John McCain: Town Hall Meeting 06/02/08
John McCain
Town Hall
Nashville, TN 06/02/08
TRANSCRIPT:
QUESTIONER: "I'd just like to ask you about the issue of tax cuts. Uh, the media has made a big deal from time to time about how you voted against the Bush tax cuts in 2001 and 2003 and it seems that most of the time you respond by saying that it was irresponsible fiscally and that we have to match tax cuts with spending cuts. And I respect and appreciate that answer, but I think there's another piece of the puzzle and I have to ask you, in terms of who's receiving those tax cuts, in 2001, on the floor of the senate you said, "I can not, in good conscience support in which so many of the benefits go to the most fortunate among us, at the expense of the middle class Americans who most need tax relief. And then, about the 2003 tax cuts when you were asked by the Wall Street Journal editorial board, in 2005, you said, "I—
MCCAIN: "You're going to have to ask me a question, my friend."
QUESTIONER: "Yes, sir, yes sir, I just thought it was too titled to the wealthy and I still do." Sir, my question is, how will the McCain tax cuts look different from the Bush tax cuts and are you simply trying to make the Bush tax cuts permanent or now that you have a chance to do something about this are you willing to do something different?"
MCCAIN: "Thank you. Thank you for your thoughtful scholarship. You've done a lot of research. [laughter]. Thank you. Let me just say that, my first comment is that if you do not make these present tax cuts permanent American businesses and families in all walks of life will experience the largest tax increase in history. That's why they need to be made permanent. We cannot [applause] at this point in our economy. But, going back, I would like to bring you back to some of my other quotes during that debate. I had my own package of spending cuts and they where somewhat different than the president's. And they were significantly different in some ways. But I also had spending restraints. Spending restraints. A major reason, a major reason I had was because we let spending get out of control in the 1980s when President Reagan came to power while we enacted significant tax cuts, we also restrained spending. We cannot let spending get out of control the way we did and preside over the largest increase in the size of government since the Great Society and expect nothi—something to go out of kilter. I favor further tax cuts. I favor them because I think history shows that. I think you can dispute about tax cuts and their effect but one area I think that you cannot dispute is capital gains. History, since 1960 [applause] since 1960, beginning with Jack Kennedy, since 1960 every time we've cut capital gains taxes, there has been an increase in revenue. And that's just indisputable facts. Sen. Obama wants to raise capital gains taxes. I'm not going to do that. I'm not going to do that. [applause] So, I want to make the tax cuts permanent and I had my own argument at the time. Thank you."
[. . .]
QUESTIONER: "I appreciate your answer, and, um, but I am curious, in terms of the way that those tax cuts are distributed, are you looking at doing that different than when you said that you couldn't vote for it in moral conscience back in 2001? I mean helping people that are more at the bottom end, who don't receive capital gains tax cuts?"
MCCAIN: "A hundred million Americans, my friend, report on their income tax capital gains. So, we're not talking about the wealthiest Americans. We're talking about a hundred million Americans who have something to do with capital gains, uh, so, [applause] I guess it all depends on what you call wealthiest or the least wealthy. So I, I would favor further tax cuts. But first we've gotta get spending under control. [applause] We've got to eliminate growth in the size of government."
LABEL: JM TN 6-2 (EW#10) ABSU-- Clip H
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