'Meet the Press' transcript for March 29, 2009

SEN. McCAIN:  ...on national security policy I think the president has done the right thing on Iraq.  We may get to it.  I think his proposal for Afghanistan, I might modify it a little, is good.  So I, I think in the area of national security policy there has been some working together.

MR. GREGORY:  And yet the White House says the Republicans have become the party of no.  Is that fair?

SEN. McCAIN:  Well, we did have an alternative to the stimulus package, we had an alternative to--on the omnibus bill.  We will have an alternative budget.  And so the--I, I understand the White House saying that.  But the White House, in order to have legitimacy to that charge, has got to give me one example where on a major issue we've sat across a table negotiating, each putting forth their proposals and reaching a compromise.  As far as I can tell, on any domestic issue that hasn't happened.

MR. GREGORY:  Has the president been true to his word to change the way Washington operates?

SEN. McCAIN:  I think he's trying.  I want to give him credit for trying.  I think this is early in his administration.  I don't think we should make judgments.  There's no doubt this president has as great a challenges as any president ever has in the history of this country, certainly amongst the top three or four.  So let's continue to work to, to try to make him succeed.  I believe the role of loyal opposition is loyal to the country, yet opposition where we disagree on principles and philosophy.  That makes for vigorous debate.  Could that debate be more respectful?  Yes.

MR. GREGORY:  Mm-hmm.  Earlier this month you took to the floor on that spending bill over earmarks, and you were quite upset about it.  This is what you said.

(Videotape, March 2, 2009)

SEN. McCAIN:  I just went through a campaign, Mr. President, where both candidates promised change in Washington; promised change from the wasteful, disgraceful, corrupting practice of earmark, pork-barrel spending.

So what are we doing here?  Not only business as usual, but an outrageous insult to the American people.

(End videotape)

MR. GREGORY:  You made it very clear, in that instance the president had not been true to his word.

SEN. McCAIN:  The president said he'd go line by line over any appropriations bill and get rid of those that are unnecessary.  All he had to do was veto that bill, send it back and say, "No more earmarks.  None of this stuff now while the American people can't keep their jobs, can't--don't have health care, all, all the challenges we're facing." One point seven million dollars for pig odor research, on and on and on.  But the practice--the reason why I sounded as upset and I am as upset, because it's not just wasteful spending, it's not everything I just said, it's also corruption.  A senior staff member of the Appropriations Committee just pled guilty in federal court.  A lobbying outfit was shut down and the FBI investigated it.  I mean, there's former members of Congress in federal prison.  And we need it now, we need the confidence and trust of the American people as never before.  Instead, on this earmarking, pork-barrel spending, it's business as usual.  And someone will come on here and say, "It's only a small amount of money, only a few billion dollars." I just don't buy that and I don't think Americans do, either.

MR. GREGORY:  On the economy, I don't have to remind you, during the campaign you said, as this financial crisis was really unraveling, as the economy was taking a dive, that the fundamentals of the economy were strong.  You were criticized as being out of it, not getting it, not understanding the economy. And yet just a couple of weeks ago this was the president in the Oval Office. Watch.

(Videotape, March 13, 2009)

PRES. OBAMA:  If we are keeping focused on all the fundamentally sound aspects of our economy, then we're going to get through this.  And I'm very confident about that.

(End videotape)

MR. GREGORY:  What did you think when you saw that?

SEN. McCAIN:  I think we're in agreement.  I think what the president is saying now, and it's needed to be said to the American people, that we have the best workers, we're the most innovative, we're the most productive.  We still have the fundamentals of a very strong economy.  And we need some confidence to get, to get through this.  We need--that's part of, of the recovery.  So I'm glad we're in agreement.

MR. GREGORY:  In the, the campaign, you think that criticism was unfair?

SEN. McCAIN:  Life isn't fair.  We all know that.

MR. GREGORY:  Let's move on to the budget and the deficit picture that you referenced just a moment ago.  The Washington Examiner reported this this week:  "Last week in a little-noticed conference call featuring Budget Director Peter Orszag...[Orszag was asked:] Are those deficits sustainable? Relenting, Orszag said such deficits, in the range of 5 percent of the Gross Domestic Product, `would lead to rising debt-to-GDP ratios in a manner that would ultimately not be sustainable.' The simple version of that is:  If the Congressional Budget Office projections are correct, we're headed for hell in a handbasket." How concerned are you that, with the goals the administration has for spending on major programs, they're going to have to raise taxes?

