DNC FACT CHECK: McCain's 2013 is America's Nightmare

John McCain's crystal ball must be cloudy. In a speech and new ad today, McCain outlined a list of promises he intends to keep by 2013 if elected. The problem? On all the challenges he outlines, John McCain has either ignored the problem altogether, has no plan, has promised prescriptions that will only make matters worse, or has demonstrated rank hypocrisy. On Iraq, he failed to say whether he was backing off his willingness to keep our troops in Iraq for 100 years, outline a plan for bringing the war to an end, or say how he intends to pay for the war. He said he would improve health care despite offering a plan that will not reduce the ranks of the uninsured, will not cover people with preexisting medical conditions and would raise taxes on families. He repeated his claim that he would balance the budget, even though the non-partisan FactCheck.org just this week said his math doesn't add up.

The following is a full fact check on McCain's speech and his "2013" ad:

RHETORIC: "Too Few Specifics" In Policy Proposals. "We spend too little time and offer too few specifics on that most important of questions." [McCain prepared remarks, 5/15/08]

REALITY: McCain's Policy Proposals Repeatedly Criticized For Lack Of Details. The Boston Globe said his housing plan was "still missing were details on exactly who would be eligible for help," under the HOME plan. The Washington Post said his tax plan "offered no specifics" and CNN reporters said the economy plan had "not enough meat" and had important details that were "noticeably absent." Experts said about his health care proposal that "there's no plan here yet" when it comes to explaining how to cover the uninsured. [The Boston Globe, 4/11/08; Washington Post, 4/16/2008; CNN American Morning, 4/16/08; CNN's Situation Room," 4/15/08; Bloomberg, 4/29/08]

RHETORIC: "Middle East: Stabilized." [McCain ad "2013," 5/15/08]

REALITY: McCain Doesn't Understand The Situation On The Ground:

• 2008: During Press Conference In Jordan, McCain Repeated False Iran-al Qaeda Link "Several Times." While speaking with reporters in Jordan, McCain expressed concern that Iranian operatives were "taking al-Qaeda into Iran, training them and sending them back." Even when "pressed to elaborate," McCain continued with his erroneous assertion, saying it was, "common knowledge and has been reported in the media that al-Qaeda is going back into Iran and receiving training and are coming back into Iraq from Iran, that's well known. And it's unfortunate." McCain was finally corrected by Senator Joe Lieberman, who "stepped forward and whispered in the presidential candidate's ear," prompting McCain to revise his statement. According to the Washington Post, during the entire course of the press conference McCain "said several times that Iran, a predominately Shiite country, was supplying the mostly Sunni militant group, al-Qaeda." [Washington Post, "The Trail," 3/18/08]
• Mistake Undermines Central Assertion Of McCain's Campaign. Washington Post's "The Trail" commented on McCain's Sunni Shia mix-up, writing: "The mistake threatened to undermine McCain's argument that his decades of foreign policy experience make him the natural choice to lead a country at war with terrorists. In recent days, McCain has repeatedly said his intimate knowledge of foreign policy make him the best equipped to answer a phone ringing in the White House late at night." ["The Trail," WashingtonPost.com, 3/18/08]
• 2008: McCain Said Iraqis Are "Going About Their Normal Lives." The Guardian newspaper reported "McCain said he thought that the situation in Iraq was improving. 'People are going about their normal lives,' he said." [The Guardian (London, UK), 3/20/2008]

RHETORIC: Most Troops Home From Iraq. "By January 2013, America has welcomed home most of the servicemen and women who have sacrificed terribly so that America might be secure in her freedom." [McCain prepared remarks, 5/15/08]

REALITY: McCain's "South Korea" Plan Would Be 30,000 Troops In Iraq, If It Worked At All. McCain has repeatedly made the point that the US presence in Iraq could be like that in South Korea. According to Pentagon data, approximately 28,000 troops are currently serving in South Korea. And as Joe Klein pointed out "Iraq is--and has always been--volatile, tenuous, centrally-located and nearly as sensitive to the presence of infidels as Saudi Arabia. It is a terrible candidate for a long-term basing agreement." [Hardball, MSNBC, 4/15/08; American Forces Press Service, U.S Department of Defense, 4/20/2008, available here: http://www.defenselink.mil/News/newsarticle.aspx?id=49631; Time, Swampland, 4/1/2008]

RHETORIC: Incentives For National Service. "Voluntary national service has grown in popularity in part because of the educational benefits used as incentives, as well as frequent appeals from the bully pulpit of the White House." [McCain prepared remarks, 5/15/08]

