Below are excerpts from McCain’s speech given in Columbus OH and my take on what he had to say! His speech portrays what he hopes to look back from the year 2013 and see!
Most of what I picked up is that Johnny Boy has plenty of illusions about cutting spending and returning us to fiscal sanity mixed in with lots of new government regulation and plenty more big government for you Democrat fan’s out there in the commune! This speech was creative and as entertaining as McCain is capable of making it, but most of all, it’s long on promises and short on how he’s going to get us there!
I’ve gone paragraph by paragraph and pulled the quotes I found most amusing, Have fun and pass it along if you’ve a mind to!
"We spend too little time and offer too few specifics on that most important of questions. We make promises, of course, about what kind of policies we would pursue in office...".
McCain speaks eloquently here on the desire to offer specifics on what a McCain presidency would look like after four years. It’s too bad that this speech appears to be more fantasy than policy!
"I will focus all the powers of the office; every skill and strength I possess; and seize every opportunity to work with members of Congress who put the national interest ahead of partisanship, and any country in the world that shares our hopes for a more peaceful and prosperous world."
McCain returns to this theme over and over again as if he has a monopoly on what is or is not in the national interest. Implicit in his remarks is that anyone who disagrees with him from either party are only influenced by partisanship rather than a belief that their disagreement is rooted in principle or a deep seated and sincere belief in what is right and wrong!
The Government of Pakistan has cooperated with the U.S. in successfully adapting the counterinsurgency tactics that worked so well in Iraq and Afghanistan to its lawless tribal areas where al Qaeda fighters are based.
How is the great diplomat going to get Pakistan to cooperate with the US tracking down Al Quaeda in Pakistan’s northern regions since they have refused to do so for the last seven years. This goal is all the more unreachable given the fact that our best friend in the Government in Pakistan was voted out of power last year and replaced with a government that is at the very least, less friendly to us than Pervez Musharraf.
The fantasy continues when McCain talks about bringing the “counterinsurgency tactics that worked so well in Iraq and Afghanistan to its, (Pakistan's) lawless tribal areas”! How are we going to conduct these anti insurgency efforts when the Pakistani government won’t let us into the region to conduct operations and the Tribesmen in the area are not only harboring Al Quaeda and the Taliban but is also allied in it’s efforts to conduct cross border operations in Afganistan against American and allied forces!
The increase in actionable intelligence that the counterinsurgency produced led to the capture or death of Osama bin Laden, and his chief lieutenants.
Let’s hope you’re right John, I’d love to see it…do ya think you can get your Democrat buddies to go along with increasing our intelligence capabilities since they’ve spent the last 50 years trying to strip our intelligence agencies of any capability....even after 911?
The United States and its allies have made great progress in advancing nuclear security. Concerted action by the great democracies of the world has persuaded a reluctant Russia and China to cooperate in pressuring Iran to abandon its nuclear ambitions, and North Korea to discontinue its own.
How is the great diplomat going to convince our allies, who haven’t shown any stomach for it to date, to stand up to Russia and China and help us deal with Iran and North Korea? Maybe he can just talk to them to get them to go along…if that doesn’t work he can always yell at them and call them dirty names like he does his Republican allies?
The size of the Army and Marine Corps has been significantly increased, and are now better equipped and trained to defend us.
There is no mention of how he will get an arguably anti military Democrat Congress to go along with increasing the size of regular military forces but I hope he can.
Long overdue reforms to the way we acquire weapons programs, including fixed price contracts, have created sufficient savings to pay for a larger military.
He mentions “fixed price contracts” in reference to weapons procurement? So now we have a Republican President advocating price controls on the Government procurement of military equipment removing the ability of manufacturers to recoup expenses incurred in the production of vital defense equipment? Sounds like sound conservative economic policy to me!
After efforts to pressure the Government in Sudan over Darfur failed again in the U.N. Security Council, the United States, acting in concert with a newly formed League of Democracies, applied stiff diplomatic and economic pressure that caused the government of Sudan to agree to a multinational peacekeeping force, with NATO countries providing logistical and air support, to stop the genocide that had made a mockery of the world's repeated declaration that we would "never again" tolerant such inhumanity. Encouraged by the success, the League is now occupied with using the economic power and prestige of its member states to end other gross abuses of human rights such as the despicable crime of human trafficking.
