RINO season is OPEN!
Posted on 02/17/2010 6:21:39 AM PST by rabscuttle385
The conversation ranged widely.
Topics included job creation, helping Main Street and not Wall Street, overcoming congressional gridlock and reminding residents that he's still the same maverick politician he has been for nearly 24 years.
U.S. Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., was in Flagstaff Tuesday on the heels of former U.S. Rep. J.D. Hayworth's announcement to run against McCain in the Republican primary in August. He sat down with the Arizona Daily Sun editorial board before giving remarks at the Coconino County Lincoln Day Dinner at the Radisson Woodlands Hotel.
During the 75-minute question-and-answer session, he reiterated that his positions haven't changed:
He's still a fiscal conservative who opposes "earmarks" or allocations to pet projects that don't go through a competitive process.
He still believes in the need to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and the country's dependence on foreign oil, but that it will require nuclear power to help accomplish it.
He still believes in immigration reform, but it has to include tighter border security up front.
NO BANK TOO BIG TO FAIL
McCain started by saying that Arizona's economy is hurting the worst it has in its history. Jobs are scarce. The housing market is in a tailspin.
While in Flagstaff recently, McCain said he was approached by a local appliance store owner who said that after years of having a good credit line with his bank, the bank took it away.
"Our economy may be recovering in some sense," McCain said. "But you can't convince Main Street of that."
Although he voted for the TARP bank bailout package -- primarily because he thought it would help the housing industry -- McCain said giving money to prop up big banks too big to fail was a mistake.
Instead of lending out the money, the banks used it to shore up their capital reserves while continuing to make large profits and pay big bonuses.
"A lot of people are mad as hell about it, and I don't blame them," McCain said.
Homes went into foreclosure when all it would have taken was a program like the one the federal government instituted during the Great Depression designed to keep people in their homes and pay mortgages they could afford until their financial situations improved.
And stimulus money sent to the states wasn't to create jobs, but rather to save jobs. The biggest job generators -- small business -- would have been able to help the economy with tax credits and decreases in taxes.
BLAME DEMS FOR GRIDLOCK
Editorial board members wanted to know what McCain, as a senior member of the Senate, could do to break the gridlock crippling Congress on major issues like health care.
Acknowledging that major issues are not going to be resolved in the short term, McCain said that the Democratic majority have made "disgraceful" deals involving earmark projects and favorable treatment in the health care reform bill that have been deal-breakers.
Face-to-face negotiations where concessions are made to reach consensus no longer happen, McCain said. As a result, he added, 60 percent of the American public recently polled want Congress to start over on health care reform.
McCain said he is a proponent of reducing greenhouse gas emissions through the use of more nuclear power and recycling nuclear fuel, but the Democrats don't want to discuss the issue. And the multibillion-dollar Yucca Mountain nuclear storage facility has been closed down because of the influence of Senate Majority Leader Sen. Harry Reid, D-Nevada.
IMMIGRATION REFORM
To keep drug violence in Mexico from spilling into Arizona, McCain stressed the United States must secure its borders.
By doing so, the flow of illegal immigrants coming into the country would slow. He added that one "silver lining" to the recession is that the scarcity of jobs has led to many undocumented immigrants going back to their country of origin.
McCain said that a legal, temporary worker program, where people from other countries can come to the U.S. and work for a year before returning home, needs to be developed. And comprehensive immigration reform needs to be addressed by Congress.
Other matters discussed:
-- On reinstating a draft: McCain said that because the military in the U.S. is all volunteer, highly professional, highly equipped and trained, reinstituting a draft of short-term service wouldn't be a good fit.
-- Rio de Flag flood-control project: McCain said he is attempting to have the project formally authorized by the Army Corps of Engineers, thus guaranteeing funding until it is completed rather than the uncertainty of annual earmarked appropriations.
-- International issues: McCain said he supports the offensive currently under way in Afghanistan to rid the entrenched Taliban fighters. He acknowledged casualties will likely be high initially, but the country can't be allowed to serve as a base for attacks against the U.S.
McCain heads to Yuma today to speak at another Lincoln Day Dinner.
Larry Hendricks can be reached at 556-2262 or lhendricks@azdailysun.com.
Intead of an election, can’t this bastard just be drop kicked out of the Congress?
LLS
Funny how he uses the words “Main Street”.
His “Main Street” PAC received $30k from SEIU in 2006.
Sometimes I just wish ballots had another way to express our wishes, like: “Vote for none of the above”. How they have us by the short hairs, is that 90% of the time both candidates SUCK. We need to find a way to fix that. Lately, most of my votes tend to end up for the one who I dislike the least...which is no way to pick a candidate.
“Funny how he uses the words “Main Street”.
His “Main Street” PAC received $30k from SEIU in 2006.”
Yeah;-)
Don’t forget this, JD!
“He still believes in immigration reform”
Amnesty, my friends, amnesty.
“but it has to include tighter border security up front.”
But Juan, why should we trust you?
That’s the problem. They are crooks and thugs.
He is a weasel and can’t be trusted..
Sounds good, but would never be enforced, and those here illegally now should return home first and allow those waiting in the proper line for a visa to come here before them.
Will never happen.
Vaya con Shamnesty, Juan McQueeg!
Palin’s semming support, imho, is a tactical move. She’ll break to the right at the right moment..
That is what it’s going to take.
“He still believes in immigration reform, but it has to include tighter border security up front.”
Well, Sen. McCain, it’s been over a year since you’ve been campaigning and HAD to pander to foreign interests....
Where’s YOUR plan to secure the border???
But NO....no time for that, you’re too busy writing up legislation so I can’t buy food supplements or herbs without your approval.
Dumbass.
““McCain said that a legal, temporary worker program, where people from other countries can come to the U.S. and work for a year before returning home, needs to be developed. “
Do you suppose this idiot doesn’t know we have hundreds of thousands coming in every year on ‘temporary worker programs’...and MOST of them are from south of the border.
He knows, he just hopes we don’t.
The dishonesty of this man is over the top.
“By endorsing McAmnesty she is saying his pro amnesty, cap and tax policies are acceptable to her.”
Now, Man50D, don’t you understand the rules??? That kind of logic only applies when we’re tying someone on the other side to socialist policies who supports and campaigns for Obama.
RINO season is OPEN!
Shut Up ,You Old Fool.
Go Away!
And perhaps more to the point, neither “Main Street” nor “Wall Street” are fully independent operations— when one is healthy, so is the other. All the dichotomy does is perpetuate the Left’s fantasy that the “rich” are second-class citizens. Let them eat arugula.
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