Senate Proceeding on Feb 13th, 2009 :: 0:08:05 to 0:28:05
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0:05:40 to 0:47:29( Edit History Discussion )
Speech By: John McCain
Bill: H.R. 1: American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009

0:07:57 to 0:08:17( Edit History Discussion )

John McCain: i hope that the clerk would- i would ask that the clerk keep track of the timing on both sides as both sides talk so we can try to make sure that there is parity on timing throughout the day. obviously it will be dictated by a number of speakers that want speak on either side. but we should try to preserve

0:08:18 to 0:08:40( Edit History Discussion )

John McCain: parity throughout the day. i thank the senator from illinois. mr. president? mr. durbin: senator mccain, i'm sorry to interrupt you again, but consent to thatffect, that we will divide the tim mr. mccain: i would agree with the senator from illinois, but i think it's pretty clear there's going to be more speakers on

0:08:41 to 0:09:05( Edit History Discussion )

John McCain: this side than that side. i'd like to have our leader, republican leader, agree to that before i mr. durbin: i'm informed by the senate staff that already part of the agreement. mr. mccain: thank you. i thank the senator from illinois. mr. president, today the senate

0:09:08 to 0:09:29( Edit History Discussion )

John McCain: will pass a 89 billion, .1 trillion with interest added in, and cost of these appropriations bills, count in the interest. it's the so-called stimulus bill, and it's under the guise of a bipartisan compromise.

0:09:30 to 0:09:50( Edit History Discussion )

John McCain: let me reiterate, what i've so often stated during the past two weeks, the nation needs a stimulus bill. the nation expects the congress and president to act in a truly bipartisan manner to address this crisis. but, unfortunately, this measure is not bipartisan.

0:09:51 to 0:10:12( Edit History Discussion )

John McCain: it contains much that is not stimulative, and is nothing short -- nothing short -- of generation times of great challenge, history tells us that our nation will work collectively to remedy the problems we face. working on this measure ther was that opportunity. republicans offered a good-faith alternative to the measure

0:10:13 to 0:10:33( Edit History Discussion )

John McCain: that's before us. our alternative provided the american taxpayers with a stimulus bill devoid of pork-barrel projects, excessive spending and programs that fail to create jobs. our bill wasn't to simply advocate policies w otherwise pass. our bill in fact was a real

0:10:34 to 0:10:56( Edit History Discussion )

John McCain: stimulus prosal. instead, partisan legislation was pushed sadly, when we could be unifying to assist hurting americans, we've exacerbated our differences and burdened our children and grandchildren with a have never been seen before. mr. president, before i go to

0:10:57 to 0:11:17( Edit History Discussion )

John McCain: much further here, because the bill is 1,071 pages. we got it last night. i believe at that was the first moment that a copy was made available. it wasn't numbered correctly.

0:11:18 to 0:11:39( Edit History Discussion )

John McCain: at 11:00 p.m., we received notification it had just become available on the house web site. now compare the process that we have been through with the web site that is from the campaign. the web site of the obama

0:11:40 to 0:12:00( Edit History Discussion )

John McCain: campaign stated -- and i will quote here in a second -- that the web site -- i quote -- "mr. president -- this is a quote from the obama web site -- quote -- "in the practice of writing legislation behind

0:12:01 to 0:12:21( Edit History Discussion )

John McCain: cled doors, as president barack obama will restore the american people's trust in their government by making government more open and transparent. obama will work to reform congressional rules to require all legislative sessions, including committee markups and conference committees, to be conducted in

0:12:22 to 0:12:42( Edit History Discussion )

John McCain: mr. president, what happened in the last few days, laws and sausages, is certainly a long way from the obama web site which said that "reform congressional rules to require all legislative sessions, including committee markups and conference committees, to be

0:12:43 to 0:13:05( Edit History Discussion )

John McCain: conducted in public." all day yesterday the media reported, made different about the process that was going on, which, by the way, there was no republican leadership anywhere in the vicinity. so, i recognize that this will

0:13:06 to 0:13:26( Edit History Discussion )

John McCain: be greeted as a victory for the administration and the democrats today. and i recognize that, and it is a victory. but kind of victory. i think that words which will haunt us for a lon period of time were uttered by the speaker of the house.

0:13:27 to 0:13:47( Edit History Discussion )

John McCain: quote -- "we won. we write the bill. we write the bill." mr. president, i think on both sides of there was a commitment not to use those words -- "we won. we wrote the bill." that commitment was to sit down together in a bipartisan fashion

0:13:48 to 0:14:08( Edit History Discussion )

John McCain: and work together to come up with solutions to the enormous domestic and foreign policy and national security challenges we faced. and i understand who won. i think i understand it about as well as anybody in this body.

0:14:09 to 0:14:29( Edit History Discussion )

John McCain: but -- and i also often said elections have consequences. this is one of the consequences of my side of the aisle losing. but it wasn't the promise that was made to the american people. now, i understand that on the other side of the aisle, and many in the media will say, well, republicansre recalcitrant.

