From The Hotline Latest Edition for Tuesday, April 29,2008

MCCAIN

$5,000 And A Spin

Tue. Apr. 29, 2008


In a "major policy address" in Tampa, FL, today, John McCain offered families a $5K tax credit to help buy health insurance policies.

McCain, in his prepared remarks: "Millions of Americans would be making their own health care choices again. ... Insurance companies could no longer take your business for granted, offering narrow plans with escalating costs. It would help change the whole dynamic of the current system, putting individuals and families back in charge, and forcing companies to respond with better service at lower cost."

Although McCain "has talked about the same ideas for several months," adviser Doug Holtz-Eakin said that McCain "will give more examples of how his policies would work." Still "missing," however, is the "total cost of the plan and an estimate of how many people it would help." Holtz-Eakin: "So, a little more detail, but remember, it is April, and the election's in November, so not everything will happen tomorrow or this week."

Under McCain's plan, anyone could get the $5K credit, "and those who like their company health care plan could choose to stay in it." Meanwhile, the credit would be available as a rebate to people at lower income levels who have no tax liability, Holtz-Eakin said.

And to pay for the tax credit, McCain "would eliminate the tax exemption for people whose employers pay a portion of their coverage, raising an estimated" $3.6T in revenues, Holtz-Eakin said. "Companies that provide coverage to workers still would get tax breaks" (Quaid, AP, 4/29).

Politico's Allen and Martin note, "until now, McCain has emphasized such conventional conservative measures as tax deductions and malpractice reform. His new stance moves him closer to where" Mitt Romney "was during the primary, an approach McCain had criticized." McCain "is taking a step beyond tax incentives and tort reform, but not a leap," and "he is noncommittal in his remarks, pointing to the non-profit organizations as one effective approach that he would discuss with governors" (4/29).

Meanwhile, McCain is also up with a new 60-second TV ad in IA, "Health Care Action," which highlights his "agenda to reform health care." Full script:

McCAIN: "The problem with health care in America is not the quality of health care, it's the availability and the affordability. And that has to do with the dramatic increase in the cost of health care. Let's give every American family a $5,000 refundable tax credit so that they can go out across state lines and get the insurance policy that suits them best. I can characterize my approach on health care by choice and competition, affordability and availability. We need community health centers. We need walk-in clinics. We understand that emergency room care is the most expensive in America. There's many, many solutions to this problem. I think we can address them. The fundamental problem is not the quality of health care; it's the cost of health care. So health care must be made affordable and available. I'm John McCain and I approve this message" (release, 4/29).

Healthy Food, Tastes So Good

At Miami Children's Hospital on 4/28, McCain said that health care policy should focus on controlling costs rather than on the gov't-guaranteed insurance coverage that Dems favor.

McCain, during a talk with doctors and patients: "Our health care is too expensive. ... These costs are a threat to the ability of Americans to have health insurance, the gateway to better health care." McCain said that, "in general, he sees a government role in 'providing available health care for the uninsured, those with chronic diseases, and making health care available and affordable to all Americans.'" But he "made it clear that he opposes government-mandated universal health coverage" (Bennett, PalmBeachPost.com, 4/28).

McCain also "heard from several parents struggling to pay for their children's healthcare" on 4/28. "He met a teenager whose mother worries about stockpiling enough oxygen for his ventilator; a month-old baby with a genetic heart condition looking for adoptive parents and a 3-year-old whose chronic heart defect means a lifetime of prescription drugs and periodic surgeries" (Reinhard, Miami Herald, 4/29).

Meanwhile, continuing his health care tour this week:

• According to a camp source, McCain "will get to see how the Cleveland Clinic uses technology to improve patient care" on 5/1. McCain then will participate in a town hall meeting next door at the InterContinental Cleveland (Koff, "Openers," Cleveland.com, 4/28).

• McCain spokesperson Crystal Benton says that McCain plans to hold a town hall meeting on health care in Denver on 5/2 (AP, 4/29).

I'm Lookin' For A Lover Who Will Come On In And Cover Me

Among the responses to McCain's health care policies:

• DNC Chair Howard Dean also responded to McCain's proposals. Dean: "John McCain would continue to deny our children health care and has no plan to address the skyrocketing costs that are devastating American families. Instead he wants to keep our troops in Iraq for a 100 years with no plan to address the challenges we face right here at home" (release, 4/28).

• The Center for American Progress held a conference call responding to McCain's 4/28 healthcare roundtable, during which Elizabeth Edwards "responded to the public back-and-forth between her and McCain on whether McCain's plan would cover people like them." E. Edwards said 4/28 that the costs associated with McCain's proposed "special Medicaid trust fund" -- for people with preexisting conditions -- would be "enormous." E. Edwards: "If he's talking about expanding Medicaid to cover chronic conditions ... he is talking about the most radical expansion of government healthcare that has been proposed -- that I know of" (Aigner-Treworgy, NBC/National Journal, 4/28).

