McCain Refuses To Raise Taxes To Pay For War: ‘I’m Not Sure What The Point Would Be’
McCain Refuses To Raise Taxes To Pay For War: ‘I’m Not Sure What The Point Would Be’
In an interview with Bloomberg Television, Sen. John McCain (R-AZ) was asked by Al Hunt whether he would support raising taxes on the very wealthy to help pay for a new $1 billion jobs creation program for Iraq that President Bush is set to unveil this week.
“I’m not sure what the point would be,” McCain said in response to whether wealthier Americans should be asked to pay more to offset the costs in Iraq. He added, “I’m not sure I would want to raise their taxes just because we’re in a war.” Watch it:
Washington Post columnist E.J. Dionne wrote recently, “So here we are: Policymakers and politicians will demand more and more from the volunteers who serve our country, but they can’t find the gumption to ask shareholders to pay a bit more tax on their dividends or high earners to pay slightly larger levies on their incomes. By my back-of-the-envelope calculations, since 2001 we’ve offered $2 in tax cuts for every $1 we have spent on the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. And conservatives wonder why we have deficits.”
Full transcript:
HUNT: Why not ask some wealthy Americans to pay more?
MCCAIN: Uh, umm, I’m not sure that that’s connected. I think if we have to, we ought to make some choices in defense spending if we need to.
HUNT: So you would resist asking more affluent Americans to pay more taxes to help support this war?
MCCAIN: Yeah, because then… I’m not sure what the point would be. I would certainly ask Americans to serve. I would ask them to make other sacrifices, but I’m not sure I would want to raise their taxes just because we’re in a war.
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You can have your cake and break the armed services too!
January 8th, 2007 at 4:30 pmHe’s lost it. Sen. McCain has taken leave of his senses.
January 8th, 2007 at 4:35 pm( McCain interview, read between the lines)
January 8th, 2007 at 4:35 pm“I’m not sure I’m John McCain, or whether I’m connected, or what the point would be …”
MCCAAAAAAAAN: this is the white rabbit calling, you are overdue for your turn on the hookah of truth. have a nice cup of “tea” while you are waiting for your vision to clear up
January 8th, 2007 at 4:36 pmCake eater!
January 8th, 2007 at 4:36 pmI’m not sure I would want to raise their taxes just because we’re in a war.
Er, then how do you expect to come up with the money for the “surge” you support, Mr. McCain?
What exactly are those “other sacrifices” you would ask them to make that would save money enough to fund the war effort?
“Just because we’re in a war” -a flippant comment if I ever heard one.
January 8th, 2007 at 4:38 pmWe are not sending their kids to war…at least let us make them pay their share in dollars…
January 8th, 2007 at 4:38 pmisn’t it refreshing when a candidate melts before the primary? makes the field so much more clear. now we have the goombah who knows he can’t win either. At least he blames McCain for his losing the report.
ababbabnababaabababaa, that’s all folks
January 8th, 2007 at 4:38 pmWhat did thid guy do with John McCain. I am chanelling his mother right now, and she says that is not her son.
January 8th, 2007 at 4:38 pmIf you are a parent, you should be outraged at the bill that’s being run up for your progeny to pay off!!!!
January 8th, 2007 at 4:41 pmHe added, “I’m not sure I would want to raise their taxes just because we’re in a war.â€
If this man is elected president and he makes a statement like that, expect stocks to drop like a lead balloon and foreign investor to run for the hills.
January 8th, 2007 at 4:41 pmAgain McCain comes off as a pathetic figure. Lying to the average American and pandering to the wealthy he is just another neocon. Do the math John! Spend more and tax less is a recipe for disaster, unless you think the Enron model was the way to do business.
January 8th, 2007 at 4:42 pmwhen did McCain turn into Elmer Fud?!
January 8th, 2007 at 4:43 pmI agree with McFlip-Flop.
What is the point of rasing the taxes on the corporate elite, when THE WH is going to turn around and give them no-bid contracts, where they get all their money back and then some.
