Iowa Republican Presidential Debate

MCCAIN: Nice to be back.

MCCAIN: Absolutely. And there's one other group of Americans and that is families—families and communities and neighborhoods—because that's where the responsibility begins and ends.

But I've been saying for a long time, Tom, that it's not just the availability of guns, although obviously it existing laws have to be enforced and we have to do other things such as pursue technology that only allows the owner of a gun to fire it.

But we've all known that there's very pernicious influences that are being felt by our children. In this tapes you were describing they talk about a specific video game and a specific character in that game. That should chill us all. We parents should know what are children are seeing.

When Cindy and I come home, our kids are in their rooms on the Internet. I can't tell you I always know why my children are watching. I can't tell you exactly what they're seeing when they go to the mall. It's my responsibility. But I believe that when we're wiring every school and library in America to the Internet, that each of those schools and libraries should have filtering software to filter out that stuff.

About a year ago there was a young boy in the Phoenix library that was watching pornography at the Phoenix library on the Internet. He walked out and molested a 4-year-old boy.

There is an influence. We need to know what it is and we need to know why we're robbing our children of the most precious treasure and that's their innocence.

MCCAIN: Sure.

MCCAIN: Well, there's so many facets of the Medicare problem, including the demographics of an aging baby-boomer generation. We've got to have a place to start, and I think a great place to start would have been the commission that John Breaux and Senate Congressman Thomas headed that had the best minds of America in—together. And they had a good blueprint for a way that we could begin to address this multifaceted issue. It would take—we could have this town hall meeting just about those.

Let me talk to you about one issue that's come up in town hall meeting after town hall meeting that I've had, and that's prescription drugs for senior citizens. We're asking senior citizens now to make a choice between their health and their income. They make too much money to be on Medicare, and not enough to obviously pay for these drugs. We've got to devise a program that when a senior spends a certain part of their income on these prescription drugs that we'll have a state and federal match for it. We can't do that to our senior citizens.

Another serious issue is 11 million children that are without health insurance, that we've got to expand the children's health insurance program.

There's a variety of areas that we have to work on, Tom, because Medicare is probably the most difficult challenge that we face in the next century because it has a lot to do with other things besides money.

And I'll tell you what—I have the guts to take the money where it shouldn't be spent in Washington and put it where it should be spent, including 10 percent of the surplus.

MCCAIN: It may not to you. But the fact is that many of these programs may have great virtue, but we'll never know, because they're never placed in competition with any other program. There may be a program in Arizona that should have been considered. Instead, some powerful member of Congress or powerful special interest, thanks to huge $100,000 checks or multi-$100,000 checks got snuck in in the middle of the night in a conference without any of us knowing a program.

I don't think you quite get it.

MCCAIN: The fact is, it's not the virtue of the program, it's the way that it's inserted. Every program in America should have the same right to compete with this program here in Iowa for those tax dollars, because those tax dollars come from the citizens of my state, as well as Iowa.

And on that subject, I'm here to tell you that I'm going to tell you the things that you don't want to hear, as well as the things you want to hear. And one of those is ethanol. Ethanol is not worth it. It does not help the consumer. Those ethanol subsidies should be phased out. And everybody here on this stage, if it wasn't for the fact that Iowa is the first caucus state, would share my view that we don't need ethanol subsidies. It doesn't help anybody.

MCCAIN: No, I don't. And it's already been proven in the Persian Gulf War that women performed extraordinarily, with heroism and skill and courage, including in a POW experience.

I want to go back to ethanol. It was a program...

It was a program—it was a program at the height of the energy crisis that was brought in, was supposed to be phased out, and obviously 2007 is quite a while -- 35 years.

But the fact is, we know why farmers have been hurting so much, it's because the Asian markets went down and they were unable to export. And the fact is, now we will be able to export. I agree with George Bush that China will absorb these exports. Every nation in the world should be open to our best products. The best and most productive farmer in the world is the farmer of Iowa. And the people in Beijing and Bangkok and Paris will be eating Iowa pork and they'll love every minute of it when I'm president of the United States.

MCCAIN: Well, I think it's something—it's worthy of consideration, but I also believe that if you raise the 15 percent tax bracket to singles or couples who make $70,000 a year, that would go a long way in that direction.

It's funny you mention about pork, because really what the American people need is their money back.

And they're not going to get it back until we get it out of the hands of the special interests—these huge six- and seven-figure donations; the $100,000 checks; the $200,000 checks that have basically taken the government away from the people and put it into the hands of the special interests. And it's made all these young people so cynical and even alienated.

I'll tell you what, in all due respect to my friends here, you and I can stop that tonight. We can commit as nominees of the party that we will have nothing to do with soft money with these huge $100,000 checks. We can stop it now. We commit to that, and we can get the special interest money out of American politics. We can give the government back to the people. I hope you'll make that commitment right here tonight in Iowa.

MCCAIN: How did Ronald Reagan get elected in 1980?