Is There A Letter In Your Bag For Me?

The RNC demanded 4/28 that TV nets stop running a new anti-McCain ad by the DNC that "falsely suggests" McCain "wants a 100-year war in Iraq."

RNC Chair Mike Duncan said the ad deliberately distorts what McCain has said (AP, 4/28). According to Duncan, the ad is "maliciously false" (Silva, "The Swamp," ChicagoTribune.com, 4/28). Meanwhile, RNC chief counsel Sean Cairncross said he sent letters to NBC, CNN and MSNBC, insisting that they stop airing the ad.

Dean, meanwhile, said "there's nothing false" about the ad. Dean: "We deliberately used John McCain's words. This isn't some ominous consultant's voice from Washington. This is John McCain's own words. And we've been very upfront about everything that he's said" (AP, 4/28). More Dean: "I understand that we've struck a nerve with the RNC with this ad, which we've done before" ("The Swamp," ChicagoTribune.com, 4/28).

The ad is scheduled to begin airing today, and DNC general counsel Joe Sandler "expressed confidence that the RNC would be unsuccessful in their efforts to get the ad pulled" (Davis, "Washington Wire," WSJ.com, 4/28).

A Case Of Long-Term Memory Loss

"Three years before" McCain argued on the campaign trail that U.S. troops could be in Iraq for 100 years in the absence of violence, "he decried the very concept of a long-term troop presence."

When asked specifically if he thought the U.S. military "should set up shop in Iraq along the lines of what has been established in post-WWII Germany or Japan -- something McCain has repeatedly advocated" during the WH campaign -- he "offered nothing short of a categorical 'no.'" McCain, in an interview on MSNBC: "I would hope that we could bring them all home. I would hope that we would probably leave some military advisers, as we have in other countries, to help them with their training and equipment and that kind of stuff."

MSNBC's Chris Matthews, to McCain: "You've heard the ideological argument to keep U.S. forces in the Middle East. I've heard it from the hawks. They say, keep United States military presence in the Middle East, like we have with the 7th Fleet in Asia. We have the German ... the South Korean component. Do you think we could get along without it?"

McCain, however, "held fast, rejecting the very policy he urges today." McCain: "I not only think we could get along without it, but I think one of our big problems has been the fact that many Iraqis resent American military presence. ... And I don't pretend to know exactly Iraqi public opinion. But as soon as we can reduce our visibility as much as possible, the better I think it is going to be" (Stein, "Huffington Post," 4/28).

SEIU, A Needle Pulling Thread

At a presser today, the SEIU will unveil its first ad of the election cycle focused on McCain's record on health care and his health care plan. The ad, "Feeling the Pain," involves "a significant buy" and will begin airing today in OH and DC (release, 4/29).

The Wrighting's On The Wall

McCain spoke to reporters following his 4/28 health care roundtable in Miami, where he further addressed the issue of Rev. Jeremiah Wright (see 4/28 Hotline).

McCain, on Wright's service: "I have never question Reverend Wright's patriotism, as I said before I am of the belief that Senator [Barack] Obama does not reflect the extremist statements that Reverend Wright has given and I have no comments on it, but I also understand why millions of Americans may as Senator Obama said yesterday view this as a political issue. That's what Senator Obama said."

More: "I will not be the referee, and I'll make my position very clear and then I'll run my campaign on healthcare challenges, on all of the great challenges we face including the economic difficulties we're facing today, the challenges of a recession and providing available and affordable healthcare to all Americans" (Aigner-Treworgy, NBC/National Journal, 4/28).

Obama strategist David Axelrod: "Senator McCain has always held himself out as someone who is above all of that. And he's really leaped in with both feet. This ad that's running in North Carolina is under the auspices of the Republican Party there. He's the leader of the Republican Party. If he didn't want that ad to run, it wouldn't be running. So, he's really defining himself through this period. And I don't think people are going to see that as consistent with the kind of person and the kind of politician that he purports to be" ("Election Center," CNN, 4/28).

McCain Victory chair Carly Fiorina: "It was pretty hard not to talk about Reverend Wright yesterday. I think [McCain] was asked a very direct question and as usual, he gave a direct answer" ("Morning Joe," MSNBC, 4/29).

Among the responses to McCain's comments about Wright:

• FNC's Cameron: "Don't expect McCain to fire at will. For now, he's happy to let Hillary take the shots and save his own ammunition for the general election when aides say the Wright issue will be very much alive if Obama's the nominee" ("Special Report," 4/28).