January 8th, 2007 at 4:44 pmTo Chimpmonk it’s all about kissing the rich’s ass and pandering to the religious wrong.
Thank goodness these morons are no longer the majority party.
January 8th, 2007 at 4:45 pmRaise taxes on the rich to pay for the war.
Raise taxes on the rich to pay for health care.
Raise taxes on the rich to pay for Medicare.
Raise taxes on the rich to pay for Social Security.
Raise taxes on the rich to pay for alternative energy.
Raise taxes on the rich to pay for the war on “global warming.”
Raise taxes on the rich to pay for education.
You folks keep spending the same money over and over again.
January 8th, 2007 at 4:45 pmMCCAIN: Yeah, because then… I’m not sure what the point would be. I would certainly ask Americans to serve. I would ask them to make other sacrifices, but I’m not sure I would want to raise their taxes just because we’re in a war.
So he would us to die and kill in a war but doesn’t understand the point in asking us to pay for the war. The finest in Republican material.
January 8th, 2007 at 4:45 pmA few more comments like this and he’ll be changing his name to McDolt.
January 8th, 2007 at 4:51 pmAll part of the plan to end the middle class, and have one ruling class in this country (world). It’s not even about R vs D. It’s have’s and have nots. Sadly they play religion and most people are dumb enough to follow it. Well what can you expect from anyone who believes in human virgin births, great floods and so on….
Learn to swim.. dumbfounded dimwits.
January 8th, 2007 at 4:52 pm16. How is GW paying for this current war? You folks? We’re not the one’s spending anything. In fact, the democrats are proposing a pay as you go budget meaning you propose something then show how it’s going to be paid for and not by new taxes but by cutting something else.
This administration believes the military (and private contractors) will just run on good feelings and fear of terror. Well it takes actual money. Money that this administration hasn’t shown how they will pay for this. So it is you and those who voted for Bushy McNoveto that have to start to explain some things.
sheeeeesh what a dolt.
January 8th, 2007 at 4:52 pmtax the rich and deprive myself and the rest of the middle class the chance to fund a job-creation program in iraq? no way buddy. if richard perle wants a mcdonald’s with his name on it, he can get in line behind the rest of us.
January 8th, 2007 at 4:55 pmYa’ll don’t be silly… Everyone knows that in Arizona, money grows on trees…
Sheesh.
January 8th, 2007 at 5:00 pmYou folks keep spending the same money over and over again.
Comment by muckdog
I wonder how we were able to do it in the 90s and still come out with a surplus by 2000?
January 8th, 2007 at 5:03 pmYou folks keep spending the same money over and over again.
Comment by muckdog — January 8, 2007 @ 4:45 pm
Well, it IS our money…
January 8th, 2007 at 5:03 pmHe is planning a McCain-Lieberman Car Wash to raise money…and yeah, in bikinis.
January 8th, 2007 at 5:04 pmEasiest way to kill the war is as Congress says it will do. Balance the budget but they must include the special provisions being made by the armed forces. If they balance the budget and have to cut out things that people care about then they will “feel the sacrifice” and understand that the war they are paying for is not worth it.
January 8th, 2007 at 5:04 pmand please spare the econ-lectures when the current admin has been pushing the costs of this war into the following fiscal year and/or completely leaving the price out of the budget altogether via seeveral years of emergency supplemental funds
January 8th, 2007 at 5:05 pmWhat would be the point? To get rid of absurdly large deficts you disgusting vile pile of brain matter.
People like John McCain need be hit upside the head a few times to get them to think straight.
January 8th, 2007 at 5:10 pmHUNT: So you would resist asking more affluent Americans to pay more taxes to help support this war?
“Yeah, because then… I’m not sure what the point would be. “
If TP had just posted that quote, without attaching a name to it, I would have bet it came from GWB himself. Scary.
Just six short years ago, I would have said that there’s no way someone this out of touch could sit in the White House, but now the bar has been set so low, who knows . . .
