Arizona Republican Debate

MCCAIN: You know, I that I would never allege that there are any bad senators. I win Miss Congeniality every year, as you know, in the Senate.

Connie—Candy, they may not need as much money as a $140,000 a year. Perhaps Senators don't need as much as $140,000 a year.

When we vote ourselves pay raises all the time and the American worker is not making nearly the increases that we are, it's really wrong.

But look, we need to test vouchers. We don't need to take the money from public education. We need to do away with corporate welfare and put that money so there will be a test voucher program in the poorer school district in America. We shouldn't have any federal bureaucrat deciding whether money should go to the states or not. That's decided by Lisa Graham Keegan (ph) and the people I trust in the taste of Arizona to run our education.

Not the federal bureaucracy in Washington.

And I will keep them out of it.

MCCAIN: I've give them money...

MCCAIN: Absolutely. And that single mother pays more in income taxes, and when you count them, Social Security and Medicare, than rich Americans do. And we're going to fix it.

And we also want to remove a penalty if she gets married. There's no reason why she should pay more in taxes if she gets married.

And if she gets wealthy enough, and works hard enough, so that she accumulates a business or a farm, then she should be able to pass it on to her children without it being confiscated.

And I believe that we need to look at the working poor, and exactly the person you talked about, and provide them with the kind of tax relief they may need, including expanding the 15 percent tax bracket up to about $70,000 a year. And this is a serious problem, and one we've got to look at. There are terrible inequities in the tax code.

Finally, we've got to get the special interests out of it, so it's not 44,000 pages long, and a nightmare for average citizens, and a cornucopia of good deals for the special interests in Washington, D.C.

MCCAIN: I'd say to Mr. Castro, let his father come to the United States and enjoy peace and freedom and be reunited with his son. We don't want his son to grow up under communist tyranny.

Let me talk about Dean Acheson a second. When Dean Acheson walked into Harry Truman's office in June of 1950 and said, North Korea's attacked South Korea, Harry Truman didn't take a poll; Harry Truman knew what we had to do. If he'd a taken a poll, maybe Americans wouldn't have let us go.

This administration is poll driven and not principle driven. We didn't have to get into Kosovo. Once we stumbled into it, we had to win it. And the fact is that this administration has conducted a feckless photo-op foreign policy for which we will pay a very heavy price in American blood and treasure.

You have to have a concept of what you want the world to look like, where our interests and our values lie and how we are going to bring this world into the next century and call it again, the American century.

MCCAIN: It's directed to Gary Bauer.

Gary, as you know, I and a number of others have been struggling to give the government of this country back to the people, and that is our effort of some years now to enact campaign finance reform, to stop this incredible inundation of big money into American politics.

When I was trying on the floor of the Senate last time to get this reform enacted, I asked for you to support this effort. I'm pleased that you responded in the affirmative. Will you continue to do that and join me in making this a big point—effort in this campaign and a major issue?

MCCAIN: On that point, we will never know how much money poured in from China and Indonesia into the Gore and Clinton campaign in 1996. On those lines, then will you commit with me ...

... will you commit with me as the nominee of the party to reject any soft money, any uncontrolled contributions to the Republican National Committee or presidential campaign or anything to do with this upcoming presidential campaign?

MCCAIN: I thank you, Steve. And I want to thank you for your efforts on behalf of a flat tax. You struck a cord in American people, and I appreciate and admire what you've been doing.

I think we've got to eliminate the marriage penalty; the earnings test; lift the—raise the 15 percent tax bracket; put a level of $5 million on the inheritance tax so that 90 some percent of American families and farmers can pass on to their children their hard-earned earnings.

But look, you and I know that this tax code is 44,000 pages long. It's an abomination. It's a cornucopia of good deal for the special interests. And it's a nightmare for American citizens.

We've got to get rid of the special interests loopholes that are ripe in this tax code, and that's the first step in cleaning it up to reach your goal of a simplified tax system.

I appreciate your efforts, but until the day arrives until we remove the influence of the special interests which have made so many young Americans cynical and even alienated from the political process, we're not going to be able to achieve your goal.

