Stimulus bill was 'a bad beginning' for Obama, says McCain

[Dos Equis]

He's right.

Stimulus bill was 'a bad beginning' for Obama, says McCain
Posted: 11:49 AM ET

From CNN Associate Producer Martina Stewart
CNN

(CNN) – Arizona Sen. John McCain did not pull any punches in assessing a major milestone in his former rival’s nascent presidency.

Watch: McCain on State of the Union

“It was a bad beginning,” McCain said Sunday of the legislative process that resulted in the $787 billion stimulus bill recently passed by Congress. “It was a bad beginning because it wasn’t what we promised the American people, what President Obama promised the American people – that we would sit down together.”

While McCain said he appreciated the fact that Obama came to Capitol Hill to speak with House Republicans about the stimulus bill. But, “that’s not how you negotiate a result.” Instead, “you sit down in a room with competing proposals” and “almost all of our proposals went down on a party-line vote”

“I hope the next time we will sit down together and conduct truly bipartisan negotiations. This was not a bipartisan bill.”

But the former Republican presidential nominee was also critical of how his own party had conducted itself in the past when it came to bipartisanship.

“Republicans were guilty of this kind of behavior,” McCain said. “I’m not saying that we did things different. But Americans want us to do things differently and they want us to work together.”

The stimulus bill which Obama will sign Tuesday is “incredibly expensive,” McCain also said. “It has hundreds of billions of dollars in projects which will not yield in jobs,” McCain told CNN Chief National Correspondent John King. “This was supposed to be a package that was going to create jobs.”

McCain also spoke about the potential long-term effects of the stimulus bill.

“We are committing generational theft,” McCain said. “We are laying a huge deficit on future generations of Americans.”

Failure to bring the federal government’s spending back in line with its revenue once the economy improves could lead to inflation and debasement of the dollar down the road, McCain also told King.

McCain, who has represented the border state of Arizona in the Senate for more than two decades, also discussed illegal immigration on State of the Union.

http://politicalticker.blogs.cnn.com/2009/02/15/stimulus-bill-was-a-bad-beginning-for-obama-says-mccain/

[Straw Man]

Is this the same John McCain that suspended his campaign to go back to DC to help craft that 700 Billion dollar fiasco of a bank bail out?

[Mons Venus]

Is this the same John McCain that suspended his campaign to go back to DC to help craft that 700 Billion dollar fiasco of a bank bail out?

I believe so.

[tonymctones]

Is this the same John McCain that suspended his campaign to go back to DC to help craft that 700 Billion dollar fiasco of a bank bail out?

you feel that was a bad thing the bail out that is?



























obama shares equal blame with bush and mccain if so

I believe so.

i know you do pookie

[Straw Man]

you feel that was a bad thing the bail out that is?

obama shares equal blame with bush and mccain if so

the thing that really pisses me off about the first first half of the TARP $$$ is that it was sold as one plan (buying toxic assets at deep discounts) and was implemented as another plan (buying preferred shares in fucked up banks).   In fact Paulsen said that buying shares was a bad idea and then did that very thing.

I think the tax payer would have been better off with assets purchased @ 20 cents on the dollar than preferred shares in a bank that could eventually be worthless.  Regardless, the current plan was a bait a switch job (IMO) and the lack of oversight and accountability is a stain on both parties

[shootfighter1]

The market has taken another dive since the plans were announced/passed.  So much for boosting confidence in the financial sector.  The dow is at 7850!

[BayGBM]

Is this the same John McCain that suspended his campaign to go back to DC to help craft that 700 Billion dollar fiasco of a bank bail out?

LOL