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(s)Elections See other (s)Elections Articles Title: The Ron Paul Paul-O-Meter: John McCain Measured The Ron Paul Paul-O-Meter: John McCain July 7th, 2008 9:02 am | by Marc Gallagher In the next installment of our Ron Paul Paul-O-Meter effort to rate the Presidential candidates we hold John McCain to the Ron Paul liberty fire. Previously, we rated Barack Obama. For details about the Paul-O-Meter see the description. Read on for John McCain’s scores on the issues. 1. Liberty-based voting record - McCain certainly has some horribly anti-liberty votes, but he’s been “ok” on both gun rights and health care. Certainly not perfect but the case can be made that he’s fairly similar to Ron Paul on those issues. Score: 1 2. Federal Reserve and Monetary Policy - McCain’s view of the Fed is at complete odds with Ron Paul’s view. McCain has praised the Fed for it’s rate cuts and suggests the institution is doing a good job regulating the “markets”. Score: 0 3. Foreign Policy and Iraq - John McCain’s now infamous ‘100 years’ comment says all we need to know about this issue. Score: 0 4. Taxes - McCain proposes more “tinkering” tax proposals than the outright repeal Ron Paul proposes. He doesn’t have a good record on lowering taxes. He voted against the Bush tax cuts twice even though he now says he is for making them permanent. Score: 2 5. Government Spending - McCain preaches for cutting “pork barrel spending” and earmarks continually, but he rarely gets specific about what departments and programs he would eliminate. He has said he would balance the budget and reform certain programs, but there is simply no details on how he would do such things. He purposefully stays away from cutting military and defense spending. Because of his lack of specifics it is difficult to believe he will actually reduce spending much, if at all. Score: 2 6. Privacy and Civil Liberties - McCain supports FISA, fully supports the Patriot Act, and fully supports the Real ID Act. Even though during the primary campaign he spoke out against torture, he voted for allowing it to continue. His score here is painfully obvious. Score: 0 7. Immigration - McCain was a main proponent of the immigration bill that angered so many Americans in early 2007. It instituted a form of amnesty for illegal immigrants. That is completely at odds with Ron Paul. These days McCain has backtracked a little on his immigration position. He, at least, is calling for securing the borders like Ron Paul, but he does so in a very generic fashion. One wonders if he actually believes in doing so. Score: 1 8. Gun Control and Second Amendment - Like Ron Paul, McCain supported repealing the DC gun ban and believes it is an individual’s right to bear arms. However, he has continually led efforts to undermine those rights by regulating gun shows, requiring trigger locks, and supporting extending Brady Bill restrictions to pawn shops and gun repair shops. He’s far from a pure Second Amendment proponent like Ron Paul. Score: 2 9. Internet Regulation - McCain is against Net Neutrality like Ron Paul. He also says he will ban Internet taxes permanently. He does not seem to much care to talk about online gambling. The Poker Player’s Alliance gave him a grade of ‘D’ on the issue. Score: 3 10. Adherence To The Constitution - McCain has an unconstitutional voting record. He rarely references the document in his speeches. He votes against the principles of the Constitution all the time. He voted for the Iraq war authorization, Patriot Act, and FISA. Score: 0 11. Religion vs. Public Policy - McCain actually shines on this one. In fact, on the campaign trail he sometimes changes his own religion on the fly, as has been documented. He rarely utilizes religious sentiments in his speeches. He effectively separates religion and policy like Ron Paul. However, he has sought relationships in the past with John Hagee and Jerry Falwell in efforts to garner support from the religious right. Score: 4 12. Environment - McCain is a huge proponent of more government regulation over environmental issues. He strongly supports implementing a “cap and trade” system. This runs completely counter to Ron Paul’s position. Score: 0 13. Energy Policy - McCain is against drilling in ANWR, and used to be against drilling off of the U.S. coastlines. He now supports drilling off the coastlines. Like Ron Paul he wants to stop filling the Strategic Petroleum Reserve to reduce demand. He previously was an outspoken critic of ethanol subsidies, but during his primary campaign in Iowa he spoke favorably of them. Score: 2 14. U.S. Sovereignty - Like most candidates McCain doesn’t talk about the North American Union. Score: 0 15. War on Drugs - McCain regularly ignores questions about the decriminalization of marijuana during his town hall meetings. He does not advocate for ending the war on drugs nor for releasing non-violent drug offenders from prison as Ron Paul does. Score: 0 16. Education - McCain is wishy-washy on No Child Left Behind. He seems to believe that it doesn’t go far enough. He certainly doesn’t advocate getting rid of the Department of Education. He is the opposite of Ron Paul on this issue. Score: 0 17. Welfare Programs - He is not advocating phasing out Social Security or other welfare programs. He is calling for reforms though. He supports personal accounts for Social Security. He supports changing the medicare prescription drug benefit to only cover low income beneficiaries. Still, this is a far cry from being like Ron Paul. Score: 1 18. Abortion - McCain believes in the overturning of Roe v. Wade. He also believes abortion should be left up to the states. This is in line with Ron Paul. Score: 5 19. Health Care - John McCain is against socialized medicine at the national level. However, a quick glance at his health care issue page reveals he’s not too close to Ron Paul on government intervention in the health care industry. McCain lists all sorts of federal government programs and incentives to further meddle in the health care industry. Score: 2. 20. Ability To Spread The Liberty Message - Simply put, John McCain doesn’t have a liberty message to spread no matter how much media attention he gets. Score: 0 John McCain’s final Paul-O-Meter Score: 25 out of 99 possible points After Barack Obama’s score of 17, this is about where we expected McCain to end up. What was most eye opening to us was that his health care plan is a clear attempt to win over people that believe that everyone has a right to health care. Also his perceived strength on cutting government spending is unfounded. On many of his positions he tries to play both sides and it is difficult to know where he actually stands on the issue. This is not a shock coming from a life long politician. In the end it is no surprise that McCain doesn’t hold a candle to Ron Paul on the issues. Tune in next time when we light up the Paul-O-Meter for Libertarian candidate Bob Barr. Post Comment Private Reply Ignore Thread Top • Page Up • Full Thread • Page Down • Bottom/Latest Begin Trace Mode for Comment # 4.
#3. To: TwentyTwelve (#0)
11. Religion vs. Public Policy We may assume both men, come December, will celebrate the Holiday spirit.
11. Religion vs. Public Policy We may assume both men, come December, will celebrate the Holiday spirit. Good observation.
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