Senator John McCain on Fox & Friends
January 28, 2010
http://mms.tveyes.com/ExpandGuest.asp?ln=405599
STEVE DOOCY: All right. Thank you very much for teeing it up. Joining
us live from Washington, D.C. is Senator John McCain. Good morning to
you, sir.
SENATOR JOHN McCAIN: Good morning. How are you?
DOOCY: Fine, thank you very much. Molly touched on it. Explain your
position on don't ask, don't tell, why it's a bad idea for the
Administration to rescind that.
SEN. McCAIN: It was a policy developed in the Clinton Administration.
General Colin Powell was one of the major factors. It is working. We
have the best trained, best equipped, most professional military in two
wars. I spend a lot of time with the military given my position on the
Armed Services Committee and background and the fact is that it is
working and the majority of members of the military find it to b
working and in the middle of two wars, to change a policy of this
sweeping nature, I think would be a serious mistake.
ALLYSON CAMEROTA: Senator, I saw you clapping with what I thought was
particular relish last night when the President brought up earmarks.
let's play a little bit of what the President said and get you to
respond.
PRESIDENT BARACK OBAMA (Video Clip): Tonight I’m calling on congress
to publish all earmark requests on a single web site before there is a
vote so that the American people can see how their money is being spent.
CAMEROTA: What do you think of that?
SEN. McCAIN: I think it's amusing. So we'll take care of the earmarks
and corruption by putting it on a web site. What the president should
have said is I’m going to veto any bill that comes over with these
corrupting earmarks and pork barrel projects which ballooned our
deficit and then soundly reject it by the American people and
corruption. I mean, I was almost entertained by it because the fact is
that the earmarking on the bills last year were in the tens of
thousands. 9,000 on one bill. 5,000 on another. And it's got to stop.
We know it breeds corruption. But most importantly, how can we continue
to afford to expend taxpayers' dollars on irritable bowel syndrome?
KILMEADE: Got me thinking it's somewhat off track. There was a poll
that asked people, what do you think of the President's proposals? 83%
of the country said, hey, they sound good. Now what about is President
Obama going to be able to accomplish any of the goals he laid out?
About half said yes. 42%. for the most part, what the President
outlined, was it pie in the sky or is some of this stuff doable? For
example, health care. Can they bring it back and get a Republican vote
and push it through?
SEN. McCAIN: Well, let me say a lot of the assistance for small
business I support and overdue and I would love to see some of that
done. I’m sure we can. obviously the president missed – or did not
understand the message of the Massachusetts election. It was about a
great candidate named Scott Brown and it was about health care and the
American people overwhelmingly want it stopped and go back to the
beginning. When the President said, if anybody has got an idea, et
cetera, et cetera, we've been talking about medical malpractice reform,
going across state lines for insurance policies, reward of wellness and
fitness, all kinds of proposals which have been rejected out of hand by
the democrats and the white house. so to say that there is nobody with
– if you got a better idea, we've been talking about it for months on
the floor of the senate. medical malpractice reform can save hundreds
of billions of dollars.
DOOCY: Senator, when the President said, if anybody has any good ideas,
let me know, I thought it was amusing because I thought about you
because just a day or so before we were told that apparently he was
going to unveil a across the board spending freeze. During the
campaign, you were for the spending freeze. He told you that that was a
dumb idea. Now as it turns out, he was against it before he was for it.
SEN. McCAIN: That's true. But the interesting thing is that he's
talking about a freeze in 2011 of some $15 billion that could be saved
by his version of a spending freeze. and then immediately pivoted to
another, quote, jobs bill, stimulus bill, 80 billion, 100 billion,
whatever it is, and I mean, you just can't make it up.
CAMEROTA: Let's talk about jobs and those in Arizona, which we know you
know all too well. the company that the president talked about last
night, the company in Arizona that got $100 million federal dollars and
then created 15 jobs in 2009, 27 jobs in 2010, tell us more about this.
SEN. McCAIN: Well, we had not heard about it until his speech last
night, so we're looking into it. But my understanding the facts are
basically yours. We have now got into a position where there is a
$40,000 debt for every man, woman and child in America and the spending
is out of control, the Chinese own $850 billion of our notes. Look,
we've got to get spending under control. Line item veto. Many other
things are necessary and Senator Evan Bayh and I proposed a package day
before yesterday that should be implemented. We've got to get spending
under control.
DOOCY: All right. Before you go, what kind of grade would you give the President on the speech last night?
SEN. McCAIN: Well, the President always gives an eloquent speech and I
admire that and appreciate some of the proportions of his speech,
particularly where small business is concerned and try to do a better
job on job creation, but the substance of it, frankly, I think shows
that he really is not – has not heard the message of Virginia and
Massachusetts.
KILMEADE: He'll pay the price in the polls and maybe November if that's the case. great having you on. Have a great day.
SEN. McCAIN: Thank you
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