Posted on 02/13/2009 4:09:51 PM PST by meandog
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Senator John McCain said on Friday that President Barack Obama should include Republicans in his plans sooner if he really wants their support after the bitter debate over the $787 billion economic stimulus bill.
McCain, who lost the 2008 presidential election to Obama, and other Republicans complained they had been left out of negotiations on the legislation by Democrats who hold majorities in both houses of Congress.
McCain said the bill was filled with non-emergency spending paid for with borrowed money that future generations will have to pay back.
"I think that the majority of people understand that this was generational theft," McCain told Reuters.
The Arizona senator said many other issues coming up will require a bipartisan effort that he said has been lacking so far from Obama and the Democrats.
"I hope they've learned a lesson," he said. "I hope that they will reverse course, and sit down, negotiate from the beginning, so you're in on the takeoff, so you can be in on the landing."
McCain met Obama two weeks after the November 4 election and agreed that "Americans of all parties want and need their leaders to come together and change the bad habits of Washington" to solve urgent challenges.
Obama initially hoped for an overwhelming majority for passage of the stimulus bill, but the debate quickly dissolved into the traditional argument in which Democrats backed a package more weighted to spending programs and Republicans advocated tax cuts. Continued...
(Excerpt) Read more at uk.reuters.com ...
Leave it to Senator Hot Dog to have a comment ready for the press. Isn’t he supposed to be an elder statesman or something? I thought they knew how to twist arms and muscle the party leadership to take action against those who don’t toe the party line. Come on 2010.
You should have reached across the aisle a little harder, John.
"Show me just what Mohammed brought that was new, and there you will find things only evil and inhuman, such as his command to spread by the sword the faith he preached." - Manuel II Palelologus
McCains got hope for change. Dream on...
Why do we keep hearing about generation theft? Doesn’t anyone realize that we’re paying debt now? We’ll be paying for that $787 Billion by the time the next appropriation comes around. I’m worried about US!
Pretty proactive there Johnny boy....
Job well done! /s
Now, be gone and retire for the promotion of conservatism!
"Show me just what Mohammed brought that was new, and there you will find things only evil and inhuman, such as his command to spread by the sword the faith he preached." - Manuel II Palelologus
Here’s praying that the gop gains 40 seats in the house races next year. So we can be done with McCain, Specter, Collins and Snowe as the deal-makers.
For the record, Reid, Pelosi, Specter, Soros and Kennedy are NOT baby boomers. But they are a disgrace.
McCain had nothing to do with this stimulus bill.
Uh, follow current events much there Mainer? McCain voted "NO!" So why do you link him with your two senators and Specter?
Because he blew the election by voting for the September bailout.
Still haven’t forgiven him for the September bailout, which cost him the election and gave us this socialist utopia we’re living in.
For Obama to reach across the aisle, he’d first have to find the aisle.
Oh, yeah, the one that the former Texan Maine native pushed when he held the White House...and, if McCain hadn't supported it, you can bet your stimulus check that the Bushbots on this circuit would have been screaming "RINO traitor" and blaming it as well on his defeat!
Only a socialist would support the September bailout and McCain is a socialist. Anti-Free Speech, voted against Bush’s tax cuts. And the trillion dollar global warming tax he supported is as bad as this stimulus crap. Plus another reason to dislike McCain was that he considered being John Kerry’s running mate. So McCain needs to shutup, retire and let the good people of Arizona elect a true conservative to the senate. Let McCain run for governor of Maine. His left-wing politics fit in well with this state.
Translation= If you wan’t my “bipartisan” support you’re going to have to grease my palm also.
Fair enough
Besides the comments I’ve already made about McCain, he’s the amnesty kid as well. So when he speaks, I can’t take him seriously.
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