Here is McCain’s harebrained scheme to create a so called “League of Democracies” to take it’s place along side other failed multinational bureaucracies such as NATO, and the UN. Of course the United States will be expected to fund and carry water for this new multi national coalition! McCain has never mentioned what countries are going to join this “League of Democracies” that are not already party to NATO, and has opposed us on every effective foreign policy issues of our time!
The United States has experienced several years of robust economic growth, and Americans again have confidence in their economic future.
How does he achieve this?
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. The Alternate Minimum Tax is being phased out, with relief provided first to middle income families. Doubling the size of the child exemption has put more disposable income in the hands of taxpayers, further stimulating growth.
I love the goals stated here but again…where’s the beef? Of course this is going to be accomplished with House and Senate majorities by the anti tax cut, never a tax they didn’t love Democrat Party. McCain by the shear force of his will, charm, and reaching across the isle will accomplish a capital gains tax cut, a reduction of the corporate tax rate, a repeal of the AMT, and a policy allowing corporations to expense equipment in a single year. He’ll accomplish in four short years what no Republican President has been able to accomplish in the last quarter century.
Congress has just passed by a single up or down vote a tax reform proposal that offers Americans a choice of continuing to file under the rules of the current complicated and burdensome tax code or use a new, simpler, fairer and flatter tax, with two rates and a generous deduction. Millions of taxpayers are expected to file under the flat tax, and save billions in the cost of preparing their returns.
More Fantasy: Mr. Bipartisanship will get his Democrat friends to go along with him in removing the single most effective tool they have had since 1913 to punish business, redistribute wealth and influence behavior simply by reaching out to them and being Mr. Nice Guy. I guess since he says nothing about how he’s going to achieve this miracle of bipartisanship we should just believe he's up to the task!
After exercising my veto several times in my first year in office, Congress has not sent me an appropriations bill containing earmarks for the last three years.
Good goal, let’s see if he can carry through on it and withstand the pressure the Democrat Congress will put on him!
A top to bottom review of every federal bureaucracy has yielded great reductions in government spending by identifying programs that serve no important purpose…
This sounds great…too bad he negates it below by promising yet more job training programs and spending on community colleges!
New free trade agreements have been ratified and led to substantial increases in both exports and imports. The resulting growth in prosperity in countries from South America to Asia to Africa has greatly strengthened America's security and the global progress of our political ideals. U.S. tariffs on agricultural imports have been eliminated and unneeded farm subsidies are being phased out. The world food crisis has ended, inflation is low, and the quality of life not only in our country, but in some of the most impoverished countries around the world is much improved.
End tariffs, end poverty, end hunger, end the food crises, bring prosperity to Africa, Asia and South America, lower inflation, and improve the standard of living around the globe all by himself…with the help of a supportive MSM and Democrat Congress? In four short years?
Sign me up!
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. Older workers who accept lower paying jobs while they acquire new skills are provided assistance to make up a good part of the income they have lost. Community colleges and technical schools all over the country have developed worker retraining programs suited to the specific economic opportunities available in their communities and are helping millions of workers who have lost a job that won't come back find a new one that won't go away.
Of course this; along with everything else he recites in this speech will be accomplished with the expansion of a more benign and loving Federal Government. Never mind his review above that we will use to end wasteful spending and eliminate duplication of useless federal programs!
Public education in the United States is much improved thanks to the competition provided by charter and private schools; the increase of quality teachers through incentives like merit pay and terrific programs that attract to the classroom enthusiastic and innovative teachers from many disciplines, like Teach for America and Troops to Teachers. Educational software and online teaching programs endorsed by qualified non profits are much more widely in use, bringing to the smallest classrooms in America some of the greatest math, English, and science teachers in the country. This revolution in teaching methods has especially benefited rural America. Test scores and graduation rates are rising everywhere in the country.
