McCain Myth Buster: John McCain and Government Spending
March 10, 2008
On the campaign trail John McCain frequently calls for spending restraint, joking that Congress "spent money like a drunken sailor," arguing that excessive spending was the root cause of the Republican culture of corruption in Washington, and claiming that "spending restraint is why our base is not energized." [New York Times, 5/17/07; AP, 1/18/08; AP, 2/17/08] As evidence, McCain complains that President Bush signed $35 billion worth of pork spending into law in the last two years. [ABC's The Week with George Stephanapolous, 2/17/08]
McCain's rhetoric might help him pander to the right wing of his party and bolster his "maverick" image, but it doesn't match his own fiscally reckless record. The truth is, all the complaining aside, McCain voted for four out of five of George Bush's reckless budgets, turning record surpluses into record deficits and creating trillions of dollars of debt for the next generation of Americans. In fact, based on his campaign promises to keep our troops in Iraq for 100 years, make the Bush tax cuts permanent, and provide $400 billion in additional tax cuts, John McCain's budgets as president may be even more reckless than President Bush's. [2001 Senate Votes #86, 90; 2004 Senate Vote 58; 2005 Senate Vote 81, 114; 2006 Senate Vote 74]
Maybe this wannabe fiscal conservative should have checked his voting record before talking about government spending.
McCain Voted For Bush Budgets. McCain voted six times for the Bush/GOP budget plan, supporting 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]
