Pool Report of McCain’s Chat With Reporters on Straight Talk Express

McCain Pool Report #2
7/9/08

I’m going to file this Straight Talk Express pool report in separate
parts since it was quite a long ride, but McCain had some interesting
answers to questions about the following topics:

-Social Security (he’s still open to everything)
-Increasing troops in Afghanistan
-Whether he’s frustrated by giving virtually the same speech each day
(he’s not)
-Gates decision on the tanker deal (supports)
-Medicare vote (would have voted against cloture today)
-Whether he’d favor a Second Stimulus package (he’s for anything that
can be proven to help our economy)
-Iran (they’ve ratcheted up the threat)
-Romney (they’ve buried the hatchet and now enjoy each other’s company)
-Urban policy
-The woman vote
-Viagra v. Birth Control

SOCIAL SECURITY
McCain was asked about his recent comment in Denver that it was a
“disgrace” that younger Americans are paying the Social Security
benefits for older Americans. When asked what he meant — since that’s
the way the program was set up – McCain responded: “It’s been set up
not to go bankrupt.”
“…They are paying into a system that they won’t receive benefits from
on the present track that it’s on – that’s the point. I don’t think
that’s right. I don’t think it’s fair and I think it’s terrible to ask
people to pay into a system that they won’t receive benefits from and
that’s why we have to fix it.”
He said he still wasn’t ruling out any options to fix Social Security,
but was not yet ready to lay out a plan for fixing the program.
“We’ve got to sit down together the same way Tip O’Neill and Ronald
Reagan did and say ‘Let’s fix it,’” he said.
Pressed on whether he’d consider raising the retirement age, McCain
said “I cannot tell you what I would do—except to put everything on
the table, because as soon as I say ‘This is what would be my
requirement,’ then you get into a huge fight and you get all the
special interests involved. I would put everything on the table.”

MEDICARE
McCain, unprompted, then brought up the Medicare vote today as an
example of partisan gridlock.
Q: How would you have voted on the cloture vote?
A: “I would have voted against it.”
Q: You would have voted with your party then?
A: Sure.

McCain: “The Democrats wouldn’t allow just a vote on that [fixing
physician payments], which everybody knows would have passed. They had
to put into it a reduction or restriction on the Medicare Advantage
program, which then in our view would have harmed what is one of the
best programs as far as reductions in cost [inaudible] etc.. So we
couldn’t just, for the good of the country say, doctors here’s your
restoration of the cuts in payments. No, we’re going to attach it to
another part of our political agenda—and force you to vote, probably
not succeeding—but then we’ll be able to the people of the country and
say, you know, and talk about partisan purposes. Instead we should be
sitting down and talking about both, about both of these programs.
Instead tie them together force a vote, embarrass the other party and
what happens to the American people, and what happens to the doctors,
and what happens to the seniors who are in part of the Medicare
Advantage program.  This is a classic example of, what’s going on this
afternoon, of why the number [congressional approval] is nine
percent.”

McCain initially said he did not regret missing the Medicare vote,
because the bill would have been vetoed by the president. But he then
said he regrets missing any vote.

MESSAGE
He said he hasn’t minded giving the same speech for several days in a
row; then skipped a query about whether those orders were coming from
Schmidt. In a very on-message answer, he said voters aren’t interested
in process questions, but want to hear more about what he’d do to fix
the declining economy.
When a reporter asked whether he’d more comfortable talking about FISA
or Iran than the economy, he added: “I have to talk about the issues
that I think the American people are most concerned about and that’s
the economy. And obviously, we’re in two wars and have young Americans
in harm’s way – we have the threat that Iranians have now ratcheted up
the threat with this missile test. And I’m sure they’re very
interested in that and they’re very involved in America’s security,
but right now the economy is such that it’s hurting them, every single
hour of every day and that’s why we have to talk a lot about it.”

TANKER DEAL
Asked about Defense Secretary Robert Gates’ announcement that the
U.S. would reopen the contest to build air tankers, McCain said Gates
called him this morning to discuss the decision:
“I said I supported it, I think it was a good thing to do to put the
decision in the hands of the undersecretary of defense for
acquisition… in other words, out of the hands of the hands of the
secretary of the Air Force. And they had to comply with the GAO’s
concerns. I hope, for once, we can get a decision that will pass all
the criteria and scrutiny of independent organizations. It’s really
just shameful that it has taken this long, number one. But number two
is, it’s the argument for defense acquisition reform.”
McCain said he’d be giving major speeches on defense acquisition issues.
“The tanker issue is just sort of like the tip of the iceberg,” he said.
When asked if he thought an American company like Boeing should be
given a preference, he said “Americans should receive the highest
quality product at the lowest cost. At some point there may be
classified information, there may technology that shouldn’t be
transferred – there are certainly examples of a requirement to
manufacture defense capabilities by domestic manufacturers, but this
is not one of them.”

More to come….
See me for audio.