January 8th, 2007 at 5:11 pmThis dinosaur has been in DC much to long as he has forgotten that it is not monopoly money that pays for pork and optional clusterf*ck mistakes like Iraqnam. What an intellectually devoid human excrement. Then again it was his ilk that has balloonedd the national debt 43% in 6 short years, gave away 1.2 trillion in tax breaks while waging two wars. and giving himself 5 raises.
Summation: IDIOT
January 8th, 2007 at 5:11 pmand please spare the econ-lectures when the current admin has been pushing the costs of this war into the following fiscal year and/or completely leaving the price out of the budget altogether via seeveral years of emergency supplemental funds
Comment by pgw
Why? Because that money doesn’t count? Nice. Hope you are not in charge of your family’s finances because even if you bought the 60″ LCD TV with an emegency supplemental fund from you checking account, it’s still money that’s gone.
January 8th, 2007 at 5:13 pmIt’s no fun bein’ rich when there is no service people left to serve you.
January 8th, 2007 at 5:14 pmThis dinosaur has been in DC much to long as he has forgotten that it is not monopoly money that pays for pork and optional clusterf*ck mistakes like Iraqnam.
Comment by Your Conscience — January 8, 2007 @ 5:11 pm
He’s the poster boy for imposing Term Limits on the Senate.
January 8th, 2007 at 5:16 pmHey Juan
What McFlip-Flop and Joe Lipserviceman both in bikini? Eew don’t make me barf I just ate.
January 8th, 2007 at 5:19 pmi get it the metaphor: this war is the 60″ LCD TV that the pres keeps buying over and over again
January 8th, 2007 at 5:20 pmI’m glad this McCain guy is getting called out. He used to really be appealing. Now he’s just peeling.
January 8th, 2007 at 5:20 pmWho would be McCain’s VP? McCain could keel over soon enough.
January 8th, 2007 at 5:21 pmHi Unbelievable,
Was that the right size ball-gag I sent you?
January 8th, 2007 at 5:22 pmRaise taxes on the rich to pay for the war.
Raise taxes on the rich to pay for health care.
Raise taxes on the rich to pay for Medicare.
Raise taxes on the rich to pay for Social Security.
Raise taxes on the rich to pay for alternative energy.
Raise taxes on the rich to pay for the war on “global warming.â€
Raise taxes on the rich to pay for education.
You folks keep spending the same money over and over again. Comment by muckdog
Sounds good to me, dogmuck. Tax the shit out of them at pre-Bush levels.
January 8th, 2007 at 5:23 pmJuan, please tell me they plan to hire out for the bikini wearin’.
January 8th, 2007 at 5:23 pmIt’s no fun bein’ rich when there is no service people left to serve you.
Comment by ForTruth — January 8, 2007 @ 5:14 pm
Oddly, they don’t seem to get that… or care.
January 8th, 2007 at 5:24 pmand please spare the econ-lectures when the current admin has been pushing the costs of this war into the following fiscal year and/or completely leaving the price out of the budget altogether via seeveral years of emergency supplemental funds
Translation. Please don’t use the truth and logic in an arugument.
January 8th, 2007 at 5:24 pmWhat McFlip-Flop and Joe Lipserviceman both in bikini? Eew don’t make me barf I just ate.
Comment by Rebel In CA
In their world…you know…war is peace…etc…they think they are popular. I know, it is an exercise of mental and stomach fortitude.
January 8th, 2007 at 5:25 pmSpeaking of escalating the situation in Iraq, this is interesting:
LONDON – Treasury chief Gordon Brown, expected to succeed Tony Blair as prime minister by September, suggested Sunday that he will pursue an Iraq policy that is more independent of Washington than the current government.
Brown acknowledged that mistakes were made in the aftermath of the invasion and promised to be “very frank” with President Bush. He also said that Britain is likely to scale down its commitment of troops to Iraq over the next year — even as the White House is considering dispatching thousands more, at least temporarily.
A spokesman for the U.S. State Department declined to comment on Brown’s interview.
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20070107/ap_on_re_eu/britain_us
January 8th, 2007 at 5:26 pmWas that the right size ball-gag I sent you?
Comment by ForTruth — January 8, 2007 @ 5:22 pm
Huh?
