STATEMENTS BY MC CAIN

McCain spoke up early, held hearings on global warming

The statement:"John McCain stood up to the president and sounded the alarm on global warming ... five years ago."

-- John McCain, June 17 in a TV ad

The ruling: Indeed, the Congressional Record shows that McCain spoke up about global warming in January 2003. And as chairman of the Senate Commerce Committee, he held hearings on the issue several years before that. On Jan. 9, 2003, McCain and Sen. Joe Lieberman introduced the Lieberman-McCain Climate Stewardship Act, which sought to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by capping them and allowing companies and utilities to sell or trade their emission rights. Manik Roy, director of congressional affairs for the Pew Center on Global Climate Change, called McCain "a huge leader on this issue in the Senate."

McCain's change in posture, not position, on drilling

The statement: "I've always said it's (offshore drilling) up to the states and I still say that."

-- John McCain, June 18 in Springfield, Mo..

The ruling: Opponents have accused McCain of flip-flopping on offshore drilling, but we found McCain's record is not so clear. In June 2003, McCain was among 10 Republicans who voted for an anti-drilling amendment proposed by Democratic Florida Sen. Bob Graham, but in August 2006, McCain voted in favor of a bill that authorized drilling in about 8.3-million acres of the eastern Gulf of Mexico. In reviewing his statements over the years, we found McCain has consistently been in favor of letting states ultimately decide whether to drill. The difference now is that he's become a cheerleader for the cause. If it's not a change in position, it's at least a change in posture.

Fannie, Freddie and John, at odds in 2006

The statement: "John McCain fought to rein in Fannie and Freddie ... but Democrats blocked the reforms."

-- John McCain, Sept. 30 in an advertisement

The ruling: McCain did indeed co-sponsor a bill that would have enhanced oversight of Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae, private corporations created and sponsored by Congress to lower the cost of mortgage capital. McCain signed on 17 months after it was introduced, after a damning federal report on accounting practices at Fannie Mae was released. The McCain campaign has also noted that in 2003 he was one of five Republican senators to co-sponsor a prior bill to tighten oversight of Fannie and Freddie. Still, if he "fought" for reform, it wasn't exactly guns-a-blazin'. McCain overstates his role in pushing for Fannie and Freddie reform.

Gas tax holiday much more costly than McCain suggests

The statement: The price of a gas tax "holiday" would be about the same as "a Bridge to Nowhere (or) another pork barrel project."

-- John McCain, April 24 in interview on Fox News

The ruling: A gas tax holiday would cost the federal government about $9-billion in lost revenue, according to 2007 figures from the IRS. And McCain is way off with his suggestion that it could be paid for by eliminating the famous "Bridge to Nowhere" or another pork barrel project. When Congress was considering the project, the federal cost was estimated at just over $200-million, so it would actually take 45 Bridges to Nowhere to make up for the shortfall in gas tax. He's also way off with his suggestion that the holiday could be paid for by eliminating a pork barrel project. The average pork project costs $1.3-million, so it would take more than 6,900 of them to pay for the tax holiday. The math is so far off that we've got to set the meter ablaze.
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Hussein did say he hoped to get WMD

The statement: When the United States invaded Iraq, Saddam Hussein wanted to acquire weapons of mass destruction, and "he said so himself after his capture."

-- John McCain, June 4 in St. Petersburg

The ruling: The claim is based on information from the Iraq Survey Group, which interviewed scores of people, including Hussein's top advisers. After his capture in 2003, the survey group gained access to information gleaned from Hussein during detention. Hussein's interrogator for the group, George Piro of the FBI, told 60 Minutes that Hussein told him he wanted to pursue weapons of mass destruction again. "He wanted to pursue all of WMD," Piro said. "So he wanted to reconstitute his entire WMD program." Granted, the Survey Group came from the U.S. intelligence community, which got the weapons question wrong before the invasion. But it's the best record publicly available, and it supports McCain's statement.

He was front and center, uncovering a wasteful mess

The statement: "I saved the taxpayers $2-billion on a bogus Air Force Boeing tanker deal where people went to jail."

-- John McCain, Nov. 28, 2007, in St. Petersburg

The ruling: Indeed, McCain was front and center in a well-publicized effort that killed an Air Force plan to lease 100 Boeing 767s and use them for refueling tankers. The plan eventually led to one of the more notable Washington scandals in years, resulting in prison terms for a top Boeing official and the Air Force's No. 2 weapons buyer. It is well-documented in media and government reports that McCain was quick to identify the $23.5-billion deal as a bad one for taxpayers. He found it in December 2001 and tucked into a little-noticed amendment to the 2002 defense budget. Other senators and watchdog groups took up the fight against the deal, but only after McCain and his staff revealed the makings of a scandal.

