McCain Warns of ‘Out of Control’ Government Spending

A day before Mayor Giuliani is scheduled to hold his first major New York fund-raiser, Senator McCain used an address at a Midtown luncheon to warn that “out of control” government spending and a “rising tide” of protectionism is threatening America’s economic future.A likely presidential contender in 2008, the Republican of Arizona issued a broad repudiation of recent American spending policies, starting with the soaring costs of entitlement programs such as Social Security and Medicare.“A tsunami of entitlement spending is threatening our economy, while providing no real security to retirees,” Mr. McCain told the Economic Club of New York yesterday. President Bush made an unsuccessful bid last year to reform Social Security by allowing employees to open personal accounts, and Mr. McCain, a supporter of that proposal, lamented that Congress has failed to act. “My children and their children will not receive the benefits we will enjoy,” he said. “That is an inescapable fact, and any politician who tells you otherwise, Democrat or Republican, is lying.”The short-term fiscal outlook is no better, Mr. McCain said. “In the past six years, government spending has gone from irresponsible to utterly indefensible,” he said, citing an increase of $683 billion between 2000 and 2005. “The numbers should shock us, and government’s indifference to them should shame us.”Mr. McCain noted that a significant portion of that spending had “necessarily” gone to fund the war on terrorism, but he said that unlike under President Reagan, increases in national defense spending were not accompanied by cuts elsewhere. “This time, we have fallen again for that most alluring delusion: We have tried to have our cake and eat it, too,” he said.While Mr. McCain’s speech was laden with assaults on government spending and global protectionism, it was nonpartisan in nature and contained no direct criticism of either Democrats or Mr. Bush. Still, Mr. McCain suggested that the spending buck stops at the president’s desk. “Bills that perpetuate wasteful spending should be vetoed – not some of them, all of them,” he said.The 20-minute address was met by warm applause from the crowd of about 500 at the New York Hilton Hotel. Answering questions from a panel after the speech, Mr. McCain said he supported making Mr. Bush’s tax cuts permanent, even though he voted against them initially in 2003. He said he had voted against them because he saw no accompanying plan to decrease spending, but to halt the cuts now would amount to a tax increase, which he opposes.The senator’s staunch anti-spending rhetoric aligns him closely with fiscal conservatives in the Republican Party as he looks to 2008, while his support for campaign finance regulations and a guest-worker program for illegal immigrants would appeal more to moderate voters.Mr. McCain’s address in New York came a day before a potential rival for the Republican nomination, Mr. Giuliani, is set to hold a $5,000-a-head fund-raiser at the Four Seasons. The event, which is raising money for the former mayor’s political action committee, Solutions America, is expected to raise $500,000 that Mr. Giuliani can use to contribute to Republican congressional candidates. He cannot use the funds for his own race, but the donations to other candidates could curry favor for Mr. Giuliani should he seek the presidency in 2008. In addition to Mr. Giuliani, the chairman of the Republican National Committee, Kenneth Mehlman, is scheduled to speak at the fund-raiser, which about 100 people are expected to attend.

McCain Warns of ‘Out of Control’ Government Spending

McCain Warns of ‘Out of Control’ Government Spending

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