Add It to the List
Posted by Mike Gehrke on August 11, 2008 at 11:30 AM
Another McCain-authored bill that McCain 2.0 wouldn’t vote for:
The campaign of presumptive Republican presidential nominee Sen. John McCain (Ariz.) is declining to embrace McCain’s own 1998 tobacco bill, legislation that would have raised taxes to the tune of $516 billion over 25 years.
The bill, among the decade’s major pieces of legislation, would have amounted to one of the largest tax increases in history. It died on the Senate floor after backers fell just three votes short of the 60 needed to overcome procedural hurdles.
McCain, whose credentials as a tax cutter are suspect among many on the right, was the author and driver of the bill. Even so, leading conservatives today are generally willing to forgive the Arizona Senator for what they view as his transgression on the tobacco measure.
The bill would have forced tobacco companies to pay for a host of anti-smoking initiatives and fork over huge sums to the states in return for settling a lawsuit by the states. Cigarette makers would have been required to raise prices by about $1.10 per pack to come up with the money, according to a Congressional Research Service report from the time.
Asked repeatedly last week whether McCain still backs the bill and if he thought it was a good idea, senior adviser Douglas Holtz-Eakin declined to answer directly. But he noted that some of the aims of the legislation did not pan out as hoped for after the tobacco industry and the states settled on their own. To the disappointment of anti-smoking activists, the states have frequently used their take on a variety of priorities unrelated to health and preventing teen smoking, as supporters of the suit intended.
Comments (6) «
Newbie here, glad I found this site. I've found another site that offers information that ought to be on the nightly news, yet it is not. Very credible stuff, yet not available to the mainstream. Please check it out, you will feel so uninformed afterwards.
http://www.inteldaily.com/
P.S. Sorry for the thread hijack.
I admire Barack Obama's gentlemanly ads. I think that we need MORE ads like his, POSITIVE ads that talk about each candidate's vision and goals and strategies and proposals.
That said, the Republicans only deserve the level of vitriolic discourse they indulge in so frequently.
What is great, is that we don't even have to lie - they have really done terrible things, and McCain will make Bush look like an amateur devil. Can you imagine thinking back to BUSH as the good old days? I couldn't imagine thinking of his father that way, but now...
As far as McCain goes, where is the outrage? He stole from people by participating in the S&L scandal - how can he say is is a decent person? He should have been drummed out of politics long ago.
If the leaders of the Democratic Party will not expose McCain's terrible record VIGOROUSLY, LOUDLY, and WIDELY, all is lost.
Don't you get it, you need to ENTERTAIN people - at least entertain them with the TRUTH - and for the sake of the future of the United States, don't be polite when McCain entertains them with LIES!
So it appears that sometimes the GOP is against McCain’s causes and sometimes McCain is for the GOP, no matter what their empty political cause, like the Iraq war? Just as the present politics between the GOP and Bush and Cheney?
Like here, GOP leadership goes against Mc Cain’s own tobacco bill, which he probably wanted to create to help represent the tobacco companies with the amount of taxes they pay out. Where McCain’s bill probably would not have held states accountable to the taxpayers and taxes they receive for tobacco cessation and health programs anyway, the GOP is now against a bill that requires tobacco companies to pay any taxes.
So who would really be President if McCain wins the election or if Governor Palin would have to take over? The top Republican GOP leadership, that’s who. Where the GOP might as well attempt a hostile take over of the U.S. Presidency itself instead.
Where McCain and the Republican GOP could then blame Palin for anything the American Public and the world doesn’t like, like they (McCain and the GOP) already try to blame criticisms of their agenda all on Bush. (I mean, it sounds to me like maybe the GOP liked something they got out of Bush and Cheney’s Presidency and Vice Presidency and wouldn’t mind possibly creating the same political opportunity with Palin?)
I am quite sure McCain as flipped on a lot of his past acts. We need to point all of them out visibly. The Rebulicans will win if we don't match the "way they do business." This selective memory, this name-calling, this belittling of Obama, his service, his education, his commitment must be rebutted immediately. All the facts in the world are good for those of us educated enough to understand. However, there are those that will believe their misinformation and all the sound bites.
I hope that on all debates, factual questions are asked to both Republican candidates, as simple as what is the difference between a Shite and Sunni, what taxes increases did youpass...etc. I don't think the press will do it for Obama
The McCain mansion is just the Bush ranch with a bit of Palin whitewash. The whitewash can't stand even a light drizzle.
Obama is not the issue.
The issue and what needs emphasized is the failed and corrupt record of the Republicans under Bush. Do Americans want to reward this incompetence with four more years? Republicans have screwed up everything they've touched since 2001.
But frankly what I have found most disturbing has been the "impeachment is off the table policy" of Nancy Pelosi. If Democrats lose I will blame it on Pelosi and Hoyer's wimpy policy of rolling over for Bush.
Had impeachment been on the table and had Bush been testifying under oath, instead of rebuking the Democrats, things may have been far different. Impeachment is a process of discovery and by taking it off the table, it slammed shut the door on un-covering the shenanigans of Bush and Cheney and creating an even worse public impression.
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