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John McCain: Speech 1/22/08

2008-10-27T03:30:29Z

John McCain
Speech
Fort Walton, FL 01/22/08

TRANSCRIPT:
JOHN MCCAIN: "I need to talk to you about spending. I need to talk to you and give you some straight talk because we've got some economic difficulties today and no one in this room knows that better than the people in this room and the American people. These are tough times. And one of the reasons we're in tough times is because we Republicans let spending get completely out of control. We betrayed the trust of our conservative base when we went on a spending spree of incredible proportions. When we came to power in '94 to change government, government changed us. We presided over the greatest increase in the size of government since the great society and our children are going to pay a price for it . . . "

LABEL: JM FL 1-22 (GR#66) HGAI-Clip A

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John McCain: GOTV Rally 02/05/08

2008-10-27T03:30:10Z

John McCain
GOTV Rally
San Diego, CA 02/05/08

TRANSCRIPT:
JOHN MCCAIN: "I also just want to mention very briefly our economy is in trouble. Let's have some more straight talk, our economy is in trouble. And we're going to have to cut taxes and we're going to have to lower interest rates. And one of the things we're going to have to do is make the Bush tax cuts permanent [applause] so Americans don't experience an increase in their taxes. There's a thing out there that's an evil called the Alternative Minimum tax. My friends, it was designed for a few very wealthiest people. It now can attack 25 million American families. It has to be repealed [applause] . . . we have to do a lot of things and passing the stimulus package quickly and getting it out to the American people is something we oughta do and not load it up with pork barrel projects. [applause] But we have to restrain spending . . . you and I know that our mistake as Republicans was to let spending get completely out of control and it cost us an election and it cost us more than that, it harmed our economy . . . when consumers spend money it's good for the economy . . . when congress spends your money it's bad for the economy. It's bad for the economy. . ."

LABEL: JM CA 2-5 (GR#73) CAGH - Clip C

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John McCain: Rally 02/19/08

2008-10-27T03:30:09Z

John McCain
Rally
Brookfield, WI 02/19/08

TRANSCRIPT:
JOHN MCCAIN: "So, so I'm very proud to stand before you and tell you that in 24 years in the Congress I have never asked for nor received an earmark or pork-barrel project for my state. [applause] There's a lot of talk about change in Washington and I'd be glad to talk more about that with you and the changes that I've already been able to work on and that I can have much more effect as President of the United States than I can in the United States Senate. But there's one change that, uh, Senator Clinton and Senator Obama didn't quite get. And that is that Senator Clinton, in the last year, got 340 million dollars worth of earmark projects for the state of New York. Senator Obama got some 92 million dollars worth of pork for the state of Illinois. And Senator Obama refuses to reveal what his earmark projects were for the two years before that. I don't think that's transparency in government my friends. And I think you ought to know where the pork-barrel money went and where the earmarks went. . . I will veto every single pork barrel earmark bill that comes across my desk."

LABEL: JM WI 2-19 (GR#76) GACHI - Clip B

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McCain: Speech and Roundtable 3/25/08

2008-10-26T21:30:38Z

John McCain
Speech and Roundtable
Santa Ana, CA 03/25/08

TRANSCRIPT:
JOHN MCCAIN: "I'm sure that there are many factors that have contributed to our deficit, including the out of control earmark pork barrel spending."

LABEL: JM CA 3-25 (JC#121) AGZZ - ClipI

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John McCain: Town Hall 04/22/08

2008-10-26T21:30:27Z

John McCain
Town Hall Meeting
Youngstown, OH 04/22/08

TRANSCRIPT:
JOHN MCCAIN: "Reckless conduct and the abuse of power must be called to account on Wall Street, in Washington, or any place else. I've got a few ideas about Washington in particular. My plan for reform starts with a top to bottom review of the departments of every department and agency to make sure that Federal money is going to essential priorities like job training, the security of our citizens, and the care of our veterans.

"We're also going to put an end to the 10s of billions of dollars squandered every year on special favors and corporate welfare. At a time when many working families can hardly afford their mortgage, their groceries, and gas for their car or truck, we need to close the door firmly on corporate lobbyists. My friends, I have a reputation of low tolerance for the wasteful, abusive and occasionally corrupt ways of business as usual in Washington.

"I hope I've earned that reputation because it's exactly the spirit we need in the White House today and we need it badly, my friends. And you're gonna get it."

