Armey: McCain Should Have Opposed TARP
FreedomWorks chair Dick Armey argues in a new book that John McCain should have strongly opposed the TARP program during the 2008 election:
Arizona Sen. span style="color: green;">John McCain< missed an opportunity during the 2008 presidential election to save his “sinking Republican ticket” when he supported the Troubled Asset Relief Program (TARP) legislation, according to a new book on the Tea Party movement co-authored by former GOP leader Dick Armey that hits bookshelves today.
“It was, we believe, a unique opportunity for the sinking Republican ticket to revive its standing with the American people and distinguish itself from a discredited Republican establishment,” write Armey and co-author Matt Kibbe, the president of FreedomWorks, in “Give Us Liberty: A Tea Party Manifesto.”
TARP called for the government in 2008 to purchase $700 billion in assets from troubled financial institutions — legislation that is often referred to as the impetus for the modern day Tea Party movement.
“But that didn’t happen,” they write of the Republican span style="color: green;">presidential candidate<, “and the McCain campaign never recovered. Republicans were tarred with TARP, even though the entire Democratic leadership had carried the legislation, on their terms, to President Bush’s desk.”
Continuing, they write that, “It was an opportunity tailor-made for the Maverick to stand on good policy and political ground by taking on both Wall Street’s bad actors.”
A campaign spokesman for McCain — who is now running for re-election to the U.S. span style="color: green;">Senate< in Arizona — did not immediately return a request for comment.
