FactCheck: John McCain & Bipartisanship

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Mon Sep-08-08 07:54 AM
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FactCheck: John McCain & Bipartisanship

http://justmoreofthesame.com/fact_check

FACT CHECK: JOHN MCCAIN, BIPARTISANSHIP

FALSE MCCAIN ATTACK: “I’ve worked with members of both parties to fix problems that need to be fixed. That’s how I will govern as President. I will reach out my hand to anyone to help me get this country moving again. I have that record and the scars to prove it. Senator Obama does not.”

THE FACTS: SEE BELOW A FEW EXAMPLES OF OBAMA WORKING ACROSS THE AISLE TO MAKE CHANGE HAPPEN

* CQ: “Barack Obama Likes Republicans. And Republicans Appreciate Obama.” CQ reported, “Barack Obama likes Republicans. And Republicans appreciate Barack Obama.”

* Obama And Lugar Passed Law Boosting U.S. Efforts To Keep WMDs And Other Dangerous Weapons Out Of The Hands Of Terrorists. In 2006, Obama and Lugar introduced The Cooperative Proliferation Detection Act, which was passed by the Senate Foreign Relations Committee unanimously on May 26, 2006 and was eventually incorporated into the Department of State Authorities Act of 2006 and signed into law on January 11, 2007. According to a Senate Foreign Relations Committee report on its legislative activity in the 109th Congress, “The committee passed S. 2566, The Cooperative Proliferation Detection, Interdiction Assistance, and Conventional Threat Reduction Act of 2006 by unanimous consent on May 26, 2006. The legislation authored by Chairman Lugar and Senator Obama enhances: (1) U.S. cooperation with foreign governments to destroy conventional weapons stockpiles around the world; and (2) the United States’ ability to provide assistance to foreign governments aimed at helping them detect and interdict weapons and materials of mass destruction. The legislation, which garnered 26 co-sponsors (including 8 committee members), sought to energize U.S. programs to secure lightweight anti-aircraft missiles…The initiative was modeled after the Nunn-Lugar program that focuses on weapons of mass destruction in the former Soviet Union. The legislation was signed into law on January 11, 2007, as a part of H.R. 6060, the Department of State Authorities Act of 2006.”

* Lugar Said It Was Accurate That Said Obama Reached Out To Him And They Passed Legislation To Lock Down Loose Nuclear Weapons. “Republican Sen. Dick Lugar (IN) today said an Obama campaign ad which features him is ‘accurate.’ The ad makes the point the Obama previously ‘reached out’ to Lugar to ‘help lock down loose nuclear weapons.’ Lugar is widely considered one of the most knowledgeable in the area of nuclear weapons proliferation and the coauthored of the 1991 Nunn-Lugar Act on cooperative threat reduction. ‘He did’ reach out, Lugar said. He explained that in 2005, Obama asked if he could join Lugar on a trip to Russia and other countries to visit sites under the Nunn-Lugar program. ‘After that, we had legislation that we cosponsored together which passed’ dealing with dangerous missiles. ‘So I am pleased we had that opportunity to work together,’ Lugar said. ‘I’m pleased we had the association Sen. Obama describes.’ But Lugar made clear up front that while the ad was accurate, and he’s comfortable with the association, ‘There is no chance I will consider running with Barack Obama.’”

* Obama and Coburn Passed A Bill Creating A “Google-like” Database For The Public To Search Details About Federal Funding Awards. In 2006, Obama and Coburn co-authored a bill to create a “Google-like” database of information on federal spending. The bill requires the OMB by January 1, 2008, to make available to the public a searchable, free website that includes the (1) amount; (2) transaction type; (3) funding agency; (4) North American Industry Classification System code or Catalog of Federal Domestic Assistance number; (5) program source; (6) an award title descriptive of the purpose of each funding action; (7) the name and location of the recipient and the primary location of performance; and (8) a unique identifier of the recipient and any parent entity. The site must allow users to conduct separate searches that distinguish between awards that are grants, sub-grants, loans, cooperative agreements, and other forms of financial assistance and awards that are contracts, subcontracts, purchase orders, task orders, and delivery orders.

* Obama And Hatch Passed Legislation To Protect Individuals’ Rights To Continue Donating To Charities And Religious Organizations During Bankruptcy. In 2006, Obama was an original cosponsor of a bill that protected individuals’ rights to continue donating to charities and religious organizations during bankruptcy proceedings. The Hatch-Obama bill responded to a court ruling that above-medium income debtors in Chapter 13 bankruptcy could not deduct charitable contributions, including religious contributions, from their payment plans. The ruling was based on an interpretation of the Bankruptcy Abuse Prevention and Consumer Protection Act of 2005 (BAPCPA). Hatch and Obama authored S. 4044 to ensure that all individuals in bankruptcy, no matter their income, would be able to continue giving to charity and their church. The bill passed the senate by unanimous consent and was signed by the president.

* Obama Worked With Bond On Proposals Providing Improvements In Health Care For Recovering Soldiers Which Were Passed Into Law, Including Requirements For Post-Deployment Mental Health Screenings And National Study On The Needs Of Iraq War Veterans. H.R. 976, passed by the Senate on August 2, 2007, includes several provisions from bills originally sponsored by Senators Obama and McCaskill. The provisions would improve health care services and health care tracking for service members, and would require post-deployment, face to face mental health screenings for returning service members within 30 days. The bill also adopts other Obama-McCaskill legislation, the HERO Act, which would launch a major national research endeavor into the readjustment needs of returning service members, veterans and their families. The bill also included measures to improve and reform the disability rating process.

