RochesterConservative.com

By John Distaso
UnionLeader.com

MANCHESTER – On his third visit to New Hampshire in four months, John McCain yesterday defended his energy and tax cut plans, his votes on home heating assistance and said the United States is clearly winning the war in Iraq.

McCain, placed by two recent state polls in a dead heat with Barack Obama in this battleground state, said he would consider the viability of uncapping the long-closed Seabrook Unit 2 to determine if it may fit with his plan to open 45 nuclear reactors across the country by 2030 to help the nation become energy independent.

And with Obama overseas meeting leaders in the Middle East, McCain said “everybody knows” the U.S. military surge in Iraq has succeeded, except Obama.

We still have a long way to go but political, economic, judicial and other progress has been made,” McCain told the New Hampshire Union Leader. “That’s what Senator Obama either doesn’t know or doesn’t understand.”

McCain shrugged off Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki’s apparent endorsement of Obama’s plan to withdraw combat troops from Iraq by 2010.

Maliki told a German publication this week that U.S. forces should leave Iraq “as soon as possible, as far as we are concerned,” and added, “U.S. presidential candidate Barack Obama talks about 16 months. That, we think, would be the right timeframe for a withdrawal, with the possibility of slight changes.”

Obama, who has been gaining wide media attention, basked in that apparent endorsement. McCain was predictably unimpressed.

“Well, I’ve heard Maliki say a number of things,” McCain said, “but always when I’ve heard him, he said it’s still dictated by conditions on the ground.

“We’ve succeeded,” McCain said. “We’re winning. We can withdraw. But Senator Obama still fails to acknowledge that the surge has succeeded and he still wants to set an arbitrary timetable. So, certainly, Maliki stated in his comments that it’s dictated by conditions on the ground, and I’ll give him all the credit that he wants.

“Senator Obama said the surge would fail and still fails to acknowledge its success. Everybody knows it has succeeded,” McCain said. He said Obama “would rather lose a war than lose a political campaign.”

The withdrawal of troops “has to be, as the surge was, dictated by conditions on the ground,” said McCain, but, “by 2013, we will have largely withdrawn our troops from Iraq because we are winning the war.”

McCain said his energy plan includes aggressive drilling for oil and a push for a new generation of nuclear generating stations.

Could his plan include a look at the possibility of uncapping canceled plants, specifically Seabrook Unit 2?

“I’ve been told, and I’m not an expert on it, but I’ve been told that that may have some viability,” McCain said. “But I’d like to look at it some more.” He said he had not studied Seabrook closely enough “to know exactly what the viability is.”

McCain said that in town halls across the country, voters express concern about the economy, “and the most visible issue regarding the economy is the energy situation.” He said they “are angry at Congress and the (Bush) administration for not acting.”

He said that while voters want more off-shore drilling and nuclear power, Obama opposes those options, “so, he’s not part of the solution. He’s part of the problem.”

Democrats say oil companies should drill on 68 million domestic acres they already lease before more areas are opened to drilling.

“They are (drilling),” McCain said. “It’s a phony argument to say that they’re not exploiting the areas they have under lease. They need more and we should give them more.”

He said he would support another economic stimulus package if it is paid for and does not increase the federal deficit, but said his proposed federal “gas tax holiday” is a better idea.

“If you want to give $50 billion to the American people,” as Democratic House speaker Nancy Pelosi has proposed, “let’s cut the billions of dollars in pork barrel spending that we are seeing,” he said.

He said that while Obama has asked for $932 million in pork barrel projects, “I’ve never asked for a single one.”

Obama promises to raise taxes on the rich and cut taxes for middle-income Americans, but McCain said a close examination will show that Obama’s tax hikes “will reach down far into America’s economic levels, whether it be a tax on capital gains, which 100 million Americans have some involvement in, or whether it be the cap on Social Security taxes.

“It’s very clear that Senator Obama wants to increase people’s taxes and he wants to redistribute the wealth,” McCain said. “I want every American to get rich, and I want every American to have tax relief.”

He cited his plan to increase the dependent child federal tax deduction from $3,500 to $7,000 as “a very important step forward for American families.”

Federal subsidies for heating oil for low-income Americans have also been at the forefront in New Hampshire in the past several weeks.

Republican Sen. Judd Gregg would double national funding from $2.5 billion to $5 billion and pay for it by eliminating an energy industry subsidy. Democrats are calling for a tripling of funding to $9 billion without a payment method and have accused McCain of repeatedly opposing increases for the Low-Income Home Energy Assistance Program (LIHEAP).

“I have not opposed LIHEAP except when we don’t pay for it,” McCain said. “I have opposed many, many spending increases that are important, but I want them to find ways to pay for them.

“Of course I favor increases in LIHEAP or whatever is necessary to help people meet literally incredible challenges this winter. I have always supported whatever is necessary to help those who can’t care for themselves.” But he said with spending “out of control,” such programs should be paid for rather than add to the deficit.