As part of an ongoing effort to evaluate the records of the 2008 Presidential hopefuls, the Club for Growth, an organization devoted to advancing the principles of low taxes, limited government and individual freedom, is in the process of producing a series of white papers on the candidates. Today, the group released its assessment of Senator John McCain.
Club for Growth Chairman Pat Toomey today summarized the McCain paper in today’s Wall Street Journal.
The paper analyzes numerous votes throughout McCain’s 24-year record in Congress. Based on that analysis, Toomey’s conclusion is: John McCain “is not a consistent defender of individual freedom.”
And of all of McCain’s “infringements on personal freedom” highlighted in the paper, what was the most worrisome according to Toomey?
You guessed it. Senator McCain’s persistent assault on the First Amendment.
Toomey writes…
“[O]f all his infringements on personal freedom, Sen. McCain’s persistent attacks on political speech are the most worrisome. The First Amendment is an important safeguard of pro-growth policies. When government strays from sound economic policies, citizens must be free to exercise their constitutional rights to petition and criticize those policies and the politicians responsible for them. The 2002 McCain-Feingold bill (or the Bipartisan Campaign Reform Act), named in part for the Arizona senator who gave it life, seeks to squash political dissent by imposing grossly unconstitutional restrictions on citizen participation in political debate. “In defense of the bill’s provision severely limiting the freedom of private groups to run political TV ads, Sen. McCain argued in a Supreme Court brief, ‘These ads are direct, blatant attacks on the candidates. We don’t think that’s right.’ He thus anointed himself the arbiter of appropriate political speech, worthy of deciphering which speech is ‘right’ and which should be permitted in American political debate. His law constitutes the greatest modern infringement of the First Amendment right to political free speech. While bestowing significant advantages upon incumbent office holders, it has created neither a less corrupt political domain nor a more democratic one.”
The Club for Growth paper goes further.
Toomey notes that while Arizona Senator has amassed some “pro-growth” votes throughout his career…
… “[McCain's] vigorous opposition to the most pro-growth tax cuts in 20 years, and his outspoken pursuit of anti-growth and anti-free market policies in the realms of regulation, entitlement reform and campaign finance reveal a philosophical ambivalence, if not hostility, toward limited government and personal freedom.”
Toomey elaborates by pointing out that McCain was only one of two GOP Senators to vote against the Bush tax cuts in 2001, and only one of three Senators to oppose further cuts in 2003.
As if opposing tax relief for all Americans wasn’t enough, Toomey notes that McCain joined with some of the Senate’s most liberal members to “undermine them,” and using the most “radical, left-wing” class warfare rhetoric to do so.
In addition to McCain’s opposition to income and investment tax relief, the Club for Growth highlights other problems with McCain’s record, including:
-
His consistent opposition to repealing the death tax;
-
His support of a proposal to raise social security taxes;
-
His sponsorship with Ted Kennedy and John Edwards of the Patients Bill of Rights;
-
His support of price controls on prescription drugs; and
-
His opposition to helping reduce America’s dependence on foreign oil by opening ANWR to safe and responsible production.
