MEET JOHN MCCAIN:
John McCain (R-AZ) has represented the people of Arizona in Washington, first as a Congressman and then as a Senator, since 1983. He currently is running his second campaign for the White House.
The son and grandson of military heroes, naval aviator McCain was imprisoned in the infamous "Hanoi Hilton" for almost five and half years after being shot down by the North Vietnamese during the war in Vietnam and received, among other decorations, the Legion of Merit and the Purple Heart. He later served as the Navy's liaison to Congress.
During his congressional tenure, McCain has gained a reputation as a seasoned, no-nonsense legislator who is committed to fiscal restraints. Along with Mark Salter, Senator McCain is the author of several books, including Hard Call: Great Decisions and the Extraordinary People Who Made Them, Faith of My Fathers: A Family Memoir, and Why Courage Matters: The Way to a Braver Life.
With this installment of "Expert Q&A", For Our Grandchildren launches a series of occasional interviews featuring presidential candidates. Whoever is elected in November 2008, she or he will enter the White House a year after the first baby boomers become eligible for early Social Security retirement benefits. The next president, then, will be forced to address the fiscal crises brought on by the growth of Social Security, Medicare, and other such programs.
For Our Grandchildren's National Advisory Council Chairman, the Honorable Tim Penny, sat down with Senator McCain recently to discuss the future of Congress and the nation.
Interview
Penny: What must the next president do to address and reduce the poisonous,
partisan political climate in Washington?
John McCain: We?ve begun another campaign season earlier than many Americans
prefer. So soon after our last contentious election, our differences are again sure
to be sharpened and exaggerated. That?s the nature of free elections. But even
in the heat of a campaign, we shouldn?t lose sight that much more defines us
than our partisanship; much more unites us than divides us. We have common
purposes and common challenges, and we live in momentous times. This election
should be about big things, not small ones. Ours are not red state or blue state
problems. They are national and global. Half measures and small minded politics
are inadequate to the present occasion. We can?t muddle through the next four
years, bickering among ourselves, and leave to others the work that is ours to do.
Greatness is America?s destiny, but no nation complacent in its greatness can long
sustain it.
Penny: You represent a state with a high concentration of elderly voters, yet you
voted against the Medicare Part D drug program. How did you explain your vote
to these voters and what was their reaction?
John McCain: I believe we have an obligation to future generations to start exercising
fiscal restraint. While our national debt rapidly mounts, we continue to increase
the financial burden our grandchildren will have to bear, without reining in costs.
Unfortunately, this problem is exacerbated by our inability to put a stop to our
excessive and wasteful spending, particularly egregious pork-barrel projects to
which Congress has become addicted.
We are on a shopping spree with borrowed money. Part
D was an extraordinarily large new entitlement that
substantially increased the already enormous burden of
current and future taxpayers. This new benefit will ultimately
be funded by raiding other entitlement trust funds, through
increasing our national debt or through increased taxes. An
expansion such as this is simply not sustainable. For the
enormous cost of the program, it did not contain many
of the significant measures needed to reform the Medicare
system and ensure its long-term financial solvency. To save
this system, we must enact true free market reforms and
bring Medicare into the 21st century.
Penny: You have described our nation?s fiscal policies as
immoral. Please elaborate.
John McCain: The government spends more money today than
ever before. Since Ronald Reagan left office, government
spending adjusted for inflation has increased $2,500 for
every man, woman and child in the country. Wasteful
spending has gone from irresponsible to indefensible. And
we?re not spending it on programs that are any more effective
than they were twenty years ago. When disaster strikes the
government isn?t even ready to deliver drinking water to
dehydrated babies or rescue the aged and infirm trapped
in a hospital with no electricity. I promise, if I?m elected
president I won?t let Congress waste any more money on
programs that aren?t reviewed or that need to be reformed or
abolished or on projects that serve no greater purpose than
to deceive voters into re-electing their local Congressman.
American families rightly expect the government to wisely
manage the dollars they send to Washington. As responsible
stewards of taxpayer dollars, the federal government must
respect the bottom line, just as families do when balancing
their own checkbooks. Every dollar provided to a special
interest either through a tax loophole or higher government
spending is a dollar less we can use to meet pressing national
priorities such as lowering overall taxes, eliminating the
budget deficit, paying down the debt, and preserving Social
Security and Medicare.
Penny: Alone among candidates?at least for now?you
have spoken of the need for Social Security reform. How
urgent is this issue and what?in your view?must be done?
John McCain: I believe that we may meet our obligations to
the retirees of today and the future without raising taxes,
and I have long supported supplementing the current
Social Security system with personal accounts?but not
as a substitute for addressing benefit promises that cannot
be kept. People of good faith in both parties agree that we
must make the hard decisions to restore solvency to these
programs. As President, I will work on a bi-partisan basis to
make the hard choices to save Social Security and Medicare,
protect the retirement security of our workers, and protect
the American economy. I will listen to any serious reform
proposal people have but believe we can achieve reform and
modernization without higher taxes.
As president, I?ll submit a plan to save Social Security and
Medicare, and I?ll ask Congress to do the same. I?ll work on
a bipartisan basis to make the hard choices; to protect the
retirement security of the American worker, and the growth
of the American economy. And if Congress is afraid to make
those choices, then they can just let me do it. I?ll take the
heat. I?ll ask Congress to let me submit a comprehensive
proposal. I?ll prepare it carefully, fairly and honestly. And
they can vote yes or no: no amendments; no filibuster; no
tricks: no band-aid solutions; no more kicking the can down
the road as the problem becomes harder and more expensive
to solve; no more hoping that a future generation of leaders
will have the courage we lack. If some of their constituents
complain, and they will, they can put the blame on me.
Penny: You have been a leader in the fight against pork
barrel spending. Others assert that pork projects are the
grease that allows legislation to move through the legislative
process. What is wrong with that point of view?
John McCain: We should never pretend that wasting valuable
taxpayer dollars is a good way to do business. Among the
most glaring abuses in Washington is the funding of pet
projects of special interests, often through last minute
additions to appropriations bills. Pork barrel spending is
an insult to taxpayers, a waste of public resources, and an
abdication of our leaders? responsibility to be good and
honorable stewards of the public treasury, for the benefit of
all Americans, not just a few.
Too often it appears that elected leaders use the treasury as a
campaign kitty, channeling taxpayer dollars for pet projects
to preserve incumbency rather than to meet national needs.
I?ve fought against waste and pork barrel spending for years.
It?s often been a lonely fight, but a good one. As president, I
will continue this fight, and I?ll veto every single pork barrel
bill Congress sends me, and if they keep sending them to
me, I?ll use the bully pulpit to make the people who are
wasting your money famous.
Penny:Are we Americans no longer capable of accepting a
shared sacrifice for a common goal or good? What role does
leadership have to play in this equation?
John McCain: I don?t buy it, and neither do the American people.
We stand on the threshold of another century of American
leadership. We have the opportunity to write another chapter of American greatness. Those of us privileged to lead
this country need only be mindful of what has always made
us great, have the courage to stand by our principles, honor
our public trust, and keep our promises to put the country?s
interests before our own.
