Sen. John McCain says voters will have the final say in the opposing positions of Republicans and Democrats in the wake of the supercommittee’s budget failure.
“I’m afraid that the philosophical differences between the two parties may have to be decided next November,” the Arizona Republican said on “Fox & Friends” today.
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McCain’s observation came during a discussion of President Barack Obama’s promise to veto any efforts to stop defense cuts triggered with the congressional panel’s failure to reach an agreement to cut $1.2 trillion from the nation’s debt.
McCain warned that the president should not disregard the recommendations of the military generals and Defense Secretary Leon Panetta, who have said that the $600 billion in defense cuts would be devastating. The Wall Street Journal has reported that those cuts might amount to $1 trillion over the next 10 years.
Defense spending is already being cut, McCain said, with $460 billion in cuts planned over the next decade.
“We are reducing defense spending and we’re doing it rather dramatically.”
The Republican party’s 2008 presidential nominee, who was elected to a fifth Senate term in 2010, said he favors scrapping the tax code and replacing it with just three tax brackets and two deductions — the mortgage deduction and a deduction for donations to charity.
“Find an American who wouldn’t agree with that,” he said.
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