January 8th, 2007 at 5:28 pmIf you raise personal income taxes, it wouldn’t go to the war anyway. You would have to raise corporate income taxes to pay increases in the military.
January 8th, 2007 at 5:28 pmSeems McCain will have other Iraq War conserns coming up shortly:
“Over the next few weeks, Senate Democrats plan to hold at least 11 hearings just on Iraq. In the House, one of the Democrats’ most dogged investigators is waiting to spring his committee on a different mission — suspected government fraud.”
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20070106/ap_on_go_co/congress_oversight
January 8th, 2007 at 5:31 pmIt’s astonishing that he would even utter such outrageous remarks.
January 8th, 2007 at 5:32 pmThe poor and middle class can send their kids to die in the war, but the wealthy shouldn’t have to have their dividends and interest income taxed!
Who in their right mind would ever vote for this man?
Zees man, ee azz no ballzzzz.
January 8th, 2007 at 5:35 pmSure, lets keep sticking this glorious war on our federal credit card…because someone will buy our debt and fund our grab for all the oil…right? John’s got some real straight talking going on here…..
January 8th, 2007 at 5:42 pmHe knows where his election checks are coming from..but he is mistaken to think such statments will make him win the votes of the majority….let him spend his campaign money as he wishes..but the final say remains in the majority’s hand…’the voter’…
January 8th, 2007 at 5:43 pmRaise taxes on the rich to pay for the war on “global warming.â€
Comment by muckdog — January 8, 2007 @ 4:45 pm
Muckdog, are you using quote marks to call into question the reality of global warming?
January 8th, 2007 at 5:47 pm#25 He is planning a McCain-Lieberman Car Wash to raise money…and yeah, in bikinis.
Nice one Juan, that imagine is both completely hilarious and completely disturbing.
You know, I used to like Mc Cain, but the more and more he starts pandering to the anti tax/biblehumping nuts to try to gain votes in the primaries the more I dislike him.
January 8th, 2007 at 6:04 pmLord McCain is not sure what the point is of raising taxes on the wealthy to help provide $1 billion for job creation in Iraq?
How about this, Lord McCain: “There is no such thing as manna from heaven”. Or do you propose we borrow an extra billion from China?
January 8th, 2007 at 6:13 pmI wonder how we were able to do it in the 90s and still come out with a surplus by 2000?
It was called the “internet bubble.” People were speculating on stocks, driving them up to incredible levels and paying huge taxes on them. Didn’t matter when the stocks were doubling every few months.
In addition, folks rushed to cash in their IRAs to convert them to Roth IRAs. This incurred an immediate tax hit, temporarily increasing budget revenues in the late 90’s.
January 8th, 2007 at 6:14 pmMuckdog, the internet bubble happened in the final year of the Clinton administration. Care to explain the roaring economy for the first seven years? 225,000 jobs per month, average, over 8 years. Compare that to Dumbya’s failure to generate half that, even though he borrowed on a massive scale to stimulate the economy.
January 8th, 2007 at 6:24 pmMoney to paint schools in Iraq but not in DC.
When will this insanity end?
January 8th, 2007 at 6:26 pm@54: I am really starting to think that the GOP are all traitors, that they have secretly agreed to sell us out to the Chinese by making us their debtors. Then their not wanting to pay for anything makes perfect sense.
January 8th, 2007 at 6:28 pm[...] Really. [...]
January 8th, 2007 at 6:32 pmHuh?
Comment by unbelievable
Just messin’ with you. Sorry. I shouldn’t tell you what it is.
January 8th, 2007 at 6:36 pmMuckdog, the internet bubble happened in the final year of the Clinton administration. Care to explain the roaring economy for the first seven years? 225,000 jobs per month, average, over 8 years.
I don’t know, but I’m sure muckdog can point you to the website of the guy who said asbestos could have saved the twin towers and that smoking isnt bad for you, he probably has some answer to that question.
