CAMPAIGN 2008
The McCain Record
Arizona's senior senator is not a consistent defender of individual freedom.
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 prescription drugs 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.
