce will soar in price. Not true. And they are trying to convince us that Americans wont do the work. Not true. Many Americans already do manual labor. All it takes is a proper paycheck. Oh...and those farmers will have to give up their slave and master attitudes.

So freaking what if the cost of produce went up? With the massive amount of money we save from NOT supporting illegals with benefits and other services, which they will get at those low wages, we could buy plenty of food, have enough to go the movies, buy gas, and give an AMERICAN a decent wage.

Marylanders pay on average $700 per taxpayer to support illegals with benefits. And that doesn't include remittances that leave our economy or federal taxes.

What are you REALLY paying for food?

I wouldn't pick McCain for $50 an hour.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Watson

So freaking what if the cost of produce went up? With the massive amount of money we save from NOT supporting illegals with benefits and other services, which they will get at those low wages, we could buy plenty of food, have enough to go the movies, buy gas, and give an AMERICAN a decent wage.

Marylanders pay on average $700 per taxpayer to support illegals with benefits. And that doesn't include remittances that leave our economy or federal taxes.

What are you REALLY paying for food?

I wouldn't pick McCain for $50 an hour.

---

And dont forget, if illegals were not depressing our wages...WE WOULD GET PAID MORE and could afford higher food costs.

Friday, August 22, 2008

McCain offers any American $50 an hour to pick lettuce

In a 2006 speech to Union leaders that turned into a boo-fest, John McCain implied no Americans will work for as little as $50 an hour when questioned why he supports offering a form of amnesty to illegal immigrants.

MSNBC said at the time:

"Sen. John McCain threatened Tuesday to cut short a speech to union leaders who booed his immigration views and later challenged his statements on organized labor and the Iraq war."

Listen to how arrogant McCain is after people complain about illegal workers and McCain's plan to legalize them. This needs to be in a commercial.

Here's the transcript of the lettuce picking part:

John McCain: "I don't think I need to tell you that there are jobs that Americans will not do. I don't think I have to tell you that there are ... the backbone of our economy...

Audience members: "Pay them the right wages."

John McCain: "You know I've heard that statement before. Now, my friends, I'll offer anybody here fifty dollars an hour if you'll go pick lettuce in Yuma this season and pick for the whole season. So, ok, sign up! Ok, when you sign up, you sign up, and you'll be there for the whole season, the whole season, ok, not just one day. Because you can't do it, my friend."

http://www.ickypeople.com/2008/08/mc...0-hour-to.html

McCain Enlists Business on Immigration Amid Republican Rift