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McCain has always been pro-life and has a 100% rating from the National Right to Life Committee. Many pro-life advocates, however, distrust him because they believe the campaign finance restrictions he champions will limit their activities and because he suggested in ’01 that the pro-life plank to the national Republican platform be amended to included exceptions for rape, incest, and the life of the mother.
Budget & Economy
One of McCain’s major selling points among conservatives over the years has been his strong opposition to “pork barrel projects” and other wasteful government spending. He was, for example, the lone Republican to vote against the water projects bill in October of ’01 because it contained $1.2 billion in special projects for U.S. House districts. Citizens Against Waste in Government, gives McCain a 2005 rating of 91% and last year honored him with their “J. Peter Grace” Award at the annual CAWG banquet.
Civil Rights
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Crime
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Defense
The second-ranked Republican on the Senate Armed Services Committee, McCain has been a consistent supporter of the Administration’s rearmament agenda and the war on terrorism. The pro-defense Center for Security Policy gives him 89% on its National Security Scoreboard—good, but again, not as high as that of junior colleague Kyl (94%).
Drugs
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Education
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Energy & Oil
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Environment
Rated 67% by the League of Conservation Voters,McCain sports one of the highest LOCV scores of any Senate Republican. He has proposed CAFE standards for all automobiles and light trucks of 36 miles per gallon by 2015 and co-sponsored with Sen. Joe Lieberman (D.-Conn.) legislation to require power plants and factories to reduce carbon dioxide and other emissions. He also opposed ANWR development.
Gay Marriage
McCain has voted for the Defense of Marriage Act and supports defining marriage as the union between a man and woman. He has opposed, however, a constitutional amendment defining marriage, believing states should decide the issue. (McCain is presently cochairman of a state-wide initiative campaign to do this in Arizona this fall.)
Gun Control
McCain’s latest National Rifle Association rating is C.While he had a strong pro-Second Amendment record as a House Member and in his early Senate years, he has grown increasingly weak on the issue.McCain’s particular break with pro-gun groups has been over the campaign finance issue and his appearance in TV ads for state ballot initiatives requiring background checks for sales at gun shows.
Healthcare
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Homeland Security
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Immigration
Out of eight votes rated as significant in the last session of Congress by the Federation for American Immigration Reform, McCain was wrong (in their view) on three: supporting a massive guest-worker program permitting 9 to 11 million illegal immigrants to eventually apply for permanent residency in the U.S. (which he sponsored); permitting illegal aliens to attend state universities at in-state tuition rates; and co-sponsoring an amnesty for illegal aliens engaged in farm work and their spouses and children. McCain also opposed Proposition 200, an Arizona statewide initiative to curtail taxpayer benefits for illegal aliens. (The measure passed overwhelmingly last fall.)
Intelligence
McCain has continually supported efforts to beef up U.S. intelligence-gathering capabilities and intelligence agencies. He had been particularly outspoken in his support of former Director Porter Goss’s efforts to reform and restructure the Central Intelligence Agency.
Judges
McCain has supported all of President Bush’s judicial nominees, has voted for cloture of the Democratic-run Senate filibusters against key Court of Appeals nominees. But he leans against changing Senate rules to permit a simple majority of senators rather than the present requirement of 60 to break a filibuster. Supporters counter that after five years of blocked judges, the compromise worked out by McCain and the “Gang of 14” in the Senate permitted confirmation of nine judges.
Social Security
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Taxes
Rated 77% (or a B) by the National Taxpayers Union, McCain has a generally good record on opposing higher taxes—although not as good as junior GOP colleague from Arizona, Jon Kyl (NTU rating: 89%—grade A). His major breaks from an anti-tax stand have been his being one of two GOP senators to oppose the conference report on the Bush tax cut in May of ’02 and his 1997–98 push for a major.
Candidate Profiles - John McCain Platform
