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The McCain
Record
Arizona's senior senator is not a
consistent defender of individual freedom
Pat Toomey
March 13, 2007
Political
candidates often attempt to burnish their economic policy credentials
on the campaign trail. As part of an effort to provide a fair and
thorough analysis of the real economic records of the major
presidential candidates, the Club for Growth is issuing a series of
white papers on these candidates. Today, we release our third paper--an
assessment of Arizona Sen. John McCain.
We
believe that classical liberal, limited-government and free-enterprise
policies best enable strong economic growth. Sen. McCain's record in
this regard could be a lot better.
The
reduction of tax rates on income and investment is a cornerstone of
limited-government philosophy and a powerful driver of economic growth.
When the most important pro-growth tax cuts in a generation were
proposed by President George W. Bush in 2001 and 2003, Sen. McCain
vigorously opposed them. While he has more recently supported the
extension of the Bush tax cuts and has previously proposed requiring a
supermajority vote in Congress to raise taxes, the extent of his
opposition in 2001 and 2003 supersedes any potentially redeeming votes.
Sen.
McCain was one of only two Republican senators to oppose the 2001 tax
cuts and one of only three GOP senators to oppose the 2003 reductions.
Furthermore, his reason for opposing the cuts was taken straight from
the playbook of the most radical left-wing Democrats. In 2001, Sen.
McCain argued, "I cannot in good conscience support a tax cut in which
so many of the benefits go to the most fortunate among us at the
expense of middle-class Americans who need tax relief."
That
statement is virtually indistinguishable from the class-warfare
demagoguery used by Democrats like Ted Kennedy and John Kerry. More
importantly, it was grossly inaccurate. The Bush tax cuts lowered
income taxes, and other taxes, for every American who paid them. In
percentage terms, lower-income workers enjoyed the greatest savings,
and today, upper-income workers pay a larger share of total income
taxes than they did before the Bush tax cuts.
Sen.
McCain did much more than just criticize the Bush tax cuts--he also
joined leading liberal senators in offering and voting for amendments
designed to undermine them. All in all, he voted on the pro-tax side of
14 such amendments in 2001 and 2003. These included an amendment he
co-sponsored with Sen. Tom Daschle to limit the rate reduction in the
top tax bracket to one percentage point and an amendment sponsored by
Sen. Russ Feingold against full repeal of the estate tax, aka the death
tax. This latter vote is in keeping with Senator McCain's 2002 vote
against repealing the death tax.
To
be sure, the Arizona senator has shown consistent support for personal
Social Security accounts and has voted against a minimum-wage increase
and the 2003 Medicare Prescription Drug Bill. But those pro-growth
positions belie a pervasive mistrust of the free market and individual
choice. When asked on a Feb. 23, 2005 edition of Meet the
Press whether
he would support Sen. Lindsey Graham's proposal to raise Social
Security taxes as part of a package that would include personal
accounts, Sen. McCain answered: "As part of a compromise I could
. . .
I'm proud of the job that Senator Lindsey Graham has been doing in his
leadership position on this issue." Sen. Graham's proposal could
constitute a massive tax increase, prove devastating to economic growth
in this country, and exacerbate the woefully low return workers receive
on their Social Security taxes.
A
closer look at Sen. McCain's record on regulation reveals, at best, a
tenuous commitment to free markets-- in particular his leadership role
in the Patients' Bill of Rights, which he sponsored with Ted Kennedy
and John Edwards. The bill allowed the government to impose a set of
onerous mandates on insurance coverage instead of allowing individuals
to make their own decisions about health-care plans in the marketplace.
Over
the years, Sen. McCain has supported a number of other big-government
bills, including an amendment that would authorize the government to
set prices on prescriptiondrugs under Medicare and an amendment to
prohibit oil drilling in part of the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge in
Alaska.
But
of all his infringements on personal freedom, Sen. McCain's persistent
attacks on political speech are the most worrisome. The First Amendment
is an important safeguard of pro-growth policies. When government
strays from sound economic policies, citizens must be free to exercise
their constitutional rights to petition and criticize those policies
and the politicians responsible for them. The 2002 McCain-Feingold bill
(or the Bipartisan Campaign Reform Act), named in part for the Arizona
senator who gave it life, seeks to squash political dissent by imposing
grossly unconstitutional restrictions on citizen participation in
political debate.
In
defense of the bill's provision severely limiting the freedom of
private groups to run political TV ads, Sen. McCain argued in a Supreme
Court brief, "These ads are direct, blatant attacks on the candidates.
We don't think that's right." He thus anointed himself the arbiter of
appropriate political speech, worthy of deciphering which speech is
"right" and which should be permitted in American political debate. His
law constitutes the greatest modern infringement of the First Amendment
right to political free speech. While bestowing significant advantages
upon incumbent office holders, it has created neither a less corrupt
political domain nor a more democratic one.
To
be fair, Sen. McCain has amassed a number of pro-growth votes over his
24 years in Congress, and his record in support of school choice and
free trade is impressive, as is his opposition to wasteful government
spending. He has battled to eliminate outrageous pork-barrel projects
and has courageously voted against pricey laws like the 2005 Highway
Bill. But his vigorous opposition to the most pro-growth tax cuts in 20
years, and his outspoken pursuit of anti-growth and anti-free market
policies in the realms of regulation, entitlement reform and campaign
finance reveal a philosophical ambivalence, if not hostility, toward
limited government and personal freedom.
While
Sen. McCain's economic record is clearly mixed, a careful study
demonstrates that even his pro-growth positions tend to be tainted by a
heavy anti-growth undercurrent. This evidence, and the virulence of his
rhetoric, suggest that American taxpayers cannot expect consistently
pro-growth economic policies from a McCain administration.
Mr. Toomey is
president of Club for Growth. The group's full report on Sen. McCain's
economic record can be found at www.ClubforGrowth.org.
Copyright © 2007 Dow Jones & Company, Inc.
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