Posted on 02/03/2008 8:40:42 PM PST by LowCountryJoe
With his victory in Florida, Sen. John McCain has become the clear front runner for the Republican nomination. It’s worthwhile, therefore, to take a closer look at what kind of president he might be.
The Good: While Rush Limbaugh and Sean Hannity sometimes portray McCain as a virtual clone of Ted Kennedy, the fact is that he is a true fiscal conservative—certainly more of a fiscal conservative than, say, Mitt Romney. He is well known as an opponent of earmarks and pork barrel spending. But perhaps more importantly, he has long been an advocate of entitlement reform. He was early an ardent support of personal accounts for Social Security, and has pushed for serious Medicare reform, including means-testing. Almost alone among Republicans, he opposed the disastrous Medicare prescription drug benefit.
He has offered the best health care reform plan of any of the candidates. While Mitt Romney has embraced the basic tenants of HillaryCare, McCain would change the tax code to equalize the treatment between employer-provided and individually-purchased health insurance. This is a vital step in moving away from our employment-based health care system toward a more consumer-oriented system. And, he would allow the purchase of low-cost insurance across state lines, avoiding regulation and mandates.
During his time in the Senate, he has never voted for a tax increase. While he has taken much heat for voting against the Bush tax cuts, he now calls for making those tax cuts permanent (although he would retain a vestige of the estate tax at a reduced rate and increased exemption). And, McCain is right that cutting taxes has too often become an excuse for republicans to avoid the hard task of cutting spending. Cutting taxes reduces the pain of government spending (at least for now), allowing Congress to avoid difficult choices. While taxes need to be cut—and McCain supports a number of tax cuts including reductions in the business tax rates and capital gains taxes—future tax cuts should be linked with spending cuts. As I argue in my book, Leviathan on the Right, it’s the size of government, stupid.
He is a strong and unapologetic free trader.
The Bad: John McCain frequently makes Dr. Strangelove look like a peacenik. Its not just his desire to remain in Iraq “for a hundred years.” It’s his bellicosity toward every enemy and perceived enemy from Iran to North Korea. He’s a true believer in the neoconservative goal of remaking the world to fit our desires and beliefs. At best on foreign policy he would be a competent Bush. At worst, he appears a recipe for perpetual conflict.
On domestic policy, he has shown a disturbing predilection for elevating every personal pet peeve, from steroids in baseball to airplane service quality, to a federal issue. And, he has embraced heavily regulatory environmental policies and compulsory national service. Like George W. Bush, he tends to support federal power over federalism, executive authority over legislative, and generally leans toward the imperial presidency.
The Ugly: John McCain appears to have little more than contempt for the First Amendment and free speech generally. He is the principal author of a campaign finance bill that severely restricts political speech. Not content with those restrictions on political speech, he has continually sought to expand regulation to other groups. He has said that he “would rather have a clean government than one where, quote, First Amendment rights are being respected, that has become corrupt. If I had my choice, I’d rather have the clean government.” Any candidate who believes that respect for First amendment rights needs to be qualified by “quote,” raises serious concerns. Moreover, his general attitude appears to be that criticism of the government, the war, and in particular himself, is somehow unpatriotic.
Most worrisome of all appears to be McCain’s basic philosophy, which is unapologetically statist, as Matt Welch points out in his new book McCain: The Myth of a Maverick. McCain once said “each and every one of us has a duty to serve a cause greater than our own self-interest.” McCain believes that cause to be the good of the collective, often defined as the nation or the national community.
For believers in individual liberty and limited government, it’s a decidedly mixed bag. But, then again, aren’t they all?
I guess Cato missed the proposed 50 cent per gallon global whoring tax McCain wants to slap on us...
“He is well known as an opponent of earmarks and pork barrel spending”
Yet did vote for it everytime in the last 10 years.
Stop right there. Of actual Republicans that voted in the Florida Republican primary, Romney got more votes than McCain.
Face it, John McCain is the clear front runner of Democrats and Independents voting in Republican primaries. But if you only count actual Republicans, McCain has yet to win a single primary.