LABEL: JM OH 4-22 (JR#54) WG-ClipB

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John McCain: Town Hall 05/02/08

2008-10-26T21:30:21Z

John McCain
Town Hall Meeting
Denver, CO 05/02/08

TRANSCRIPT:
JOHN MCCAIN: ". . . We may not be able to fund the $233 million bridge in Alaska to an island with fifty people on it. We may not be able to send $10 million to a county in Florida who said they didn't even want it. And we not fund a whole bunch of the pork-barrel unnecessary wasteful projects, absolutely wasteful projects that are put in in the middle of the night in these spending bills that have nothing to do with need or priority but everything to do with the corrupting process that makes it dependent on the influence and power of an individual member of congress or senator and I say corrupting process because . . . former members of congress are now residing in federal prison. I'm gonna stop that practice . . . I will veto every single pork barrel bill that comes across my desk [applause] . . . I want to give the American consumer a little relief, just for the summer. Maybe they'll be able to buy an additional textbook for their children when they go back to school."

LABEL: JM CO 5-2 (GR#83) DAGIS - Clip C

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John McCain: Town Hall 04/30/08

2008-10-26T21:30:17Z

John McCain
Town Hall Meeting
Allentown, PA 04/30/08

TRANSCRIPT:
QUESTIONER: "Senator McCain, I've heard you say before you don't like earmarks, my understanding is...that the program, the clinical trial program that treated the woman Mary today was in fact a 10 million dollar earmark over eight years, amounting to 80 million dollars..."

JOHN MCCAIN: ". . . I don't judge whether a project should be funded or not; I strenuously continue to object to a process that in the middle of the night projects are put in without scrutiny, nor authorization, nor competition with other projects. We have a system of making laws and appropriating money in Congress that is a process of authorizing, in other words, saying these in competition to all other requests and demands that these projects deserve funding, and then funding. And what has happened in Washington, both good programs and bad, have been put-in in the middle of the night. I don't judge many of these programs. Uhh, but I know the most egregious ones because I see the examples of it. And I see, by the way, the corruption that it has spread. And we have members of, former members of congress, residing in federal prison because the process is so corrupt. And there are pending investigations. The Abramoff investigation, which I led, had everything to do with earmarking, had everything to do with that. And so I object to the process. I am sure there are many worthy projects that are earmarked by Congress. There are many, for every one that is worthy and meritorious, there are others which are totally unnecessary and pork-barrel spending. So I'm for the reform of the process. I'm not in the position to judge the merits of thousands, I think there was nine thousand in the last major appropriations bill.

QUESTIONER: Can I just follow up?

MCCAIN: Sure.

QUESTIONER: Yet your economic plan relies upon a blanket capturing of all of the earmarks over the past several years, without making any sort of judgment if whether one is good or one is bad. So wouldn't that sort of blanket capture of all the earmark funds capture these good programs that you, that you say are good?

MCCAIN: No. [laughs] If we eliminate those that are unnecessary and unwanted and go through the proper authorization process, we would not be on the spending spree we're on today. We have allowed discriminatory spending to increase by some 40% in the last seven years. The biggest in the size of government since the 'Great Society.' No one who works in Washington, as I do, believes that we can't save more than is in the earmark process that we're in today. It's, to somehow assume that we're not spending enough money, that somehow we are assuming that we can't save untold amounts of money as opposed to presiding over the largest increase in spending since the 'Great Society', I think we just have very different views. And I'll stand for my position and my record. Senator Obama and Senator Clinton have asked for hundreds of millions dollars in earmark pork-barrel projects, ranging from a Seed Museum, in the case of Senator Obama, to the cultural museum in upstate New York. So, I will stand on my position, on my ability to save the taxpayers huge amounts of money by going through the proper process that was designed and should be implemented, including by the way giving the President of the United States the line-item Veto."

LABEL: JM PA 4-30 (GR#81) DHGIS - Clip I

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John McCain: Town Hall 04/23/08

2008-10-26T21:30:15Z

John McCain
Town Hall and Press Avail
Inez, KY 04/23/08

TRANSCRIPT:
QUESTIONER: " . . . with the recent recession that's being discussed . . . if America were to go into a recession, what is your plan, once in office, to bring us out of it?"

