***You don’t think it’s more likely that he would have demanded that some insignificant provision be taken out of it, declare it a compromise, and then sign the bill 95 percent intact?***
That’s exactly what he would have done.
"Our country does not need just another spending bill, particularly not one that will load future generations with the burden of massive debt. We need a short term stimulus bill that will directly help people, create jobs, and provide a jolt to our economy." —U.S. Sen. John McCain, R-Az., 2009-02-03
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2177499/posts
The Senate has killed an alternative economic stimulus plan by Sen. John McCain that would have cut income and payroll taxes but spent far less than President Obama's plan. The party-line 57-40 vote against McCain's $421 billion plan came Thursday... (AP, 2009-02-05)
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2179271/posts
One would hope that it would be painfully obvious to Freepers by now that McCain's grandstanding against porkulus was, and still is, only smoke and mirrors. More precisely, McCain is not opposed to a "stimulus" (that would include increased Government spending and regulation, as well as "targeted" and temporary tax cuts) per se; it is highly likely that his opposition to the Obama-Pelosi-Reid porkulus bill stems from McCain's shock at being excluded by the Democrats now that he is no longer useful as their implement to thwart small-r republican goals, including the definite limitation and reduction of Big Government. In fact, McCain himself proposed a $421 billion "alternative" that included temporary (one year) tax cuts, notably a payroll tax credit and rate reductions in the two lowest federal income tax brackets, as well as significant increases in federal spending. McCain's so-called "tax cuts" would have expired, and since his bill did nothing to make permanent the Bush tax cuts, it would have resulted in de facto tax increases over the next two years.
In other words, McCain and his fellow RINOs carried on the same "strategery" that has cost the Republicans dearly in the two most recent federal elections. Their modus operandi involves simply moderating the Democrats' positions rather than standing up for what were once the Republican Party's core beliefs—exemplified by Ronald Reagan's timeless words: "In this present crisis, government is not the solution to our problem; government is the problem."
Just because a bill is less "Socialist" than its counterpart Democrat proposal doesn't mean it's not at all "Socialist." And frankly, McCain's bill would still have served to drive the continued expansion of Government into the lives of ordinary Americans.
If you think McCain and his cadre of Democrat Lite RINOs have learned their lesson, I would suggest that you put down the Kool-Aid and think again.