John McCain Skips Important Vote On Economic Stimulas

With super Tuesday and all, John McCain has just been to busy to do his real job lately. On Wednesday McCain skipped an important vote in the Senate on an economic stimulus plan that would have given 20 million seniors and 250,000 disabled veterans rebate checks. It looked like he was going to go to the floor to vote, but he didn’t. He was in town for the vote. “I haven’t had a chance to talk about it at all, have not had the opportunity to, even,” McCain said. “We’ve just been too busy, focused on other stuff. I don’t know if I’m doing that. We’ve got a couple of meetings scheduled.” The vote was blocked by a Republican filibuster, and failed by 1 vote. They needed 60 votes to pass the measure. The final vote was 58-41, but Senate Democratic leader Harry Reid switched his vote at the last moment in a parliamentary move that allows him to bring up the measure for another vote at a later date. This ensures that the plan backed by President Bush and the Republicans should now pass since there is such an urgency to do something about this failing economy. Senate Leader Reid said this after the vote, “Given a chance to act as recession looms, more than 40 Republicans today said no to helping 20 million seniors and no to 250,000 disabled veterans. They said no to those who have lost their jobs and no to small business.” McCain had nothing at all to say about this. It was a “lose, lose” vote for McCain. If he voted no with his party, then he alienates all those seniors and veterans. If he votes yes, then he alienates all those conservatives he is trying to reach. That would be particularly hard for McCain since he is speaking before the Conservative Political Action Conference this afternoon. This is the group that booed him in absentia last year. So far this year McCain has missed all eight Senate roll call votes. He was asked about this later and said, “It’s very hard. Obviously, I’ve missed a lot of votes. There’s no doubt about it.” Every vote this year is a lot, and he is correct, doing your job is hard sometimes. The Clinton camp didn’t miss this chance to attack this McCain weakness. A spokesperson for Clinton said, “By failing to stand up as the deciding vote, John McCain let our families down. Tonight’s events prove once again that we need a president who will be ready from Day One to act in the interests of middle-class families and turn our ailing economy around.”
Alan Cosgrove