REALTY: McCain Refused To Support Webb's Bipartisan Legislation, Instead Introduced His Own Bill. According to a Politico story, McCain announced his "overhaul of the Montgomery GI Bill on Tuesday, as pressure mounted on McCain to address the issue of education benefits for returning soldiers." According to a joint statement released by Senators Webb, Hagel, Lautenberg, and Warner, their GI Bill "now enjoys strong bipartisan support with 57 cosponsors in the Senate--including 44 Democrats, 11 Republicans and 2 Independents--a majority of the House, and most of our nation's leading veterans' organizations. In fact, it is important to note that the major pieces of this legislation were specifically endorsed in the recent Independent Budget submitted by a consortium of the top veterans' organizations." [Politico, 4/22/2008; Statement of Sens. Webb, Hagel, Lautenberg & Warner on the GI Bill, 4/22/08]

RHETORIC: Economic Pressure On Sudan. McCain says he will have "applied stiff diplomatic and economic pressure that caused the government of Sudan to agree to a multinational peacekeeping force." [McCain prepared remarks, 5/15/08]

REALITY: McCain Failed To Divest From Sudan Until Press Pointed Out Conflict. While many candidates divested themselves of such holdings in 2006, just yesterday, the McCains "sold off more than $2 million in mutual funds whose holdings include companies that do business in the African nation. The sale on Wednesday came after The Associated Press questioned the investments in light of calls by John McCain, the likely Republican presidential nominee, for international financial sanctions against the Sudanese leadership." [Associated Press, 5/15/08]

RHETORIC: Supply Side Economic Growth Will Solve Our Problems. "The United States has experienced several years of robust economic growth, and Americans again have confidence in their economic future. A reduction in the corporate tax rate from the second highest in the world to one on par with our trading partners; the low rate on capital gains; allowing business to deduct in a single year investments in equipment and technology, while eliminating tax loopholes and ending corporate welfare, have spurred innovation and productivity, and encouraged companies to keep their operations and jobs in the United States." [McCain prepared remarks, 5/15/08]

REALITY: McCain Doesn't Understand Arithmetic. The Washington Times editorialized that "Regrettably, Mr. McCain's entire balanced-budget fiscal policy, such as it is, almost certainly is built on smoke and mirrors….we also understand arithmetic, and we're concerned that Mr. McCain does not…His math doesn't add up. Mr. McCain needs to provide much more detailed information about how he intends to balance the budget." [Washington Times, Editorial, 4/18/08]

• The Economist: McCain Will Not Come "Anywhere Close" to Paying for His Tax Cuts. McCain's promised "savings in government spending he promises will not come anywhere close to paying for the tax cuts. Mr. McCain once bravely argued against Mr. Bush's tax cuts, because there was no cash to pay for them; with the government already running a big deficit, and no progress on reining in spending on health care and pensions, it would be odd to junk that prudence now. America can ill-afford another profligate Republican; and once again directing most of the benefits to the well-off is tone-deaf politics." [The Economist, 4/19/08]

RHETORIC: Cut The Federal Budget. McCain's ad says about 2013 under his leadership: "Wasteful Spending: Reformed. Economic confidence: Restored." In his speech he said "a top to bottom review of every federal bureaucracy has yielded great reductions in government spending." [McCain prepared remarks, 5/15/08; McCain ad "2013," 5/15/08]

REALITY: McCain' Plans Would Gut Vital Programs, Require 18.5% Cuts Across The Board. A McCain advisor identified programs that McCain would consider cutting and referred reporters to the Office of Management and Budget list of programs that are not achieving their objectives," saying "that would be a good place to start looking for cuts." According to the Office of Management and Budget Website, among the programs listed are the following: Historically Black College and University Capital Financing, Ready to Learn Television (Sesame Street), Minority HIV/AIDS Initiative, and Low Income Home Energy Assistance Program." As FactCheck.org pointed out, his numbers mean "convincing Congress to slash 18.5 percent of the funding for everything else in the discretionary budget -- things like assistance to veterans, highway construction, student loans and immigration services. Or he could make much deeper cuts in just a few programs." [Washington Wire, 4/16/08, http://blogs.wsj.com/washwire/2008/04/16/mccain-proposes-deep-federal-spending-cuts/?mod=WSJBlog; FactCheck.org, 5/13/08 (http://www.factcheck.org/elections-2008/the_budget_according_to_mccain_part_i.html)]

RHETORIC: "Assisted By…Working Retraining Programs." "Americans, who through no fault of their own, lost jobs in the global economy they once believed were theirs for life, are assisted by reformed unemployment insurance and worker retraining programs." [McCain prepared remarks, 5/15/08]

REALITY: McCain Has Repeatedly Voted Against Worker Retraining Funds. Repeatedly over the last 15 years, McCain has voted against expanding worker retraining and other benefits for workers who lose their jobs as a result of increased trade, as well as incentives to create more American jobs. [2004 Senate Vote #80, 5/4/2004; 2004 Senate Vote #41, 3/11/2004; 2002 Senate Vote #119, 5/21/2002; 1995 Senate Vote #482, 10/10/1995]

