February 2, 2009 10:14 AM

McCain Critical Of Obama's Stimulus Bill

By
Kevin Hechtkopf
Topics
Economy
(CBS)
Republican Sen. John McCain was on CBS' The Early Show this morning, where he expressed reservations about President Obama's economic stimulus bill now being debated in Congress.

"There's too much spending, too much unnecessary spending, not the right kind of tax cuts and no end game," McCain said. "In other words, after the economy recovers, we should be on a path to a balanced budget. We're laying the biggest deficit on future generations of Americans in history."

The former Republican presidential candidate added that he "appreciates" the outreach Mr. Obama has made to Republicans, but "we're a long way away."

"I appreciate the fact that the president came over and spoke to Republicans on both sides of the Capitol, but now it's time to sit down and negotiate," he said. "Now's the time to sit down and take into consideration the ideas that we have -- particularly on things like tax cuts. We should have payroll tax cuts. We should be having… incentives for people to stay in their homes. There's a lot of other proposals we have. We think we need to eliminate a lot of the wasteful pork barrel spending that's been put in and have a real, meaningful stimulus package. We realize they need the package. We need the package, America needs the package, but we're not there yet."

In the interview, McCain was also asked about the new controversy involving former Sen. Tom Daschle's nomination to lead the Department of Health and Human Services. Daschle will be grilled today over his initial failure to pay back taxes.

"I'd like to see what he has to say and how this all happened," McCain said. "It's a bit mystifying how all this could happen, but I'd like to examine the details of it before making up our mind. But this isn't exactly the ethics and lobbying reform that the president announced a short time ago."

Click here to read more on the Daschle controversy.

McCain also weighed in on his home state Cardinals' loss in the Super Bowl last night.

"The old guy, [Kurt] Warner, almost won. For a change, an old guy almost won. I'm proud of him," he said.

Click here for more Super Bowl coverage

You can watch video of the interview with McCain below:


Add a Comment See all 94 Comments
by bks59 February 3, 2009 11:30 AM EST
POTUS Obama did not go far enough the other day when thalking about Wall Street CEO''s and their ''bonuses''. The CEO''s behavior was/is not only shameful, but down right immoral.
Reply to this comment
by starleo146 February 3, 2009 2:00 AM EST

Good cut the pay of Congress.. BOTH SIDES.

Posted by truthMatter at 08:06 PM : Feb 02, 2009

Thats right all of them, first thing you said i agreed with
Reply to this comment
by starleo146 February 3, 2009 1:58 AM EST
I''''m sure you should be pleased as punch that yor man won. Are there any inklings that it will help you personally yet (SS fixed income, and rising bills ?)

Been thinking of you since he won.

Posted by Speakinup21 at 06:16 PM : Feb 02, 2009

thanks speakinup appreciate your thoughts There is a God
Reply to this comment
by starleo146 February 3, 2009 1:55 AM EST
Um, Where have you been? This country did not start going down here until 2006. Who the hell was in control of congress? What bills did they try to introduce? The top three campaign contributions from Fannie and Freddie were Democrats. So don''''t just blame one party. You want to cut money, cut it for both sides of the isle

Posted by truthMatter at 08:10 PM : Feb 02, 2009

can you read I know your comprehension is at a low ebb, please read Velma179 comment and learn something
Reply to this comment
by velma179 February 2, 2009 11:29 PM EST
truthMatter...

Our current economic situation did not START in 2006.
The Congress for last two years of Bush''s presidency did have a Democratic majority... but a very weak majority that would have not been able to withstand the Presidential veto.

Fannie and Freddie are not remotely the core issue of this collapse -- though they did contribute to the mess, no argument there.

Out current situation is something like a "perfect storm" of financial issues. And it is world wide -- we live in a far more interdependent and immediately connected world than any time in our country''s history.

I don''t blame any one political party for this mess -- there is way too much blame to go around. It includes business and personal irresponsibility as well as political bad action.

We are in this together and I, for one, want my representatives (R and D) to get off their "what''s up for the next election" butts and get something done.
Reply to this comment
by starleo146 February 2, 2009 8:25 PM EST
LOL This economic Stimulus plan is almost the cost of that war idiot. That war over 8 years, 960 BILLION. This plan over 2 years 819 Billion. Do the math

Posted by truthMatter at 04:12 PM : Feb 02, 2009

That money you so aptly added up went to Iraq, this money is going to USA, money your crooked administration took away from us to give to a country that never wanted us in the first place
Reply to this comment
by amazedd February 2, 2009 8:18 PM EST
Like steam-cells
Reply to this comment
by amazedd February 2, 2009 8:16 PM EST
I''d advocate conventional solutions to age-old problems.
Reply to this comment
by starleo146 February 2, 2009 8:16 PM EST
Our press won''''t ask the President the important questions, so we need to.

Posted by Speakinup21 at 04:36 PM : Feb 02, 2009
+ report abuse

ALL OF A SUDDEN THESE HOLIER THAN THOU REPUBLICANS WANT TO FIX THINGS THE RIGHT WAY THEY SAY,Give me a break people are losing there homes, losing there jobs, stuck a president with 2 wars and the Wall street gluttons go on there merry way taking more and more of our money, the representatives give them selves a raise to $174000.00 a month, and I dare say none of them are earning one penny of that money, I say cut there pay, and tell them to shut up they have messed this country up enough.get to work and stop getting on the airway with your stupid rhetoric, sick of it
Reply to this comment
by starleo146 February 2, 2009 8:09 PM EST
Yea well, when Obama actually helps the deficit then maybe we will praise him.. But when he he adds to the deficit, that means he is just a guilty

Posted by truthMatter at 04:23 PM : Feb 02, 2009
+ report abuse

President Obama has been President 13 days and you expect him to fix 8 yrs of behind the door politics that as of today we are still finding out about,ie: total immunity to his administration for all the crooked deals done, and did we the people know about it, NO, HOW DARE YOU CRITICIZE A NEW PRESIDENT OF 13 DAYS. where was your mouth when your shrub was cooking these deals
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