Lets face it…. right now, a large amount of republicans are just keeping their heads down and their mouth shut… its a difficult time to be a decent, reasonable republican, and the ones who are STILL defending these people, and trying to blame clinton and cast aspersions on his sucesses are truly “dead enders”. It doesnt matter what these politicans do, people like muckdog are still going to be polishing their poles and blaming clinton for everything.
God, McCain just gets more and more deplorable as the primaries get closer. Yes, heaven forbid anyone but the troops make a sacrifice during wartime. Oh no wait, what would be the point, we’ve already taken the singular “tax” from the rich, and we cant spend that money on the war because muckdog doesnt think there is enough to spend on more than one subject matter. I mean come on, its like trying to get blood from a leech…
January 8th, 2007 at 6:39 pmLets face it…. right now, a large amount of republicans are just keeping their heads down and their mouth shut… its a difficult time to be a decent, reasonable republican
Yeah you should have seen the in-laws this Holiday cycle… It was a happy holiday for me.
January 8th, 2007 at 6:43 pmYou folks keep spending the same money over and over again. Comment by muckdog
You folks keep trying to sell America the same sorry economic policy over and over again.
January 8th, 2007 at 7:38 pmYep – Raising taxes is a GREAT idea!!! then we ca have the same unemployment rate they have in Europe! And Dems don’t define the “very wealthy” – so let’s raise everybody’s taxes! I think a tanking economy is just what Dems need to get elected in ‘08. FYI – Please explain why the RECEIPT of federal tax $$$ is so much higher than the CBO expected? Dems love tax hikes!!!!
Gotta run ……
January 8th, 2007 at 8:46 pmWhat me worry? Spend, spend, spend, like there’s no tomorrow. Rapture anyone?
Note to mentally challenged Republicans: The above is sarcasm.
January 8th, 2007 at 9:04 pm“I am not sure what the point would be” says Lord McCain.
How about financing the frigging war out of tax revenue rather than borrowing? Has this ass ever taken Economics 101? Or is he senile?
January 8th, 2007 at 9:17 pm“Please explain why the RECEIPT of federal tax $$$ is so much higher than the CBO expected?”
Because corporate profits have been surging in the past few years, hence corprate tax revenues have been rising. Pre-tax corporate profits are at a historical high both in absolute terms and as a % of GDP. Go check the NIPA accounts at the BEA site.
However, GDP is forecast to slow this year and next, hence corporate profit growth will slow down, and so will tax revenues.
January 8th, 2007 at 9:41 pmOle Straight Talk continues to show that he is utterly incapable of of being president. I predict that in another Freidman even the “media” will have caught up with everyone else and start to roll their eyes when he explains it wasn’t his fault the surge wasn’t big enough.
January 8th, 2007 at 10:10 pmWhy not just go back to the Clinton rates. 3% higher rates on the highest bracket. As we know, it didn’t produce a recession, it didn’t cause the “same unemployment rate they have in Europe!”, it didn’t result in a downturn of business, it didn’t result in problems for the dollar. It did, however, help us balance our budget and begin to pay down the national debt. Clinton already did it, people, and it worked.
January 8th, 2007 at 11:29 pmIn expectation that Bush cultists will rush to type that Clinton had nothing to do with the 90’s economy, let me point out that Reagan had the benefit of the birth of the personal computer, and we came out of Reagan with a tripling of the National debt and deficit.
I’m sick of Clinton getting no credit for his economy. He was, after all, a Rhodes Scholar in economics.
January 8th, 2007 at 11:33 pm#56 Muckdog, the internet bubble happened in the final year of the Clinton administration.
Wrong.
The internet bubble started in the mid-90s as venture capitalists pumped money into everything with a “www.” and IPOs were doubling on their initial day of trading. The bubble crashed in the last year of Clinton’s term (2000) when the Nasdaq fell from over 5000 to under 3000. Yes, that collapse did happen under Clinton. But government tax revenues didn’t suffer until the tax returns were filed the following year during the Bush administration!
January 8th, 2007 at 11:50 pmMcCain must be forced to resign/retire from the Senate and never be allowed to run for political office for the rest of his warmongering life!