REALITY: Health Care Better Then "Any Other Time In History," "Healthcare choice delivered." [McCain prepared remarks, 5/15/08; ad "2013," 5/15/08]

REALITY: McCain Plan Offers Little Hope To Those With No Insurance. McCain's healthcare "plan isn't expected to make a major dent in the number of uninsured Americans, and questions remain about how the plan would help older, sicker people who can't find insurance on the open market. [Wall Street Journal, 4/30/2008]

• McCain's Erosion Of Employer System Would Take Away Millions of Americans' Insurance. According to the Kaiser Family Foundation, "158 million people nationally" had "employer-sponsored health insurance" in 2007. McCain's elimination of the employer tax incentive to provide coverage would put these 158 million Americans' coverage in jeopardy. According to an analysis conducted by the Center For American Progress, "business owners would no longer need to cover their workers to get tax benefits for their own coverage…The entire employer health insurance system could unravel, ending this as an option for Americans who prefer it." In addition, the McCain plan "would not require insurers to provide health coverage to people with pre-existing conditions." [Kaiser Family Foundation, "Employer Health Benefits 2007 Annual Survey, http://kff.org/insurance/ehbs091107nr.cfm ; Center For American Progress Action Fund, "Analysis of McCain's Health Care Announcement," 4/29/2008; New York Times Political Blog, "The Caucus," 4/29/2008, http://thecaucus.blogs.nytimes.com/2008/04/29/mccains-health-care-plan/#more-4961

RHETORIC: "Energy Independence Advanced." In his speech he says "Construction has begun on twenty new nuclear reactors thanks to improved incentives and a streamlined regulatory process." [McCain prepared remarks, 5/15/08; McCain ad "2013," 5/15/08]

• REALITY: McCain Voted Against Reducing US Dependence On Foreign Oil. In 2005, McCain voted against legislation calling on the President to submit a plan to reduce foreign petroleum by 40 percent by 2025. Meanwhile, McCain has repeatedly referred to US dependence on Middle East oil as a threat to national security. In a speech on Energy policy at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, McCain said, "National security depends on energy security." [2005 Senate Vote #140, 6/16/2005; Arizona Republic, 4/24/2007; Washington Post, 4/24/2007]
• REALITY: French Model For Nuclear Power Unrealistic In United States. McCain again called for the U.S. to generate 80% of its electricity with nuclear power like France. "To satisfy McCain's odd desire to be like the French and get 80% of our electricity from nuclear power in the coming decades would require building more than 700 (GW-sized) nuclear power plants by midcentury -- more than one a month." In contrast, France has 59 nuclear power plants. ["Wonk Room" Blog (thinkprogress.org) and Huffington Post, 5/4/08]
• REALITY: McCain Has Voted Repeatedly To Protect Oil Company Profits Over Tax Breaks For Working Americans. McCain has voted several times over the course of his Senate career to protect wealthy oil companies' profits over tax breaks for working Americans. [2006 Senate Vote #3, 2/2/2006; 2005 Senate Vote #331, 11/17/2005; 2005 Senate Vote #341, 11/17/2005; 2005 Senate Vote #334, 11/17/2005; 2005 Senate Vote #339, 11/17/2005; 1990 Senate Vote #288, 10/18/1990; 1999 Senate Vote #290, 9/23/1999; 1995 Senate Vote #553, 10/27/1995; 1989 Senate Vote# 165, 8/3/89; 1987 Senate Vote #200, 7/16/1987]

RHETORIC: Secure Southern Border. "After tremendous improvements to border security infrastructure and increases in the border patrol, and vigorous prosecution of companies that employ illegal aliens, our southern border is now secure." His ad says "Border security: strengthened." [McCain prepared remarks, 5/15/08; McCain ad, "2013," 5/15/08]

• REALITY: AZ Governor Says McCain Immigration Plan Won't Solve Anything. Arizona's governor, Janet Napolitano, said McCain's border certification plan would not work. "The certification issue sounds good," she said, "but it is a snapshot, not a sustained presence, and a snapshot could vary greatly within any given state within any given year…If you make certification the only criteria for whether you then move into overall immigration reform, what I would be leery of is putting up a process by which you never have to take responsibility for overall immigration reform." [Abcnews.com, 2/4/08, http://abcnews.go.com/Politics/story?id=4235640]
• REALITY: After 2.0 Makeover, McCain Would Not Even Support His Own Legislation Today. When asked at the January 2008 Republican presidential debate in Simi Valley, California whether he would vote for the immigration legislation he previously sponsored, McCain eventually replied, "No, I would not." [CNN GOP Presidential Debate, 1/30/2008]