ATTACKS AGAINST MC CAIN

Obama knows McCain's intentions better than McCain?

The statement:"Sen. McCain would pay for part of his (health care) plan by making drastic cuts in Medicare - $882-billion worth."

-- Barack Obama, Oct. 17 in a speech in Roanoke, Va.

The ruling: The $882-billion figure comes from an analysis of McCain's plan by the Center for American Progress Fund, a left-leaning think tank. Because McCain's campaign says the plan would be "budget neutral" - meaning it would be paid for by savings from Medicare and Medicaid - the Center for American Progress assumes the savings would come from cuts to the big health programs. But McCain has never talked about Medicare cuts to pay for his plan. Instead, his campaign says it would overhaul Medicare reimbursement policies, streamlining treatments, cracking down on fraud and waste, and more use of generic drugs, among other savings. So Obama is making a big leap with this one.

The statement: McCain "has opposed stem cell research."

-- Barack Obama, Sept. 16 in a radio ad

The ruling: At one time, McCain did oppose embryonic stem cell research. But then he changed his mind. "I have talked with numerous scientific experts. I believe that under stringent safeguards and under the most rigorous kinds of procedures, that this can help in finding the cure for Alzheimer's, Parkinson's and other serious diseases," he said. In June 2004, McCain was among 58 U.S. senators - most of them Democrats - who signed a letter urging President Bush to change his position and allow federal funding for scientific research on embryonic stem cells. And McCain has backed up his words with his votes in favor of it in recent years.

High earners get a break under McCain's plan

The statement: John McCain "is proposing tax cuts that would give the average Fortune 500 CEO an additional $700,000 in tax cuts."

-- Barack Obama, Oct. 7 in a debate in Nashville, Tenn.

The ruling: To come up with that number, the Obama campaign cites numbers from a Forbes magazine study of the average CEO compensation in 2007 for the 500 largest companies, not the Fortune 500. And yes, it comes to about $705,000. But the nonpartisan Tax Policy Center did a more conservative analysis that said CEOs would receive a tax rate decrease of 2.1 percent, or about $270,000. That's still a big number, but not as big as $700,000.

Taking it straight from the records, Obama nailed it

The statement: "John McCain has voted with George Bush 90 percent of the time."

-- Barack Obama, Aug. 28 in a speech at the Democratic National Convention

The ruling: The number is based on a "presidential support" score from Congressional Quarterly, which rates how often lawmakers back or oppose the president. Since 2001, McCain has, in fact, backed the president's position an average of 90 percent of the time. By congressional standards, that's solidly partisan, but hardly marching in lockstep. McCain supported Bush as infrequently as 77 percent of the time in 2005; and as high as 95 percent of the time in 2007.

McCain's tax plan doesn't ignore middle class

The statement: Sen. McCain's tax plan provides "virtually nothing to the middle class."

-- Joe Biden, Oct. 2 in vice presidential debate in St. Louis

The ruling: Independent studies of McCain's tax plan show that wealthy Americans would benefit the most, but his plan does have provisions that would help the middle class. Chief among these is an increase to the exemption taxpayers claim for each dependent. It's currently $3,500 and would go up by $500 each year beginning in 2010 until it would reach $7,000 in 2016. After that, it would be indexed for inflation. McCain also would tweak the alternative minimum tax and extend President Bush's 2001 and 2003 tax cuts, currently set to expire at the end of 2010, which expanded the child tax credit. So it's wrong to say McCain's plan would provide little relief to middle-class Americans.

Ad distorts McCain's record on Violence Against Women Act

The statement: Says McCain "voted to let governments charge rape victims" for forensic exams.

-- Planned Parenthood, Oct. 1 in a TV ad

The ruling: The ad attributes the charge to McCain's 1994 vote on a crime bill that included the Violence Against Women Act, which included a provision that required states to provide free forensic exams for rape victims. Planned Parenthood's logic: Because McCain opposed that bill, he voted to let governments charge victims for their rape kits. But McCain opposed it not because of the Violence Against Women provisions but because it included wasteful spending and had a provision that would have banned so-called assault weapons. And Planned Parenthood conveniently ignores the fact that McCain voted in favor of the act several other times and actually spoke in favor of it on the Senate floor.