But I look forward to joining you in it, and I applaud your efforts.

And I thank you, Steve.

MCCAIN: If I may...

MCCAIN: If I may...

MCCAIN: Yes. Steve, if I may steal a famous line. It's very much like bears going after honey. I don't know where I heard that before.

MCCAIN: But the fact is—the fact is if you want to drain the swamp, you take the big money away from the big-time K Street lobbyists, and that way they lose their power and their influence.

Look, anybody wants the status quo in Washington, they don't want John McCain, because there ain't going to be the status quo when I'm president of the United States. You take away the big money, you're going to take away their power and you're going to break that iron triangle of lobbyists, big money and influence over the legislative process, which has so badly embarrassed so many of us. And it is the gateway to draining the swamp. And I thank you, Steve.

MCCAIN: Call me John...

MCCAIN: I prefer John, but if you want Steve, it's OK.

MCCAIN: I think you're on the right track, Governor or George or W or Bush.

I think—I think you're on the right track. I think it's important. I think that our charter schools in Arizona are a classic example of that. I walked into a charter school classroom in Phoenix—I hope you'll take time to visit it tomorrow—with Bill Bennett. On the desk was a—was "The Children's Book of Virtues," the teacher was teaching the virtue of the month, which happened to be the importance of telling the truth.

We need to inject that in all of our charter schools and in schools all over America. I would provide the much needed tax breaks that are necessary to encourage them. I would certainly make them part of any voucher program, a test voucher program—which, by the way, I would not take out of education funds.

On the issue of this oil and gas, I'd direct your attention back to what's going on in Chechnya right now, because there's vast gas and oil reserves in Azerbaijan and Central Asia. If the Russians control the outlets of that and overthrow those governments, then you're not going to get access to that and the price of oil is going to stay up and the OPEC companies are going to keep it in their grip.

I'd pay attention to what's happened in Chechnya, and I'd stop the Russians from doing what they're doing. And that way we can bring the price of oil down.

MCCAIN: Thank you.

MCCAIN: Sure, I agree with that. And I also agree with many of the other tax breaks and incentives that you have proposed, and I think they're important. Many—yours and mine are somewhat similar.

MCCAIN: But there's a big difference. I do not envision surpluses forever. Harry Truman used to say that he wanted a one- armed economist, because they always say, on the one hand and on the other hand. And the fact is that I don't know that we're going to have surpluses forever. That's why I'd take the money for tax breaks out of wasteful spending and corporate welfare.

I hope that you would look at that way of addressing the issue of cutting the much heavy burden taxes of the American family.

Thank you, George.

MCCAIN: Senator Hatch.

Orrin, you and I have worked on a couple of very important pieces of legislation in the past few years. One of them is the Y2K product liability reform act, which was very important to keep us from experiencing a flood of litigation as the result of the year 2000. The other one was the Internet tax moratorium act.

As you know this was stoutly resisted by governors, Republicans governors as well.

MCCAIN: Don't you think we ought to make the Internet tax moratorium permanent?

MCCAIN: Well, Orrin, as you know, there are many Republican governors that are seeking Internet taxation on the grounds that they're being deprived of revenues when in fact it will adversely affect the entire e-commence and, according to recent studies, as much as 24 percent impact on commerce conducted over the Internet.

MCCAIN: Mccain2000.com. How are we going to stop them, Orrin.

MCCAIN: I want to thank all my friends from Arizona who are here tonight. I've been honored to serve you and you've elected me on five separate occasions with 70 percent of the vote last time. And I've tried to represent you according to the principles of Barry Goldwater and Morris Udall and other great Arizonans. I've running for president because I want to reform government. I want to reform the tax code, which is 44,000 pages long. I want to reform the military so we can meet the post-Cold War challenges. I want to reform education so that every parent in America can have the choice of sending their child to the school of their choice.

I can't do that unless we reform this broken campaign finance system. I commit to you until the last breath I draw: I will rid this country of the special interests which have deprived you of your interests in Washington.

I promise you I will do that and then I will be able to inspire a generation of Americans to commit themselves to causes greater than their self-interest.

MCCAIN: Please join me in this great crusade.

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