The clear front runner? The last I looked McCain had 97 delegates to Romney's 92. It's only over if Republican voters do what the MSM tells them to. The author does however make some good points about McCain's attacks on the First Amendment, which have been relentless over the years.
If I wasn't’t determined to vote for Obama to STOP Hillary
on Super Tuesday, I’d consider McCain after listening to Ziegler.
But... Stop Hillary, I must.
Link to listen: Is McCain the FAKE Manchurian Candidate?
http://www.1260.am/programming/hosts/bios/?host=26
I will not vote for John McCain.
Appears to have? Any time you hear someone use the word 'appears', you know that it was probably a liberal who used it. I hate it when I hear people make statements based upon emotional perception rather than fact. The truth of the matter is:
There, Cato. That's how a rational, objective conservative does it.
McNasty is a legend in his own mind...
Pray for a Mitt miracle. It’s the only thing standing between us and disaster.
This Conservative will not vote for that sonofabitch if he is the GOP nominee. Clinton-McCain is not a race — it is a ticket, and I will not surrender my party to a virtual Democrat like John McCain. McCain has sabotaged our party and our issues too many times to count. The only thing worse than Hillary beating McCain would be for McCain to beat Hillary, because a McCain presidency would destroy the Republican Party’s essence as a party of principles and ideas. It would be better for us to spend four years in the wilderness to rediscover our Conservative roots. I will vote for Mitt Romney on Tuesday.
Good article — thanks for posting it.
I’ve abandoned political relativism, so a candidate has to meet an absolute threshhold in several areas to earn my vote. While McCain has a strong fiscal conservative record in some areas, he (like Romney and Huck) are big-government statists when it comes to government intrusion and individual liberty. Big government statists do not meet the threshhold required to earn my vote.
I’m voting for Thompson (not that it’s likely to matter, since I’m in PA and my primary isn’t until March, I think).
McCain is a Marxist enemy of the Republic. McCain has aided the illegal invasion from Mexico for over a decade. This is one of his many crimes.
If a Marxist/liberal villainous tyrant like McCain becomes president then we the people have a right to institute new government as this right was given to us in the founding documents and the
The Declaration of Independence:
“That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government,”
The Declaration of Independence:
“We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness. — That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed, — That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness.”
Some of McCain’s actions against freedom and against America:
McCain/Kennedy
McCain/Feingold
McCain/Lieberman
No on Bush Tax cuts
Consideration of VP for John Kerry
Keating 5
Global Warming
NY Times endorsement
LA Times Endorsement
Opposed federal gay marriage (before realizing the consequences)
Pro choice(before realizing the consequences)
McCain’s the candidate of amnesty for illegal aliens.
McCain supports embryonic stem-cell research.
McCain has said “I would not support repeal of Roe vs. Wade”.
McCain opposed the Bush tax cuts, and refuses to sign the “No New Taxes” pledge.
McCain supports legislation that would increase taxes on energy.
McCain was the ring-leader of the Senate “Gang of 14”, which kept the then Senate Republican leadership from ending the ability of Democrats to filibuster Bush’s judicial nominees.
McCain supports legislation to grant due-process rights to terrorists.
McCain sponsored the inept legislation which restricts free-speech rights of those involved in the political process, (the McCain/Feingold bill)
McCain called evangelical-conservatives an “evil influence” on the Republican Party.
McCain - member of the Keating 5 that caused a bipartisan scandal during the S&L meltdown.
McCain had a recall election ran against him by the conservatives in Arizona.
McCain blocked the investigation into whether Viet Nam and the Soviets were still holding over 600 of our missing POWs in 1990.
This list needs to be spread to all parts of the internet. The liberal mainstream media has hidden all this from the public and they portray McCain as a war hero, patriotic conservative. What McCain is as his record of his actions shows is a Marxist/liberal bent on aiding the invasion by Mexico and bent on putting the U.S. on the road to socialism like Hugo Chavez is in Venezuela.
Comrads, I think that pretty well covers it.
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