Just saw this story and I know that there has been a lot of deregulation from energy to financial sectors and more over the last couple of decades, I am curious where he has stood based on his voting record.
If the question is too broad, just financial deregulation.
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/mccain
Thanks!
AD
http://thinkprogress.org/wonkroom/2008/06/04/downward-spiral-health-insurance/
The Repubs have wanted the foot of regulation taken off the neck of industry since Reagan. They whittled away at it since. They succeeded.
I am glad they did not privatize Social Security. That is a huge plum to loot.
http://www.politicor.com/uncategorized/john-mccain-deregulation-hawk-criminal/
\ Heres another site on McCain and deregging. The thieves are allowed to run business in a black box that nobody can penetrate.
I do know that John McCain voted against telecom deregulation in 1996.
New York Times:
While Mr. McCain has cited the need for additional oversight when it comes to specific situations, like the mortgage problems behind the current shocks on Wall Street, he has consistently characterized himself as fundamentally a deregulator and he has no history prior to the presidential campaign of advocating steps to tighten standards on investment firms. …
In early 1995, after Republicans had taken control of Congress, Mr. McCain promoted a moratorium on federal regulations of all kinds. He was quoted as saying that excessive regulations were “destroying the American family, the American dream” and voters “want these regulations stopped.” The moratorium measure was unsuccessful.
“I’m always for less regulation,” he told The Wall Street Journal last March, “but I am aware of the view that there is a need for government oversight” in situations like the subprime lending crisis, the problem that has cascaded through Wall Street this year. He concluded, “but I am fundamentally a deregulator.”
One of his key advisors, Phil Gramm, is a longtime opponent of financial regulation.
Oh, and here’s some political background from the NYT article:
One reason for both men’s sketchy records on financial issues is that neither has been a member of the Senate Banking Committee, which has oversight of the industry and its regulators. Under both parties’ leadership, the committee often has been a graveyard for proposals opposed by lobbyists for financial institutions, including Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, which last week were forced into government conservatorships.
Industry lobbyists’ success in killing such regulations meant senators outside the banking panel did not have to take a stand on them.
Incidentally, the current mess was anticipated by some: the late Edward Gramlich among others called for tougher regulation but Fed Chairman Alan Greenspan shot him down.
Greenspan is a competent and sensible man. But he has conservative and anti-regulatory proclivities. In a political environment less doe-eyed about unregulated markets, Gramlich’s concerns may have been heeded.
There was another banking crisis during the 1980s. It was called the S&L crisis: McCain was a member of the Keating Five, who “were accused of improperly aiding Charles H. Keating, Jr., chairman of the failed Lincoln Savings and Loan Association, which was the target of an investigation by the Federal Home Loan Bank Board (FHLBB).” More:
Still more: http://www.azcentral.com/news/specials/mccain/articles/0301mccainbio-chapter7.html
Today’s WAPO: McCain Embraces Regulation After Many Years of Opposition.
Examples:
Voted for 1999 Gramm-Leach-Bliley deregulation of banking, permitting insurance companies like AIG to broaden their activities.
Introduced 2002 bill to deregulate broadband.
But he supported Sarbanes-Oxley which tightened accounting standards, though in 2007 he said that he regretted that vote. Likewise he famously supported tobacco company regulation, during part of his career.
In 1996, “he was one of only five senators to oppose a comprehensive telecommunications act, saying it did not go far enough in deregulating the industry.”