JOHN MCCAIN: " . . . my friends, I believe we are in a recession. I think the numbers indicate that. And I will be glad to discuss the technical aspect of what's a recession or not technically a recession. But I think the reality is and I don't have to tell you here, that American families are hurting. Tonight . . . or this morning, they were sitting around a kitchen table trying to figure out how they're gonna keep their home, make their payments, which have jumped, through no fault of their own. How they're gonna afford healthcare. How they're gonna keep their job. Many of them have had a recent and sudden loss of a job and Americans are hurting today. So let's start out with acceptance of the fact that action has to be taken. I believe that we need to do a lot of things . . . let me just tell you one of the real quick, short term things. I think you know that the price of oil just went up over $118 a barrel . . . I think you probably know . . . that 18 cents out of every gallon of gas that you put in your tank, uh, goes to the federal government in the form of a gas tax . . . why don't we give you, between Memorial Day and Labor Day, a tax holiday [applause] . . .? Is it a huge thing? No. . . . but it might make you go a little further, maybe take an extra trip . . . by the way, on that, the fascinating thing to me, the special interests in Washington greeted that proposal as the end of Western Civilization as we know it. [laughter] . . . we might not be able to construct that $233 million bridge to nowhere in Alaska [applause] . . . the point is that we need, I'd like to have that. Americans are going to have lower taxes and less burden on them . . . there's a thing called a capital gains tax that . . . a hundred million people have a mutual fund or pension . . . Sen. Obama wants to double those taxes on you . . . I want to cut that tax . . . I want to make sure that every student . . . has access to a student loan if they need it, if they've earned it [applause] . . . there are millions of Americans in danger of losing their homes . . . I want to give them a chance to stay in their home . . . they can go down to the post office, apply for an FHA loan that's a thirty year guaranteed loan . . . at the end, when we come out of this recession and we will because I believe that the fundamentals of our economy are good . . . Sen. Clinton wants the government to make the decisions for you on your healthcare, I want the families to make the decisions on their healthcare [applause] . . . I don't think anyone who wants to increase the burden of government regulation and higher taxes has any real understanding of economics and the economy and what is needed in order to ensure the future of this country [applause] . . . government spending has gotten out of control, it's outrageous and it is one of the major factors in causing this economic recession that we are in today and I will stop it. I will stop it. [applause] . . . I will eliminate every pork barrel project that comes up. I have never asked for an earmark or pork barrel project for my state . . ."

LABEL: JM KY 4-23 (JC#125) GIEZZ - ClipA

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McCain: Town Hall 05/01/08

2008-10-26T21:29:38Z

John McCain
Town Hall
Cleveland, OH 05/01/08

TRANSCRIPT:
REPORTER: . . . I'm not sure if you're familiar with the [unintelligible] project here in Cleveland, the redevelopment of the roadway between Howard City and Downtown . . . it's a $200 million project is that something that you would consider one of those pork barrel projects that you would be opposed to?

JOHN MCCAIN: I consider any project that's not properly authorized and appropriated a violation of the way that the congress of the United States is supposed to do business. Congress is supposed to authorize budgets in competition with all others. I have no idea whether this is a worthy project or not nor should I be expected to. But I know what this process has done. It's caused corruption . . . so it's a corrupt process and if the project that . . . the people in this area are in favor of it's fine with me if it competes fairly and equitably on a level playing field with other requirements with transportation all over America. The process is what I strongly object to. I'm sure that there are many worthwhile projects that are funded by earmarks. That doesn't make it right. Because there are billions of dollars in not worthwhile projects. . . well the bridge to nowhere in Alaska was $233 million . . . if I were the people in this area I would be outraged . . . that instead of going to a much needed project here . . . because of the power and influence of an individual member of congress that that project is funded . . . and by the way, I think the American people get it. I think they understand that spending is completely out of control . . .finally I summarize by saying it wasn't always like this. There are people that argue that this process of pork barrel spending, they always did it. They didn't. They didn't. . . like any other evil, it has dramatically increased in numbers and amounts over the years.

LABEL:
JM OH 5-1 (EW#5) DAGH -- Clip L

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McCain: Town Hall 05/01/08

2008-10-26T21:29:38Z

John McCain
Town Hall
Cleveland, OH 05/01/08

TRANSCRIPT:
REPORTER: You made a comment yesterday that caused a little bit of a controversy when you said the bridge in Minnesota wouldn't've collapsed if it hadn't've been for earmarks.

JOHN MCCAIN: No, I said it would've received a higher priority which it deserved. When you divert money to projects that are unneeded and unwanted, any project that is deserved is going to receive the funding that's necessary. And I will maintain again that I believe when you fund a bridge to Alaska and when you fund a highway in Florida that the people don't even want, then money is diverted from that much needed project. Can I guarantee that it would've gone to the bridge in Minneapolis? No. But I sure believe and am convinced that they had a lot better chance to get more funding. Whether $233 million, whether $10 million or all those other projects were made. And I maintain that. Do I know specifically whether it would've repaired the bridge in Minneapolis? No. But I know that funding would've been available for higher priority projects.

REPORTER: The criticism, sir, is that you brought up a tragedy to make a political point and that's what some of the critics are saying . . .

JOHN MCCAIN: All I can do to respond to those critics is that my job is to make America as safe as possible and my job is to prevent those tragedies. Such as the canal that was built, er, dug in New Orleans that brought the Hurricane up and did more damage to New Orleans. If someone thinks that my criticism of that canal is unwarranted, then I accept their criticism but I don't agree with it.

LABEL:
JM OH 5-1 (EW#5) DAGH -- Clip N

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