January 8th, 2007 at 11:56 pmThank you muckdog for that gross “its all clinton’s fault/never his credit” oversimplification of the US economy during the 90’s. THank GOD that these days the GDP is being driven by more solid investments like bombs, and paying truck drivers 200,000 $ year to haul materials to faultily repair the stuff the bombs blew up, etc etc.
I mean, when dotcoms explode, theres no dead bodies, and wheres the fun in that?
And its not only the amount in the coffers when you start, its how its spent.. yes, dungdog, a prominent member of YOUR party, and in fact the only one who has a bat’s chance in h3ll of winning the POTUS in 2008 said the bush controlled congress was spending money like a “drunken sailor”.
Oh wait, we need to invest ridiculous amounts of money in nuclear warheads and stealth fighters to protect from this imaginary global conspiracy/army of unified islamic supermen. So far they’ve almost killed as many americans as lightning has.
I mean, why tax millionaires when we could sell ourselves to China and make them ever increasingly our creditors? And the continual dropping of the american dollar is certainly the part of some bush master plan as well.
Tell me muckdog, what sort of bright economic future has dubya laid for us in his 6 years in office without evil communist democrat inteference ? Surely
plans so sound as “giving money to ultra wealthy companies” and “spending money we don’t have on wars to remove imaginary weapons of mass destruction” can survive the coming 2 years of democratic “mis-oversight”.
Muckdog can you please give us some more brilliant evidence about how the world can be saved by jesus christ, asbestos, and smoking, just like the sources you quote do?
January 9th, 2007 at 12:20 amYep – Raising taxes is a GREAT idea!!!
Comment by Mightette Aphidette
Golly, Mightette, I’m glad to see that you finally recognize the need to raise taxes in a time of war and that the US shouldn’t keep on borrowing from China and Japan to pay for its folly in Iraq. Or do you have any better ideas on how to pay for the wards in Iraq and Afghanistan?
January 9th, 2007 at 2:18 amOops, a typo in #77; I should have written “wars”–not “wards.”
January 9th, 2007 at 2:19 amWhy raise taxes when you can always print more money!!
January 9th, 2007 at 7:07 amAre you stupid or what? Corporations and the wealthy pay taxes to support a war that defends their markets and resources? That’s crazy!!!
Hi Louie, Worthless money? Never happen in America. Just print more money to pay for the war!
January 9th, 2007 at 7:37 amMcCain is looking more and more like Porky Pig every day.
January 9th, 2007 at 7:39 amI have said it before and I will say it again. His Republician party in 2000, Said “Maybe McCain spent too much time in the Hanoi Hilton.”
January 9th, 2007 at 1:16 pmIt is sad to see a true American hero play politic’s with Taxes for the wealthy and Bushie’s horrible blunder in Iraq and to appease his NEO-Con’s. I feel shame for him.
We can easially cut spending to pay for the war. We spend way, way, way to much.
January 9th, 2007 at 8:16 pmAnd sometimes a 1 war vet really should smash the nose of a 2 war vet.
January 9th, 2007 at 8:17 pmTo the 1 war vet, BRING IT ON!!!!
January 11th, 2007 at 2:55 pmit’s sad to see another so call american give up his soul to become the head of this country. mcCain, it seems, has a problem charging the rich to pay there way. in closing please look and be awear that the fomer mayor Gulliani will make his move for the top job in the country.
January 17th, 2007 at 1:17 pm[...] Also, word has spread that, in addition to thousands of more US troops, the President will ask for more money from Congress, in part, to fund a jobs program in Iraq. The jobs program the President has in mind may cost up to $1 billion. “Nevermind all the money that has simply disappeared or is otherwise unaccounted for, we need more.” In an interview with Bloomberg television, Senator McCain, however, sees no need to sacrifice: “Q: So you would resist asking more affluent Americans to pay more taxes to help support this war?MCCAIN: Yeah, because then� I�m not sure what the point would be. I would certainly ask Americans to serve. I would ask them to make other sacrifices, but I�m not sure I would want to raise their taxes just because we�re in a war.” [2] [...]
April 6th, 2007 at 11:53 pm