* Obama Passed Law To Create The Darfur Peace And Accountability Act Of 2006. Obama co-sponsored a bill that would impose sanctions against individuals responsible for genocide, war crimes, and crimes against humanity, to support measures for the protection of civilians and humanitarian operations, and to support peace efforts in the Darfur region of Sudan, and for other purposes. Gwen Ifill said, “Two senators from opposite sides of the aisle have joined together to call for increased U.S. involvement in Darfur. They are Sam Brownback, Republican of Kansas, and Barack Obama, Democrat of Illinois.” <109th, HR 3127 (S. 1462), Passed by Unanimous Consent, 9/21/06; PL 109-344, 10/13/06; Newshour with Jim Lehrer, PBS, Gwen Ifill, 2/16/06>

* Obama and Brownback Wrote Op-Ed Together, On Darfur. In an op-ed, Brownback and Obama wrote, “For two years the Bush administration has made commendable efforts to improve the lives of people in Darfur. Deputy Secretary of State Robert Zoellick has become personally invested in the crisis, recently completing his fourth trip to the region in the past seven months. The United States has spent almost $1 billion aiding refugees and displaced persons who might otherwise have died of disease or starvation. And the U.S. military has helped airlift and fund African Union troops stationed in the Darfur region of Sudan. Yet, despite American engagement, Darfur’s humanitarian, security and political conditions are deteriorating. If the United States does not change its approach to Darfur, an already grim situation is likely to spiral out of control… The Bush administration has helped reduce suffering in Darfur, but the situation is dangerously adrift. And when the history of this tragedy is written, nobody will remember how many times officials visited the region or how much humanitarian aid was delivered. They will only remember the death toll.”

* Obama Passed Near-Unanimous Death Penalty Overhaul Package. Obama was the chief co-sponsor and voted for bill creating the Capital Punishment Reform Study Committee Act. The proposal, which was approved on a 57-1 vote, was virtually identical to reforms pushed in 2002 by then-Gov. George Ryan. If passed by the House and signed into law by the governor, the bill would let judges rule out a death sentence for someone convicted solely on the testimony of a jailhouse informant, accomplice or single witness; let the state Supreme Court overturn a death sentence that was “fundamentally unjust.; Reduce the crimes eligible for the death penalty by focusing on “inherently violent” offenses; Expand defendants’ access to genetic evidence used against them; Ban police officers from the police force if they committed perjury in a murder case; and Require juries to consider a defendant’s history of abuse or mental illness when deciding whether to impose the death sentence. Obama said, “As far as the Bill goes, it doesn’t address whether the death penalty is applied fairly to all races and in all regions of the state. And it doesn’t appease those who want capital punishment eliminated.” <93rd GA, SB 0472; 4/3/03, 3R P; 57-1-0; 5/29/03, HA1 SC; 56-3-0; 11/5/03, OAV P; 58-0-0; P.A. 93-0605, 11/25/03; Pantagraph, 4/4/03; Associated Press, 4/24/03>

* AP: “Obama Teamed With Republican Legislators And Law Enforcement Groups” To Pass Death Penalty Reform And Racial Profiling Legislation. “Obama was able to pursue two issues that had been blocked for years – racial profiling by police and changes to the state’s death penalty system. Rather than writing his own versions of the bills and then using the party’s new power to pass them, Obama teamed with Republican legislators and law enforcement groups. Together, they worked out compromises. One required police to report on the race of the people they stopped for traffic violations. The other, part of a larger capital punishment overhaul, required police to videotape their interrogations in murder cases. ‘He was open to the concerns of the law enforcement community,’ said Laimutis ‘Limey’ Nargelenas, a lobbyist for the Illinois Association of Chiefs of Police. ‘All of us knew the Democrats had the House and the Senate and the governor’s office, so he could have rammed it through. But he was willing to work with us.’”

* Obama Passed Law Creating The Illinois Temporary Assistance For Needy Families Program, Which Passed Nearly Unanimously. Obama was a chief co-sponsor of the bill to create the state of Illinois’ Temporary Assistance for Needy Families program. The bill created flexibility for victims of domestic violence, set a five-year limit for receiving public assistance, banned anyone convicted of a serious drug-related Class X or Class 1 felony from ever receiving assistance, required that all recipients develop a personal plan for self-sufficiency, listing the steps they will take to move from welfare to work, exempted those over 60 and adults with children younger than 1. According to the State Journal-Register, “The bill pours more money into day-care spending…as a result, an estimated 90,000 families would be able to take advantage of the child care benefit, subject to legislative appropriation of necessary funds. That represents a six-fold increase from the current number… State Sen. Barack Obama, D-Chicago, called the bill a good start but urged members not to rule out future changes to the system. He said there is a need for a commission to oversee the changes and ensure the system is working properly.” <¬90th GA, HB 204, 3R P 56-1-1, 5/31/97, PA 90-0017, 6/19/97; State Journal Register, 6/1/97>

* Obama Worked With Republicans To Enact An Overhaul Of Welfare In Illinois And Was Thanked By Republicans During The Debate For His Long Hours Helping Them Improve The Bill. The AP wrote, “After federal officials agreed on an overhaul of the nation’s welfare system, Obama worked with Republicans to enact those changes in Illinois. During the debate, two GOP senators made a point of thanking Obama for his long hours of helping them improve the bill.”

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