0:14:30 to 0:14:51( Edit History Discussion )

John McCain: republicans are trying to block it. republicans don't want anything. we had a provision. we had a proposal of over 20 billion. we had a proposal that got votes for a trigger that once our economy begins to recover

0:14:52 to 0:15:13( Edit History Discussion )

John McCain: and is in recovery, that this spending stops. one thing milton freedman said, among many others, that i've always appreciated, he said there is nhing so permanent as a temporary government program. mr. president, there's also nothing more permanent than a temporary government spending program.

0:15:14 to 0:15:36( Edit History Discussion )

John McCain: so i think we had an opportunity here and, hopefully there will be opportunities in the future, to sit down, republican and democrat, together, and at the beginning, not at if you're not in on takeoff, then you're certainly not going to be in on the landing.

0:15:37 to 0:15:57( Edit History Discussion )

John McCain: and this bill took off with the speaker of the house saying, we won, we write the bill. and that was repeated on several occasions by the president of the united states. now, i want to say again, mr. president, my side of the for eight years did not include

0:15:58 to 0:16:18( Edit History Discussion )

John McCain: the other side of the aisle. we were guilty. we were guilty of not observing the -- the rights and privileges of the minority party. and i rationalize it.

0:16:19 to 0:16:39( Edit History Discussion )

John McCain: but i do believe that one -- some members did work in a bipartisan fashion and the times are different. the times are different. the american people spoke. so yesterday, not the republican leadership, not the majority of

0:16:40 to 0:17:00( Edit History Discussion )

John McCain: my colleagues, sat by while the bill was finally written. and that's why final legislation here will have three votes probably out of all t republicans in the united states house of representatives and united states senate.

0:17:01 to 0:17:23( Edit History Discussion )

John McCain: it may pick up a couple in the house. but to call this bipartisan is clearly a -- an inaccurate and false description of the legislation that will pass some time this evening. so we passed up an opportunity. i hope we will in future, since there will be tarp 3, somewhere

0:17:24 to 0:17:45( Edit History Discussion )

John McCain: -- some some estimates, trillion. no one knows. the secretary of the tasury testified yesterday before the united states senate said he had no idea. he could give us no clue as to how much the next tarp is going to be. but i hope that would then present us with another opportunity to work together

0:17:46 to 0:18:07( Edit History Discussion )

John McCain: from the beginning not at the end. again, i -- this side of the aisle is not blameless on partisanship but this was an opportunity for all of us to join together. "u.s.a. today" stated in an editorial -- quote -- "it seems

0:18:08 to 0:18:28( Edit History Discussion )

John McCain: more like partisan positioning than a sincere effort to reach a compromise with the white house at a time of severe economic distress." i can't speak for all of my colleagues, but i speak for the majority of them. that's a false statement. that's a false statement. nothing could be further frer the truth. every senator here wants a

0:18:29 to 0:18:49( Edit History Discussion )

John McCain: reasonable, workable stimulus bill that will help turn our economy around and put people to work. that's why 40 republican senators voted for alternative that sought to fix our housing crisis. and, rember, it was housing first and it is housing that is going to restore our economy. the stimulus package has not a

0:18:50 to 0:18:56( Edit History Discussion )

John McCain: lot of it to start with and comes out of the -- quote --

0:18:57 to 0:19:18( Edit History Discussion )

John McCain: "conference" with less. invest in our nation's infrastructure and restrained money back immediately in the hands of all americans through a payroll tax holiday, allow businesses to coop more of their profits to hire new employees, invest in capital or expand their businesses, finally begin

0:19:19 to 0:19:39( Edit History Discussion )

John McCain: focusing our attention on entitlement reform halt to the spending once our economy turns around. and the total cost of the alternative proposal half the cost of report. there is a couple of cautionary tales. one was a study by john taylor of stanford and hoover institution that showed that the

0:19:40 to 0:20:01( Edit History Discussion )

John McCain: last time we gave americans a paycheck, and that's the -- one of the big starts of this stimulus package, checks of 00 to 00, it had no effect on the economy. i think it's also a cautionary tale as to what the japanese did over the last decade and i'm afraid that some of this

0:20:02 to 0:20:24( Edit History Discussion )

John McCain: stimulus package repeats that. we missed an enormous opportunity to reign in -- rein excessive spending despite the effort of 44 senators to get our fiscal house in the money returned to the taxpayer upon two consecutive

0:20:25 to 0:20:49( Edit History Discussion )

John McCain: quarters of economic growth. now, mr. president, we have seen time after time stimulus packages at other times when we financial difficulty not to the degree of this one, but much of th spending has taken place after the economy recovered and contributed enormously to the

0:20:50 to 0:21:12( Edit History Discussion )

John McCain: deficit and burdens on future generations of americans. why would we not agree that once the economy is recovered that we should proceed on a path to a balanced budget and stop some of these spending programs that are going to be adopted tonight in the way why wo

0:21:13 to 0:21:35( Edit History Discussion )

John McCain: why wouldn't we bring them to a op? could it be -- could it be that some want these spending programs to be permanent? and i repeat, again, militariton frredman said that there is nothing so permanent as a temporary government program and i'm sure we will see many of these programs in the stimulus

0:21:36 to 0:21:57( Edit History Discussion )

John McCain: live a long, long life. mr. "washington post" op-ed entitled "00 billion mistake," an economics professor at harvard wrote, and i quote -- "a fiscal package now before congress needs to be thoroughly revised

0:21:58 to 0:22:19( Edit History Discussion )

John McCain: in its current form it does too little to raise national spending an employment. it would be better for the senate to delay legislation for a month or even two if that's what it takes to produce a much better bill. we cannot make 00 billion mistake." obviously it is a .1 trillion mistake.

