Free Republic

WALLACE: The stock market has dropped 20 percent since the Obama inauguration. Can this now fairly be called the Obama bear market? MCCAIN: No, I -- I think I'd leave -- like to leave that up to the experts. But I do believe that a $1.2 trillion stimulus package -- add that to a $750 billion TARP, add that to this $480 billion supplemental, add it to another TARP that's coming down -- massive deficits, and we are committing generational theft. We are laying a debt on future generations of Americans. . . . . . WALLACE: Back in 2002,...

Wednesday, March 4th, 2009 at 11:32 am Priorities -- Not lining the pockets of contractors Last week the President laid out the foundation of a new vision for our budget and the way government does business. It is a vision based not on ideology, but on the idea that we can and must invest boldly in our future while also making the hard choices and being vigilant to bring in a new era of fiscal responsibility.Last week began with the fiscal responsibility summit, where the President and members of Congress came together to generate ideas to get the country on a sustainable long-term track. One of...

By Demetri Sevastopulo in Washington and Andrew Ward at Camp Lejeune, North Carolina During the presidential campaign, Barack Obama pledged to remove combat troops from Iraq within 16 months of entering the White House. John McCain, his opponent, strongly disagreed with the imposition of an artificial timetable, saying he would rather lose the presidency than the war. It is a measure of how much has changed over the past six months that Mr McCain is now one of the chief cheerleaders for Mr ObamaÂ’s plan to withdraw US combat troops from Iraq by August 2010. The former Republican presidential nominee...

Republican Sen. John McCain rates President Barack Obama's first speech to Congress as "excellent." "There were areas that obviously I have questions about and disagreements with, but I think the theme of his speech and his delivery were excellent," the president's rival in last year's election said, following Tuesday night's speech. "I think he carefully balanced the enormity of the size of the challenges and difficulties that America faces and, at the same time, I think he gave Americans assurance and confidence that we can get through this," McCain said. The Arizona Republican said, however, that he has concerns. "I...

Despite the fact that he might have wished he had been the man who just finished his first address to a joint session of Congress as president, Sen. John McCain had kind words for President Obama's address this evening. "The president gave a very effective speech," McCain told Katie Couric on CBSNews.com's presidential webcast following Mr. Obama’s address. "His delivery and the theme of the speech was excellent."Still, McCain said, "now I would like to know how we are going to implement it." "I don't know where Social Security was,” McCain said. “I don't know how you increase all of...

And if there's any GOP governor who plans to refuse federal aid, he said he'd be happy to take it on behalf of California. BY ARI B. BLOOMEKATZ Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger on Sunday defended his decision to raise taxes as a necessary step to stem California's staggering economic crisis. During appearances on morning news shows in Washington, D.C., Schwarzenegger said he would gladly accept money from the federal stimulus package approved by Congress last week even though some fellow Republican governors had balked at the program. And he predicted that although California's economy would begin rebounding next year, it would...