SEN. McCAIN:  Well, that's always the inevitable result of increasing spending and increasing the size of government.  They've earmarked $634 billion for cap and trade; by the way, a betrayal of everything I've ever believed in about cap and trade, which I'm a supporter of.  They, they have earmarked or budgeted for hundreds of billions of dollars in increases in spending in health care to bring down the cost of health care.  So my great worry, my great worry is the trillions.  The $10 trillion we already owe, the $1 trillion or $2 trillion that the Chinese now own.  The Chinese comments about a world currency and their complaints about our fiscal policies concern me.  The--you know, there's only one thing worse than, than the Chinese owning a lot of American debt, and that is Chinese stop buying American debt.

MR. GREGORY:  Is that a real fear in your mind?

SEN. McCAIN:  Oh, I think it's of a concern.  I don't think in the short term.  But we've got to get our fiscal house in order.  We were talking about the party of saying no.  Our proposal on the stimulus package was once this country reaches a 2 percent increase in GDP, inflation adjusted, then we'd be on an automatic spending reduction path.  We've got to get the spending under control.  And the old line about deficits as far as the eye can see is, is now so large that it staggers the imagination.  And it can't continue.  No country can continue to do this.

MR. GREGORY:  During his press conference on Tuesday, the president pushed back a bit.

SEN. McCAIN:  Mm-hmm.

MR. GREGORY:  This is what he said.

(Videotape, Tuesday)

PRES. OBAMA:  I suspect that some of those Republican critics have a short memory.  Because as I recall, I'm inheriting a $1.3 trillion deficit, annual deficit from them.  That would be point number one.

Now, none of us know exactly what's going to happen six or eight or 10 years from now.  Here's what I do know.  If we don't tackle energy, if we don't improve our education system, if we don't drive down the costs of health care, if we're not making serious investments in science and technology and our infrastructure, then we won't grow 2.6 percent, we won't grow 2.2 percent.  We won't grow.

(End videotape)

MR. GREGORY:  The response?

SEN. McCAIN:  Well, first of all, let me say he was inheriting about half of what he described until we added the spending.  Second of all, no...

MR. GREGORY:  This new round of spending from, from last year.

SEN. McCAIN:  Yeah.  No, no nation can spend this way and get out of it without debasing the currency and us returning to a period that we had in the late '70s and the early '80s where we had inflation, a high unemployment and higher taxes, because it, it--you can't do it.  And so I hope that the president's next objective will be to work on this deficit.

MR. GREGORY:  Do you think that Republicans should provide a detailed budget alternative?

SEN. McCAIN:  Yes.

MR. GREGORY:  With numbers?

SEN. McCAIN:  Yes.

MR. GREGORY:  Will that happen in the Senate?

SEN. McCAIN:  We're working on it, working very hard on it.

MR. GREGORY:  And the, the key elements of it would be what?

SEN. McCAIN:  Well, obviously less spending, obviously more restraints, obviously not having $630 billion for "revenues from cap and trade." By the way, that's cap and tax, that's not cap and trade.  The other spending restraint measures that would--that have to be taken.  We'll, we'll--we're working on it very hard.

MR. GREGORY:  Let me turn to the issue of Afghanistan.  The president has ordered 17,000 additional forces to go to Afghanistan and announced on Friday 4,000 additional, so a total of 21,000.  Those 4,000 additional would specifically help police and Afghan forces.  This is the threat that the president described on Friday.

(Videotape, Friday)

PRES. OBAMA:  The situation is increasingly perilous.  Multiple intelligence estimates have warned that al-Qaeda is actively planning attacks on the United States homeland from its safe haven in Pakistan.  And if the Afghan government falls to the Taliban or allows al-Qaeda to go unchallenged, that country will again be a base for terrorists who want to kill as many of our people as they possibly can.

(End videotape)

MR. GREGORY:  Does this strategy have it right when it comes to preventing that sort of outcome?

SEN. McCAIN:  I believe so.  As you know, and is well-known inside the Beltway in this town, there was a big debate in the White House over--and the administration--over a minimalist approach, send a few more troops, kill some bad guys and then get out as quick as you can.  I think this--the outlines of this proposal are good.  The best way to get out of Afghanistan fast is people to think we're staying.  We have to more than double the size of the Afghan army.  We have to--I, I would have announced that 10,000 additional that have been requested would have been sent.  There's several other changes.

MR. GREGORY:  You think more troops are necessary, as you did in Iraq.

SEN. McCAIN:  I know they are.  I know they are.  And the main thing I would have done in that speech, I'm sorry to say, tell the American people it's going to be long and hard and tough.  And as these additional troops come in and we move into the south, which we do not have control of, the southern part of Afghanistan, there's going to be an increase in casualties.  You've got to prepare the American people for a significant expenditure of American blood and treasure.  I think the president laid out the threat very well.

MR. GREGORY:  How do you define victory in Afghanistan?

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