• Air America's Maddow: "McCain just felt it was too attractive to walk away from. And he's hoping that people don't remember his pledge from last week" ("Race for the WH," MSNBC, 4/28).

• Jimmy Carter, asked whether McCain will use the Wright issue against Obama: "He might. But I think that's going to be old history by the time the general election comes around" ("LKL," CNN, 4/28).

• CNN's Bash, on how McCain wants to rise above these kinds of attacks, and then is participating in them: "McCain aides I talked to say on the one hand they feel like ... there is a double standard. That Barack Obama isn't necessarily being held to the same standard when some surrogates of his say things about McCain. ... The other political reality ... is that more and more the McCain campaign just like every Republican sees that if Barack Obama is their opponent, there's no other liability, they think, that is greater for Barack Obama than this, so they want to open the door to using it, no matter what Senator McCain has said in the past" ("Lou Dobbs Tonight," 4/28).

North By Northwest

According to "Inside the EPA," McCain will attend events in Seattle, WA, and Portland, OR, on 5/12-13 "to promote his longstanding efforts to combat global warming" ("Political Buzz," NewsTribune.com, 4/28).

Every Step You Take, I'll Be Watching You

Judicial Watch announced 4/28 that it had filed a complaint with the FEC regarding a fundraiser that McCain held in London.

The watchdog group "argues that providing a venue for the event free of charge was an illegal in-kind contribution from two foreign nationals -- Lord Rothschild OM GBE and The Honorable Nathaniel Rothschild." Judicial Watch, in a statement: "While it is, as yet, unclear how much money was raised during the luncheon, had the venue not been donated to the McCain campaign, the net profit from the event would have been significantly reduced."

The McCain camp dismissed the complaint as "completely wrong." McCain spokesperson Brian Rogers: "That's what happens when a group files a complaint without calling the campaign to see if its facts are straight" (Marre, The Hill, 4/29).

And It's No Sacrifice, Just A Simple Word

During a recent stop in Cleveland, OH, McCain agreed to sit down and talk with the AP about "service and sacrifice -- his own and that of the American people, whom he believes have an instinct for sacrifice embedded in their DNA that emerges particularly starkly during troubled times."

McCain: "It's throughout our country's history. I think it's been greater at times than at other times, depending on what the external and internal challenges have been. ... But I think it's always been a trait and a characteristic of the American citizen." More: "With all due respect to citizens of every other nation of the world ... I don't think, because of the very nature of our history, that they match up to our citizens' willingness to serve and sometimes to sacrifice" (Anthony, AP, 4/29).

Do As I Say, Not As I Do

Although Senate Min. Whip Jon Kyl "blasted" Dems "for bringing a pay discrimination bill up for a vote last week in part to prop up" their WH candidates, he "did not rule out the possibility" that GOPers "might use similar tactics."

Kyl: "Maybe there'll be a time when we do that." However, he added: "I doubt, frankly, that McCain is going to want his Republican colleagues here to use the Senate and the floor to set things up for him. ... I can't think of an issue he would do that on" (Schneider, CongressDailyPM, 4/28).

There Ain't No Cure For The Summertime Blues

Cincinnati Enquirer editorializes about McCain's proposed gas tax holiday, "this is an election year, and evidently the dumb idea-ness is catching." On 4/28, CT GOP legislators proposed cutting state gasoline taxes by 10 cents this summer. "Enough already. It won't help. Any campaign that thinks this gas tax 'giveback' is anything more than an election-year sop to voters is running on fumes" (4/29).

Back To School

Wall Street Journal's McGurn writes, in cities like DC and Newark, NJ, African-American mayors "have taken courageous stands to offer children more and better school options. And these brave souls are being joined by a growing number of parents, pastors and advocates who recognize that the status quo is cheating their children out of a chance at the American Dream."

"There's a good opening here" for McCain. "As a senator, he has been a forceful voice for giving lower-income moms and dads the same options for their children that wealthier parents already enjoy. What if he took this campaign into the heart of our cities -- and gave a little straight talk about the scandal that their public-school systems represent in this great land of opportunity?" Hillary Clinton "can't do it for the same reason that" Obama "can't: They cannot offend the teachers unions that are arguably the most powerful constituents in their party." McCain "can" (4/29).

There's No Place Like Homewood

Homewood, AL, Mayor Barry McCulley apologized 4/28 for giving McCain "a cut-rate rental deal on a city building and said he would ask" McCain's camp to pay the full amount.

McCulley issued a statement "saying he overstepped his authority in lowering rent on a city building where McCain held a fundraiser last week, and he said he was neither a supporter nor worker" with the camp. McCulley: "I do not want any Homewood resident to think my actions were intentional, political or that there was any attempt to inappropriately use city assets" (Montgomery Advertiser, 4/29).

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