McCain: I was misled on bailout
February 22nd, 2010 . by TexasFredMcCain: I was misled on bailout
Under growing pressure from conservatives and “tea party” activists, Sen. John McCain of Arizona is having to defend his record of supporting the government’s massive bailout of the financial system.
In response to criticism from opponents seeking to defeat him in the Aug. 24 Republican primary, the four-term senator says he was misled by then-Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson and Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke. McCain said the pair assured him that the $700 billion Troubled Asset Relief Program would focus on what was seen as the cause of the financial crisis, the housing meltdown.
“Obviously, that didn’t happen,” McCain said in a meeting Thursday with The Republic’s Editorial Board, recounting his decision-making during the critical initial days of the fiscal crisis. “They decided to stabilize the Wall Street institutions, bail out (insurance giant) AIG, bail out Chrysler, bail out General Motors. . . . What they figured was that if they stabilized Wall Street - I guess it was trickle-down economics - that therefore Main Street would be fine.”
Nearly 15 months later, commercial lenders still are in shaky condition and the commercial real-estate industry is in trouble, he said. On Friday, President Barack Obama announced $1.5 billion in funding for new measures to help Arizona and four other states hit hard by the tanked housing market and by joblessness.
But McCain stopped short of calling the TARP a mistake.
Full Story Here:
McCain: I was misled on bailout
I sincerely hope the good folks of Arizona are paying very close attention to this story and are listening intently to the words of John McCain.
One of the comment makers on FOX News just now said, and I paraphrase, “Come election time, McCain comes home and talks like a Conservative, then he goes back to Washington and votes like a liberal.”
That sums it up nicely I believe.
“Something had to be done because the world’s financial system was on the verge of collapse,” he said. “Any economist, liberal or conservative, would agree with that. The action they took, I don’t agree with.”
Can you smell what John McCain is spewing? Smells like duplicitous BS to me.
Republican Senate primary challenger J.D. Hayworth is using the TARP vote as a bludgeon against McCain’s reputation as a fiscal hawk. Tea partyers point to it as the start of a new explosion of federal spending that has continued into the Obama administration.
The Senate seat currently held by John McCain is ripe for the picking, all J.D. Hayworth has got to do is NOT lose this election himself, thus handing McCain a shew in victory.
McCain said Bush called him in off the campaign trail, saying a worldwide economic catastrophe was imminent and that he needed his help. “I don’t know of any American, when the president of the United States calls you and tells you something like that, who wouldn’t respond,” McCain said. “And I came back and tried to sit down and work with Republicans and say, ‘What can we do?’ “
Well, there you have it. The REAL side of John McCain finally comes out for all to see. In true libber fashion he is going to do what ALL libbers are doing right now, BLAME BUSH! 
I don’t disparage John McCain for his service to this nation, his MILITARY service. Past that, McCain long ago outlived any usefulness to the GOP he may have had. John McCain IS a RINO! That’s not said in jest, it’s said as hard accusation against McCain and IS meant to disparage him and his political career.
Arizona, John McCain has got to go. Do what’s right for Arizona and America. Retire that old RINO and put a real Conservative in Washington.
No more RINOs, no more excuses, no more settling for the lesser of anything.