I like his talk about charter and private schools but gone is the long term goal of the Republican Party to end the Federal control over our school system by eliminating the Department of Education. Never mind his commitment to reducing spending…we’re going to increase merit pay for teachers from the Federal coffers, expand all these programs by spending from the Federal budget and eliminate local control of our schools!
Health care has become more accessible…(utilizing)…walk in clinics as alternatives to emergency room care….
Are we to assume that these new clinics are going to be built by the American Taxpayer? How does this jive with a commitment to cut spending?
…competition in the prescription drug market have begun to wring out the runaway inflation once endemic in our health care system.
More competition in the Prescription drug market? Does this mean we’re going to end drug patents like the Democrats have been trying to do since the early 90s? Importation of drugs from Canada? How is this going to affect the expenditure of limited resources of Drug Companies for R&D if they can’t recoup those costs when they release them to the market if they will be forced to compete with other manufacturers who will be making and selling the drugs they just released?
I believe it can be assumed that if this is the case and these are the result, the next step would be government subsidies for R&D to make up the difference and thus government control of what drugs will be created!
Schools have greatly improved their emphasis on physical education and nutritional content of meals offered in school cafeterias. Obesity rates among the young and the disease they engender are stabilized and beginning to decline.
The Federal Government mandating nutrition and exorcise programs on local schools and Federal regulation of school menus? More mandates on our public education system and less local control!
The reduction in the growth of health care costs has begun to relieve some of the pressure on Medicare; encouraging Congress to act in a bipartisan way to extend its solvency for twenty-five years without increasing taxes and raising premiums only for upper income seniors.
First off…Assumptions, assumptions, assumptions with a dash of the law of unintended consequences thrown in!
The assumption is that his health care program will actually cost less and not more as is the usual case when the government assumes control of any sector of the American economy. I doubt the savings he points to will materialize in order to pay for this flight of fancy so I’d expect him to reach across the isle and get his friends to raise payroll taxes to accomplish his goal of extending the solvency of Medicare!
Their success encouraged a group of congressional leaders from both parties to work with my administration to fix Social Security as well, without reducing benefits to those near retirement. The reforms include some form of personal retirement accounts in safe and reliable index funds, such as have been available to government employees since their retirement plans were made solvent a quarter century ago.
Are you serious? Democrats are going to help him fix Social Security giving us personal retirement accounts and index funds? Yeah, I’m sure they’ll jump at the chance!
The United States is well on the way to independence from foreign sources of oil; progress that has not only begun to alleviate the environmental threat posed from climate change, but has greatly improved our security as well. A cap and trade system has been implemented, spurring great innovation in the development of green technologies and alternative energy sources. Clean coal technology has advanced considerably with federal assistance. Construction has begun on twenty new nuclear reactors thanks to improved incentives and a streamlined regulatory process.
Cap & Trade, of course we’re going to implement this and still have the robust economy he references earlier in his speech. We’re going to miraculously end (what I believe to be non existent) man made global warming in 4 years! What a man!
Oh…and we’re going to develop green technologies, with the help of the federal government all the while cutting spending, and without increasing food prices as stated earlier in his speech! Throw in clean coal technology for good measure with government subsidies no doubt, and we’ll reach across the isle again and get the Democrats to approve twenty new nuclear reactors despite the fact that they’ve successfully blocked the building of even one for over 20 years!
Scores of judges have been confirmed to the federal district and appellate courts, including the U.S. Supreme Court, who understand that they were not sent there to write our laws but to enforce them and make sure they are consistent with the Constitution.
This “make sure they, (Laws), are consistent with the Constitution” is exactly the problem isn’t it? The way they make laws is by saying they don’t conform with one aspect of the Constitution or another.
Besides, once again, we face the issue of the good will of his Democrat friends to accomplish his goal. Good luck John!
Border state governors have certified and the American people recognize that 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. Illegal immigrants who broke our laws after they came here have been arrested and deported. Illegal immigration has been finally brought under control, and the American people accepted the practical necessity to institute a temporary worker program and deal humanely with the millions of immigrants who have been in this country illegally.
