John McCain attacks Barack Obama as a socialist because of his tax policy and because he wants to help the entire population, not just the wealthiest of us pm FOX, but when Wallace reminded the Senator that he voted for the government bail out of Wall St. and wants to bail out bad mortgages using government funds he said that " oh well, I'm just trying to help."
He makes our case that government should be used to assist this country when it needs it. And the talking point about socialism is another desperate measure by John McCain. He really makes no sense at all. He flip flops from being a conservative to a populist to a socialist from sentence to sentence.
WALLACE: But you did it indirectly, so let me ask you for some straight talk. Do you think that Senator Obama is a socialist? Do you think that his plans are socialism?
MCCAIN: I think his plans are redistribution of the wealth. He said it himself, "We need to spread the wealth around." Now, that's one of...
WALLACE: Is that socialism?
MCCAIN: That's one of the tenets of socialism. But it's more the liberal left, which he's always been on. He's always been in the left lane of American politics.
WALLACE: But, Senator, when we talk...
MCCAIN: So is one of the tenets of socialism redistribution of the wealth? Not just socialism — a lot of other liberal and left wing philosophies — redistribution of the wealth? I don't believe in it. I believe in wealth creation by Joe the Plumber.
WALLACE: But, Senator, you voted for the $700 billion bailout that's being used partially to nationalize American banks. Isn't that socialism?
MCCAIN: That is reacting to a crisis that's due to greed and excess in Washington.
And what this administration is doing wrong, and what Paulson is doing wrong, is not going out and buying up home loan mortgages, home mortgages, and giving people new mortgages at the new value of their home so they can stay in their home.
They're bailing out the banks. They're baling out these institutions.
WALLACE: But you voted for that.
MCCAIN: Of course. It was a package that had to be enacted because the economy was about to go into the tank.
Transcript below the fold:
During the — during the Depression, we had a program to take care — where they went out and bought homeowners' mortgages, and then over time they even made money as the values of homes began to increase.
If we don't turn — the housing market was the catalyst — the greed and excess, and Fannie Mae and Freddie, which some of us proposed legislation to rein in — the Democrats were in charge of Congress for most six — for the last couple of years, and they did not act, and so — and Senator Obama did not act.
But the point is that, of course, when a — when a — that's the reason why we have governments, to help those who need help, who can't help themselves, and when time of crisis to step in and do what's necessary to preserve the lives and futures of innocent people.
It wasn't Main Street America that caused this. It was Washington and Wall Street.