0:22:20 to 0:22:40( Edit History Discussion )

John McCain: mr. president, we can't make that mistake. by passing this conference report, we are essentially engaging in an act of generational theft. how can anyone ignore the cold, hard facts. the current national deb is 0.7 trillion.

0:22:41 to 0:23:02( Edit History Discussion )

John McCain: the 2009 projected deficit is .2 trillion. the cost is .124 trillion. that's 89 billion plus interest. the expected omnibus spending bill to fund the federal government through september 30th of 2009 is 00 billion.

0:23:03 to 0:23:24( Edit History Discussion )

John McCain: the expected war supplemental request for the wars in iraq and afghanistan, the armed forces staff committee project projects 0 billion. the unaccounted is untold billions.

0:23:25 to 0:23:46( Edit History Discussion )

John McCain: tarp 1 and tarp 2 is 00 billion. tarp 3 of .5 trillion. these numbers are staggering. these numbers are staggering. we have never dealt with numbers. not in the great depression, not in any other era time of our country.

0:23:47 to 0:24:07( Edit History Discussion )

John McCain: every dollar of the extenting in -- spe report will be added to our national debt which now stands, as i said, at 0.2 trillion or 70% of g.d.p. according to the center for data analysis. if congress boreos the funds for its economic -- borrows the funds for the economic stimulus

0:24:08 to 0:24:31( Edit History Discussion )

John McCain: package, which, of course, it will do, the total debt could grow to 3 trillion in fiscal year 2009 or 92% of our gross domestic product. by 2010, total debt could grow to 4 trillion or 95% of our g.d.p. and the center further finds that the stimulus package

0:24:32 to 0:24:53( Edit History Discussion )

John McCain: will add about 0,000 in new federal debt per american household. remarkably while we're on the debt -- on the brink of saddling our children, grandchildren, and great grandch enormous debt load, the conference repor before us does little to address the core issue

0:24:54 to 0:25:14( Edit History Discussion )

John McCain: that brought us to the point of needing a stimulus bill in the first place and that's the housing crisis. and i would remind my colleagues that history shows us that if you run up enough debt the answer to it is to print more money, which the -- debases the currency and leads to inflation

0:25:15 to 0:25:36( Edit History Discussion )

John McCain: which is greatest enemy of the middle class in america. i see my colleague from new york on the floor who is going to talk on many things, but including the terrible tragedy that's taking place in the crash of that airliner in new york. but i also on the floor strongly disagree with his comnt that the

0:25:37 to 0:26:00( Edit History Discussion )

John McCain: american people don't care about little porky projects. americans re -- i can only speak for arizona who have flood my office with calls. they care about little, porky projects that are to the tune of millions of the tax dollars. just yesterday the natiol association of realtors reported

0:26:01 to 0:26:22( Edit History Discussion )

John McCain: the largest drop in home prices 12.4% since the association started gathering such data in 1979. prices declined in almost out of every 10 cities. despite the fact that this extremely sobering statist released yesterday, this bill cuts almost half, the only

0:26:23 to 0:26:43( Edit History Discussion )

John McCain: significant housing provision in the conference report. this provision written by senator isakson, a former real estate agent and approved by all republican and democrat senators, would have allowed any homeowner to take a nonrepayable tax credit of 5,000 or 10% of the purchase price of a house

0:26:44 to 0:27:04( Edit History Discussion )

John McCain: used as a principal residence. senator isakson argued that such a generous tax credit would help the market recover swiftly as a real estate agent during the economic crisis of the 1970's, he saw a tax credit spur the sale of many homes would would allow home values to stablize. the housing inventory to drop

0:27:05 to 0:27:26( Edit History Discussion )

John McCain: and the market recover. we could have achieved a similar result here, i believe. but instead it was cut -- the only housing provision in this report, roundly supported by both, by republicans, democrats and millions of home buyers. they decided to cut the tax

0:27:27 to 0:27:47( Edit History Discussion )

John McCain: break to ,000 and limit it to only first-time buyers. many believe this will not produce any real change to our sagging housing market. congressional budget office has estimated that the stimulus bill would create anywhere from .3 million to --

0:27:48 to 0:28:10( Edit History Discussion )

John McCain: 1.3 million to 3.9 million jobs at 89 billion, 1.3 million jobs would work out to cos cost 20,902 for the jobs. and for 2.9 it would be 02,308 for each job. if you add the cost of interest