John McCain (R)
John McCain (R)
4th Term Senator from Arizona
Address:
PO Box 16118
Arlington, VA 22215
Website: www.johnmccain.com
Phone: (703) 418-2008
For more background on Senator McCain and information about his campaign, visit the NCGA’s Legislative Action Center.
Issues Important to Growers:
The McCain campaign did not respond to the NCGA candidate questionnaire sent by the Iowa Corn Growers Association to all campaigns.
For more information on Sen. McCain’s positions, visit his website: http://www.johnmccain.com/Informing/Issues/
Of particular interest are his speeches, especially this one at the 2007 Biobased Industry Outlook Conference at Iowa State on November 5, 2007:
http://www.johnmccain.com/Informing/News/Speeches/05b932cd-b2e4-4863-a22f-6b84c893121a.htm
Selected Media Quotes/Public Positions
Capital Gains Taxes
- Supports low taxes on capital gains and dividends.
(CNBC.com, “Your Money Your Vote: The Issues,” November 12, 2007)
- Q. Would you extend the dividend and capital-gains tax cuts?
McCain: "I would favor extending all of the tax cuts." (Business Week, June 4, 2007)
Estate Tax
- McCain said he ''has long sought permanent reform of the estate tax and supports raising the exemption from taxation on estates up to $10 million while cutting the tax rate to 15 percent. (Des Moines Register, November 12, 2007)
- Voted YES on permanently repealing the `death tax`. (Death Tax Repeal Permanency Act; Bill HR 8; vote number 2006-164, June 8, 2006)
Ethanol and Renewable Fuels
- Q. You used to be an outspoken critic of ethanol. Do you believe now that it should be part of America's energy future?
McCain: “I do, because, one, of its role in reducing dependence on foreign oil. And also when oil is $10 a barrel, it doesn't make a lot of sense; when oil is $70 a barrel, it makes a lot more sense. I'm for all kinds of ethanol. I mean, corn-based is obviously the flavor of the month -- and I'm all for it -- but we also need sugarcane-based ethanol, such as what's coming out of Brazil, and we need switchgrass biofuels. There should be a broad variety of sources of ethanol besides just corn. And by the way, I still do not support subsidies for ethanol; it's doing just fine without them.”
Q. Why do you support subsidies for nuclear power, but not for ethanol?
McCain: “I don't support, particularly, subsidies. I think what I strongly support is a streamlined licensing process [for nuclear plants], an ability for the investors to be confident that they'll be able to have some secure future as far as the construction of these facilities are concerned. But I'm not particularly interested in subsidies for them, or the oil and gas industry, for that matter.” (OutsideOnline.com, October 1, 2007)
- "I don't support any subsidies. But I am a strong supporter of ethanol because I don't see any scenario where the price of oil is going to go back down again." (Sioux City Journal, March 8, 2007)
- "Ethanol is a product that would not exist if Congress didn't create an artificial market for it. No one would be willing to buy it," McCain said in November 2003. "Yet thanks to agricultural subsidies and ethanol producer subsidies, it is now a very big business - tens of billions of dollars that have enriched a handful of corporate interests - primarily one big corporation, ADM. Ethanol does nothing to reduce fuel consumption, nothing to increase our energy independence, nothing to improve air quality." (Fortune, October 31, 2006)
- Republican John McCain, the Arizona Senator declared himself a “strong” supporter of ethanol. “I support ethanol and I think it is a vital, a vital alternative energy source not only because of our dependency on foreign oil but its greenhouse gas reduction effects, ” McCain said during an August speech in Grinnell, Iowa, (Associated Press, August 1, 2006)
- "Every time hardworking American families buy groceries, they feel the financial sting of misguided federal policies mandating that taxpayers support ethanol," said Sen. McCain. "It isn't a surprise that food prices are rising when more than 25 percent of the corn grown today is taken out of the food supply and instead used for subsidized ethanol production. This subsidized program - paid for with taxpayer dollars - has contributed to pain at the cash register, at the dining room table, and a devastating food crisis throughout the world. We need to put an end to flawed government policies that distort the markets, raise food prices artificially, and pit producers against consumers. We must call on the EPA to exercise its authority to not exacerbate this already bad situation." (KVII-TV, May 2, 2008.)
Farm Bill:
- McCain predicted that the current farm bill as written is too laden with farm subsidies for him. He also said that he anticipates a challenge to the subsidy level at the World Trade Organization, if those subsidy levels aren't reduced prior to passage. "I do not support the level of subsidies that we now have in the present farm bill and I want to see us gradually reduce those subsidies," McCain said. "If this bill goes through, we will be taken to court in the WTO and we are going to lose." (Des Moines Register, October 25, 2007)
- "Mr. President, I would like to speak in opposition to this final farm bill conference agreement that will serve as the basis of farm policy for the next six years.”I oppose this new farm legislation because it is an appalling breach of our federal spending responsibility and could be damaging to our national integrity. Included in this agreement is $83 billion in new spending for farm programs above the baseline, which brings the grand total to $183 billion for the life of this bill. In yearly spending, the projections for this new farm bill will rank it among the most expensive farm bills in recent history. (McCain Campaign Press Release, May 7, 2002)
Trade:
- "But I still don't support the subsidies. And I don't think we need them. And I think we ought to have sugar cane-based ethanol into this country. And I don't think that subsidies are the answer, because I'll open up every foreign market to our agricultural products, who are the most productive and best and most effective agriculture in the world. And all of this stuff about free trade -- my dear and beloved Ronald Reagan, with all this bashing of free trade, he must be spinning in his grave." (Wall Street Journal / CNBC GOP Economic Debate, October 9, 2007)
- Douglas Holtz-Eakin, the McCain campaign’s director of economic policy, says that not only does McCain support the reauthorization of TPA, but he would also aggressively use it as president to negotiate bilateral and multilateral agreements. “Every time a country has succumbed to the siren song of isolationism, it has come back to hurt that nation,” he says. “Senator McCain doesn’t want to see this nation hurt.” (National Review, August 9, 2007)
- And Mr. McCain calls for jumpstarting the stalled Free Trade Area of the Americas, an idea for a hemispheric free trade zone that President Bill Clinton formally proposed in 1994. “We need to build on the passage of the Central America Free Trade Agreement by expanding U.S. trade with the region,’’ he plans to say. “Let’s start by ratifying the trade agreements with Panama, Peru, and Colombia that are already completed, and pushing forward the Free Trade Area of the Americas. Too many Democrats have embraced economic isolationism, paying off special interests by opposing trade agreements with our democratic neighbors. They could not be more wrong.’’ “My administration would reduce barriers to trade and press for renewed Trade Promotion Authority,’’ the speech says. (New York Times, June 19, 2007)
| Last Reviewed May 6, 2008 |
|
KEY ISSUES
