Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) said he will vote against President Obama’s stimulus bill, calling the legislation “generational theft” in an interview on CBS’ “Face the Nation.”
“I thought we were going to have change," he said, in a shot at Obama's campaign slogan, "and that change meant we work together. This is a setback. This is a setback to all Americans because you promised Americans we’d work in a more bipartisan fashion, and that certainly is not the case in this bill,” McCain said.
McCain said the bill would saddle Americans with billions in future debt, and contained protectionist provisions that could be damaging to the economy.
“We’re going to amass the largest debt in the history of this country by any measurement, and we’re going to ask our kids and grandkids to pay for it,” McCain said.
“I know we’re in trouble. I know America needs a stimulus, we need tax cuts, we need to spend money on infrastructure and other programs that will put people to work. But this is not it.”
McCain also argued Congressional Democrats are no more open to listening to ideas from the opposing party than Republicans were during the Bush administration, and mocked the notion that winning over three Republican senators – Maine Republicans Susan Collins and Olympia Snowe and Pennsylvania’s Arlen Specter – to support the stimulus bill made this a bipartisan package:
“This agreement is not bipartisan. I’ve been in bipartisan agreements, many. “This is three Republican senators, every Republican congressman voted against it in the House, plus 11 Democrats and all but three Republicans stayed together. That’s not bipartisanship, that’s just picking off a couple of Republican senators .”