OK, we’ve secured the border and built the “G*D D***ED FENCE”, stopped employers from hiring illegal immigrants, deported criminal aliens, then we work out a temporary worker program. What next? We deal “humanely” with the millions of illegal aliens that are here? As opposed to inhumanely John? As opposed to making them go to the back of the line and wait their turn like the immigrants that are trying to do the right thing?
Yeah, I’ll hold my breath!
Voluntary national service has grown in popularity in part because of the educational benefits used as incentives….but mostly because the young Americans, no less than earlier generations, understand that true happiness is much greater than the pursuit of pleasure, and can only be found by serving causes greater than self-interest.
We will continue the Clintonian travesty of paying “volunteers” with taxpayer dollars. Oh…and we’ll teach these volunteers how much happiness can be experienced by doing for others at taxpayer expense!
I am well aware I cannot make any of these changes alone. The powers of the presidency are rightly checked by the other branches of government, and I will not attempt to acquire powers our founders saw fit to grant Congress.
Unlike that usurper of power and that despot, Bush who made my Democrat and MSM friends so mad!
For too long, now, Washington has been consumed by a hyper-partisanship that treats every serious challenge facing us as an opportunity to trade insults; disparage each other's motives; and fight about the next election. For all the problems we face, if you ask Americans what frustrates them most about Washington, they will tell you they don't think we're capable of serving the public interest before our personal and partisan ambitions; that we fight for ourselves and not for them. Americans are sick of it, and they have every right to be. They are sick of the politics of selfishness, stalemate and delay. They despair when every election -- no matter who wins -- always seems to produce four more years of unkept promises and a government that is just a battleground for the next election. Their patience is at an end for politicians who value ambition over principle, and for partisanship that is less a contest of ide as than an uncivil brawl over the spoils of power. They want to change not only the policies and institutions that have failed the American people, but the political culture that produced them. They want to move this country forward and stake our claim on this century as we did in the last. And they want their government to care more about them than preserving the privileges of the powerful.
Oh those nasty partisans who won’t bow down and do something for the sake of just doing it! They shouldn’t worry about whether what they are doing is right or not, they should all just go along to get along and do something. Never mind the damage they do, just as long as we can skip and sing along the yellow brick road and think happy thoughts!
I will ask Democrats to serve in my administration.
Hey John, Which Democrats do you intend to ask to serve in your Administration? Maybe Ted Kennedy at ICE? Or John Murtha at the VA? Let’s put Chuck Schumer at the Justice Department so he can go after those nasty corporate raiders! How about Jimmy Carter or some like minded America hater to head up the Department of State! Let’s put Jeremiah Write in as ambassador to the UN so he can work to stop the human rights violations from those nasty white crackers that poisoned so many Blacks with Crack Cocaine and Aids! That sounds like something to get the base fired up…You go Johnny Mac…Good for you!
I will ask Congress to grant me the privilege of coming before both houses to take questions, and address criticism, much the same as the Prime Minister of Great Britain appears regularly before the House of Commons.
Hey John, we’re a Constitutional Republic not a Parliamentary Circus. This practice is done in Briton because the “Prime Minister” is theoretically a part of the legislative body that has been tasked with the executive functions of the Government. Briton doesn’t have a Separation of Powers there. You might want to subject yourself to the circus that such an arrangement would be, but I for one don’t want to see it. Despite Clinton’s assaults on it, there is a dignity and decorum to be considered in the Office of the President of the United States and I for one don’t appreciate the idea that you would go before the Congress and be exposed as a buffoon!
No thanks on this one Johnny Boy…I’m actually building a smoldering rage as I write this and think about it. I can’t think of one single proposal in my life as stupid as a Republican President going before a Democrat Congress and allowing hundreds of Congressmen and Senators take a free shot at you!
I will work with anyone, of either party, to make this country safe, prosperous and proud. And I won't care who gets the credit.
He won’t worry about who gets the credit…but you can rest assured…the Republican Party will get the blame when he’s done!
CFR, Amnesty, Spending, Corruption,
Earmarks, Socialized Medicine, Global Cap & Trade:
”Your Silence Is Your Consent!”