MCCAIN COMMITTED TO FAILED BUSH PRIVATIZATION PLAN

MCCAIN TODAY:  And you have my pledge: as president I will work with every member of Congress -- Republican, Democrat, and Independent -- who shares my commitment to reforming and protecting Medicare and Social Security.

REALITY:  McCain Says Social Security Reform Should Include Privatization Element Similar To Failed Bush Plan. In an interview with the Wall Street Journal, McCain said that, "As part of Social Security reform, 'I believe that private savings accounts are a part of it' along the lines of what President Bush proposed." [Wall Street Journal, 3/3/2008]

McCain Says Privatization Only Way to Go Forward. Responding to a question of whether "privatizing Social Security be a priority for you going forward?"  McCain answered, "Without privatization, I don't see how you can possibly, over time, make sure that young Americans are able to receive Social Security benefits." [C-Span Road to the White House, 11/18/2004]

MCCAIN VOTED FOR FOUR OF FIVE "BIG SPENDING" BUSH BUDGETS

MCCAIN TODAY:  "For Republicans, it starts with reclaiming our good name as the party of spending restraint.  Somewhere along the way, too many Republicans in Congress became indistinguishable from the big-spending Democrats they used to oppose. The only power of government that could stop them was the power of veto, and it was rarely used.

REALITY:  McCain Helped Spend Big In The Senate.  McCain cast six votes to pass Bush/GOP budget plans, helping pass four of the five Bush budgets that the Senate voted on. [2001 Senate Votes #86, 90; 2004 Senate Vote 58; 2005 Senate Vote 81, 114; 2006 Senate Vote 74]

Tax Loophole Plan Contradicts Voting Record

MCCAIN TODAY: "I will lead across-the-board reforms in the federal tax code, removing myriad corporate tax loopholes that are costly, unfair, and inconsistent with a free-market economy."

REALITY: Repeatedly Voting Against Closing Corporate Tax Loopholes.  John McCain has repeatedly voted against plans to cut corporate tax loopholes and use the funds for deficit reduction, veterans healthcare programs, education, low-income home heating funds, and law enforcement programs.  [2006 Senate Vote #67, 3/16/2006, Clinton: Y, Obama: Y; 2006 Senate Vote #41, 3/14/2006, Clinton: Y, Obama: Y; 2006 Senate Vote #64, 3/16/2006, Clinton: Y, Obama: Y; 2006 Senate Vote #57, 3/16/2006, Clinton: Y, Obama: Y; 2005 Senate Vote #70, 3/17/2005, Clinton: Y, Obama: Y]

Cutting Homeland Security, Other Key Programs Not The Answer

MCCAIN TODAY: "As president, I will also order a prompt and thorough review of the budgets of every federal program, department, and agency.  While that top to bottom review is underway, we will institute a one-year pause in discretionary spending increases with the necessary exemption of military spending and veterans benefits. "

REALITY: Homeland Security, Other Key Programs Get A Cut Under McCain. The Wall Street Journal pointed out that "But a vast number of federal programs from education to food inspection to homeland security would see flat funding -- effectively a cut when inflation is accounted for -- while a McCain administration evaluated each."  Law enforcement and children's healthcare funding would presumably be cut too under the McCain program.  [Wall Street Journal, 4/15/08]

REALITY: Its Only $15 Billion, Not Enough To Pay For Tax Plan. While this plan would save about $15 billion for one year - about the same as the earmarks plan - according to the McCain campaign, it doesn't come close to covering the cost of extending the Bush tax cuts. [Wall Street Journal, 3/14/2008]

CONTRADICTION: What About His New Programs? This plan contradicts his new HOME program, which the campaign estimates will cost $3-10 billion. [Associated Press, 4/10/2008]

Earmarks Don't Balance The Budget

MCCAIN TODAY: "One very direct way to achieve that is by taking the savings from earmark, program review, and other budget reforms - on the order of 100 billion dollars annually - and use those savings to lower the business income tax for every employer that pays it. So I will send to Congress a proposal to cut the taxes these employers pay, from a rate of 35 to 25 percent."

REALITY: Wall Street Journal Points out Earmarks Don't Add Up To Much. "When asked Wednesday, after a town-hall meeting in Exeter, N.H., how he would balance his proposed budget, Sen. McCain responded, "By eliminating wasteful and pork-barrel spending, to start with." How much would that get him? In fiscal 2008, there were 11,737 appropriation earmarks totaling $16.8 billion. That is down from a peak in 2005, when there were nearly 13,500 earmarks totaling almost $19 billion. Eliminating earmarks wouldn't restore revenue lost by Sen. McCain's other propositions, including a litany of tax cuts. He plans to not raise taxes, but he also plans to increase the size of the military and institute health-care overhauls." [Wall Street Journal, 3/14/2008]