MCCAIN: There was no such thing as soft money back then.

MCCAIN: I don't know how...

MCCAIN: I still don't know how we won in 1980 in the Senate and the presidency of the United States.

MCCAIN: Alan, there's a terrible thing going on in the world right now. And it's genocide and it's creating hundreds of thousands of refugees. It's destabilizing the region. And a tragic commentary on our time is that because it's not in our living rooms, on television, a lot of people are not aware of it. I'm speaking, obviously, of Chechnya.

The Russians have threatened mass bombings, have already carried out artillery attacks. It's destabilizing to the region. We know that the oil and gas reserves that are in the region are important to the future of our energy supply. We know that the Russian military is asserting itself in a way that they've not since the end of the breakup of the Soviet Union. And there's a lot of other implications associated with what's going on in Chechnya now.

It offends our Judeo-Christian values and principles.

MCCAIN: It also can, over time, offend our national interest. Mr. Yeltsin the other day mentioned something about we forget that Russia has nuclear weapons. No, we don't forget that. But let's address this issue. Let's get the attention of the American people on this issue. The president of the United States is neglecting it, and I want to know what your prescription is as to what you, as president of the United States, would do.

MCCAIN: Well, you...

MCCAIN: You ask several questions. No, I would not go to SALT III, because that would be dismantling one leg of the triad. And I'm not prepared to do that yet—START III. I would not give the Taiwanese a ballistic missile defense system.

MCCAIN: I would develop myself, have it sea-borne, and I would move it into the area, if necessary in international waters. I would achieve the same goal. But I would also help the Taiwanese acquire weapons systems if necessary.

They are a democratic, free government. The one-China policy is based on the fundamental principal of peaceful reunification of China. It will be China that violates the one-China policy if they commit aggression. And the fact is, that these are not the bloody butchers of Beijing, as candidate Clinton described them in 1992. And they are not our strategic partner,s as he described them in 1998 when he put his arm around the Chinese leadership.

They are ruthless people hell bent on hanging on to power. They look over their shoulder at the collapse of the Soviet Union and the loss of power of the leadership there. But we can convince them that it is in their interest to enter the world as a superpower, which they will, in a peaceful, contributory fashion.

And I would go back to our old alliances, the strategic partner, which is the Japanese. And this part of the world is very, very critical, not only to our global economy but to the farmers right here in Iowa. It's a major place where they can export their products.

MCCAIN: Well, I'm not Tom. I'm saying that his mother knows better. His mother gave up her life in an attempt to give her son the freedom and democracy, which this country is blessed, and which he never could have had if he remained in Cuba. That's what's left out of this equation.

MCCAIN: No, like practically everyone here I be glad if his father came to the United States or a neutral country, and then declared his allegiance.

By the way, I have never seen a spontaneous demonstration in any communist country.

Could I return—return one moment—one moment to the Middle East. I will give—I would like to give the Clinton administration credit. I would like to give President Carter credit.

MCCAIN: I'd like to give a lot of people credit who worked for a long time on peace in the Middle East. And I think it's important and we're on the threshold.

There's a number of factors, but a major factor was the end of the Cold War, which Ronald Reagan won, which no longer allowed for this divisions along Cold War lines where these Middle East countries were client states. Finally, Mr. Assad is growing old, he wants his son to take over, not his brother.

But there's a fundamental principle that we have to reach here, and that is free and democratically elected countries in the Middle East, besides Israel, if you want a lasting peace.

MCCAIN: Obviously all of our founding fathers were probably the most remarkable group of men ever assembled in history, in Philadelphia. But my modern-day role model and hero is Theodore Roosevelt. Theodore Roosevelt was larger than life. Theodore Roosevelt believed in reform. He took the politics of America out of the hands of the robber barons, and gave it back to the people. He put the United States of America on the world's stage, in the international arena, which made way for our ever-expanding role in the world.

He established our national parks system. He was an activist. He was a reformer. And he was a man of great vision. He was larger than life. And he was a truly wonderful father and family man as well, who happened by the way, to lose a son in World War I.

But Theodore Roosevelt, I think, is a modern-day role model for me, and many other people who hold dear, conservative principles, and yet believe there's a role for government in our society.

MCCAIN: It's great to be back here in Iowa. I will be on the ballot. I hope that a hearty brand of—band of brave souls will go out and vote for me. I would appreciate your support.

I'm running for president of the United States because I want to reform government.

MCCAIN: I want to reform the education system. I want to reform the military. And I want to reform the tax code. I want to get us in tune with this information technology revolution. I can't do that when we have a flawed campaign finance system—the hundreds of thousands of dollar checks that have taken away free speech, that have given the megaphone to the big-money people, and made you whisper in Washington.

The cynicism which borders on alienation amongst young Americans disturbs me. I need to reform this system. We need to give the government back to the people. And then I can inspire a generation to commit themselves to causes greater than their self interests. I am prepared to be president of the United States. Please join me in this great crusade.