'Meet the Press' transcript for Oct. 26, 2008

MR. BROKAW:  But there, there is this continuing use...

SEN. McCAIN:  ...I feel that...

MR. BROKAW:  ...of the phrase "socialism." How would you describe the $700 billion bailout that has the United States government buying shares in American banks, in effect nationalizing those banks to a degree, and even your own mortgage plan of spending $300 billion to buy bad mortgages from banks, having taxpayers who have done the responsible thing, in effect, subsidize people who've done the dumb or wrong thing?

SEN. McCAIN:  Because we are in a financial crisis of monumental proportions. The role of government is to intervene when a nation is in crisis.  A homeowner's loan corporation was instituted in the Great Depression.  They went out and they bought people's mortgages, and, over time, people were able, then, to pay back those mortgages.  And the Treasury actually made some money.

This Treasury in this administration is spending its time bailing out the banks.  The cause of the crisis was the housing crisis, as we know.  And how--home values, as long as they continue to decline, then we're not going to see a turnaround in this economy.  A lot of other things have to happen, have to happen, but at least let's understand that we ought to keep people in their homes.  That's the American dream.  And they say now that maybe they're going to address that problem.  Let's address it first.  And so when a, when a nation is in crisis, that's when a government has to intervene.

Now, a lot of the times you were talking about, 2004, other times, times were pretty good overall.  You had different--you have to have different roles of government in different times.  I'm a fundamentally--obviously, a strong conservative.  But when we're in a crisis of this nature, that's when government has to help.  That's, that's what, that's what our fundamental belief--the reason why we have governments.  In times of crisis, we go in and we try and help the people, especially in this situation where they're the, the victim of a drive-by shooting by excess, greed and corruption in Washington and Wall Street.  And again, I and others said we have to have legislation to rein it in.  Senator Obama didn't lift a finger.

MR. BROKAW:  Well, you did--you made your comments about Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac at the time of the accounting issue, when that was first raised. Can you cite a time...

SEN. McCAIN:  In, in reality, we, we proposed legislation and made a statement that said, "Look, it's not just the accounting, this whole process is going to lead to disaster." I'd be glad to provide you with the letter.

MR. BROKAW:  Let me ask you quickly about your $300 billion bailout of, of mortgages.

SEN. McCAIN:  Hm.

MR. BROKAW:  Some people have said, look, if there's a homeowner out there who's done the irresponsible thing...

SEN. McCAIN:  Mm-hmm.

MR. BROKAW:  ...and a bank is looking at that foreclosure and saying, "Hey, I don't have to work this out.  I can just get the government to pick it up," why should a taxpayer in Waterloo, Iowa, or in Akron, Ohio, have to subsidize somebody who has done the dumb, wrong thing?

SEN. McCAIN:  Well, in simplest terms, if their neighbor next door throws the keys in the living room floor and leaves, then the value of their home is going to dramatically decrease as well.  And again, this has been done before. As I said, during the Great Depression and...

MR. BROKAW:  And that's when Republicans called it socialism under FDR.

SEN. McCAIN:  Well, look, in the Great Depression, there were some things that worked and some things that didn't work.  But for the government to do nothing in the face of a massive crisis of proportions that we have not seen, I mean, it's hard for us to imagine how, in, in retrospect, how serious the Great Depression was, but the fact is that Senator Obama, by the way, opposes that, that; and I want to use some of the $750 billion to go and buy those mortgages and that, I think, will stabilize the market.  It's not the only thing that needs to be done, but I think it's a vital first step so Americans can realize the American dream.

MR. BROKAW:  I stop...

SEN. McCAIN:  And by the way, this is primary residences.

MR. BROKAW:  Yeah.

SEN. McCAIN:  There's a lot of circumstances that, yeah.

MR. BROKAW:  I stopped briefly in Michigan on the way here and that's a state in meltdown, as well as you know, and the Center for Automotive Research at Ann Arbor says unless Chrysler, GM and Ford get $15 billion, they'll run out of money in a year and the American auto industry could disappear.  Do you think that the American government should give those three automotive makers $15 billion to tide them over.  And is it important to preserve the American brand of automobile?

SEN. McCAIN:  Well, let's get the first $25 billion to them first.  That way--we, we just gave them $25 million.  Let's give them the $25 million and see how that works before we say we're going to give you some more.

MR. BROKAW:  But they say they need another $15 billion in addition to that.

SEN. McCAIN:  Well, again, let's get the $25 billion to them to, to start with and see how that goes.  But let me just give an example.  There's a microcosm there.  There's an example.  Michigan thinks we got tough, so guess what?  They raised taxes.  They raised taxes in Michigan, and guess what? Things got worse.  Michigan, as I understand it, is second--one of two states in America that has a declining population because businesses are fleeing the state.  So the worst thing we can do is increase taxes.  And Senator Obama wants to do that, and now it's $200,000.  I guess last week it was $250,000. It changes with ever--whatever the polling data tells him and his advisers. But the fact is you don't want to raise anyone's taxes in tough times.

And just one other thing is businesses now are paying 35 percent taxes.  Now, immediately, somebody's going to say, "Well, they don't pay that 35 percent." Ask Fred Smith, the CEO of FedEx; ask Meg Whitman, the CEO of eBay; ask John Chambers, the CEO of Cisco; they'll tell you that they pay 35 percent, OK? But they'll also tell you that one of the reasons why they're attracted to going overseas, to Ireland, it's 11 percent tax there.  So why not go to Ireland where you can get qualified workers and, and you can save money and create jobs and, and invest?  So this business about fat cat bailout and corporate, all that kind of stuff, we need to reduce the business tax in America and we need to keep, and we need to keep capital gains taxes low. That's 100 million Americans who have something to do with capital gains taxes.

MR. BROKAW:  Senator, let me...

SEN. McCAIN:  So we have a stark difference.  Senator Obama wants to "spread the wealth around," "fairness." And that, that is the most liberal economic position that I've seen in the United States of America.  Just a fact.

MR. BROKAW:  Let me ask you some facts about your running mate.

SEN. McCAIN:  Sure.

MR. BROKAW:  Governor Sarah Palin.  You continue to defend her, she continues to light up Republican rallies wherever she goes.

SEN. McCAIN:  I don't, I don't defend her.  I praise her.

MR. BROKAW:  Yeah.

SEN. McCAIN:  I don't defend her.  And she needs...

MR. BROKAW:  Here's the latest...

SEN. McCAIN:  ...no defense.

MR. BROKAW:  All right.

SEN. McCAIN:  And here's another poll, the same way.

MR. BROKAW:  Let me, let me share with you another poll if I can.  The Washington Post/ABC News poll and this is what we have to share with our audience here today on that.  When she came out of the convention, she had a 59 percent favorable rating, it's now down to 46 percent, unfavorable is up to 51 percent.  This may be the most critical issue for you, and that is independent voters, women voters, her favorable rating now among them is just 40 percent.  It was 64 percent right after the convention, and it's now 59 percent.  Many people think that she's just simply not qualified to be president.

SEN. McCAIN:  Because?  Not qualified because?

MR. BROKAW:  She's not qualified because she's had a lot of exposure in the last three months or so, a vice presidential debate, a number of interviews with people who were selected by your campaign, after all.  She's had--some of those interviews were quite friendly, not necessarily prosecutorial.  And they have come to the conclusion, based on everything that we're seeing, that she's not qualified to be president.

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