MCCAIN'S FAILED TO HELP AMERICAN WORKERS COMPETE IN AIRBUS DEAL

McCain Aided European Company In Defense Contract Bid.  "A union representing 25,000 Boeing workers, including some who work at the company's manufacturing plant in Wichita where final tanker assembly would have been done, issued a press release timed to McCain's visit to France, home to EADS/Airbus, the firm that beat out the Chicago-based plane builder.  The International Federation of Professional and Technical Engineers accuses McCain of unfairly favoring a foreign firm for the contract, one of the biggest defense contracts in history."  [Baltimore Sun "The Swamp," 3/20/2008]

McCain: American Workers Don't Need Help.  "Fundamentally, as long as these treaties are fair and equal, when you say that we have to protect American workers that in a way, in my view, does not hold the American worker in the esteem and pride which I do.  Because I believe, if given a fair and level playing field, the American worker is the most productive, most effective and best worker in the world.  And my job will be to open every market in the world. I'm an unabashed free trader."  [CNN Live Feed (Springfield, PA), 3/14/08]

Empty Rhetoric On Health Care

MCCAIN TODAY: "As president, I will propose and relentlessly advocate changes that will bring down health care costs, make health care more affordable and accessible, help individuals and families buy their health insurance with generous tax credits, and enable you to keep your insurance when you change jobs."

REALITY: McCain's Health Care Plan Does Little to Help America's Uninsured. McCain's plan does not focus on "reducing the ranks of the uninsured," of which there are about 47 million, or one in seven Americans. According to the New York Times, "The McCain campaign has no estimate of how many of America's 47 million uninsured would likely gain coverage under its plan." [Wall Street Journal, 10/11/2007; New York Times, 3/2/2008]

Housing Plan Is More Empty Rhetoric

MCCAIN TODAY: "We must start with the subprime mortgage crisis, with the hundreds of thousands of citizens who played by the rules, yet now fear losing their houses.  Under the HOME plan I have proposed, our government will offer these Americans direct and immediate help that can make all the difference.Citizens will keep their homes, lenders will cut their losses, and everyone will move on - following the sounder practices that should have been observed in the first place."

REALITY: McCain Opposed Government Intervening on Behalf of Homeowners.   McCain, in

his speeches on the mortgage crisis, has repeatedly expressed reluctance of government intervention to assist homeowners.  McCain has suggested "having lenders and borrowers sit down together" and "convene a meeting of the nation's accounting professionals to discuss the current mark to market accounting systems" to address the mortgage crisis. McCain economic advisor Carly Fiorina said that instead of government intervention that McCain would instead, "ask industry to sit down with [borrowers] one at a time.and that's the hard work, borrower by borrower, that needs to get done right now, and a big government program isn't going to fix that."  [ABC "Good Morning America," 4/1/08; McCain Economic Advisor Conference Call, 3/27/08]

McCain's Plan Lacks Specifics On Who Would Be Eligible. "McCain sketched out a plan Thursday to help 200,000 to 400,000 homeowners trade burdensome mortgages for manageable loans in a speech in Brooklyn. Aides said the plan could cost from $3 billion to $10 billion. Still missing were details on exactly who would be eligible for help; McCain said he wants to aid those who borrowed sensibly but now can't handle their mortgages." [Associated Press, 4/10/2008]

College Loan Promises Contradict Voting Record

MCCAIN TODAY: "So, today, I propose that the Department of Education work with the governors to make sure that each state's guarantee agency has the means and manpower to meet its obligation as a lender-of-last-resort for student loans."

REALITY: In 2007, McCain Was One Of Only 18 Senators To Vote Against Plan To Boost College Loans. McCain voted against passage of the bill that would cut government subsidies to student loan firms by more than $18 billion and redirect most of the money to aid for students and college graduates. It also would devote $750 million to deficit reduction. By 2011, the maximum Pell grant would be increased by $700, to $5,400. The bill would establish a new "Promise" grant for the neediest Pell recipients and authorize $3.7 billion in fiscal 2014, $3.9 billion in fiscal 2015, and $4.2 billion for each of fiscal 2016 and 2017 for the program. It would provide debt forgiveness for public sector workers and income-contingent loan repayments. It also would cap student loan repayments at 15 percent of discretionary income. Only 18 Senators - all Republicans - voted against the legislation. [2007 Senate Vote #272, 7/20/2007]

REALITY: McCain Chose Cuts In Student Aid In Order To Preserve Billions In Corporate Tax Loopholes. McCain voted against an amendments increasing funding by more than $5 billion to restore cuts and increase funding for student aid, vocational education, TRIO, GEAR UP, Perkins Loans, job training programs, and to increase maximum Pell Grant to $4,500.  The cost of the legislation would be offset by closing corporate tax loopholes. [2006 Senate Vote #39, 3/14/2006; 2005 Senate Vote #68, 3/17/2005]