Why McCain opposes nationwide CAT fund

"I believe that the United States government is there to assist every citizen in this country in the event of a natural disaster. FEMA still has a long, long way to go," Sen. John McCain said at a Monday media-only press conference in Jacksonville at a private airport. "I think that's an appropriate role of the federal government....That's where I think the federal government responsibility extends. I know that various states have various agreements concerning various types of insurance. And I think that's the best way to do it. I'm a federalist, which means the states are the ones who make those decisions."

Comments

Let's see how McCain does now that Independants can't vote in the Republican Primary...

My hope is that we will say Adios to McCain and his pro-amnesty!

According to most polls, McCain will win Florida, California, New Jersey, etc. until he wins the Presidency. Check out the polls at:

http://www.realclearpolitics.com/epolls/2008/president/fl/florida_republican_primary-260.html

John McAmnesty was willing to bail out 12 million illegal immigrants, why would he be opposed to bailing out Florida homeowners?

I will not vote or lift a finger for McCain. I refuse to vote for people simply beacuse they have an R by their name.

mccain is a consistent conservative.

this is another example.

rudy and mittster will pander all day long, instead of speakng the truth.

Why Liberal Florida Newspapers are endorsing John McCain:

The Gainesville paper's endorsement praised McCain's advocacy of campaign finance reform, refusal to condone torture, opposition to the Bush administration's tax and support of a carbon cap-and-trade system. The Sun was most laudatory of McCain's immigration stance.

McCain opposes this national cat fund because it blends high risk states with low risk states and forces low risk states to pay for others poor decisions.

I dont agree with McCain on everything but this is smart fiscal policy.

Good for McCain.

Go Baxley

Lets clarify - all Florida newspapers so far are endorsing McCain. No other candidate has earned their endorsement.

Tampa Tribune (endorsed GWB/Jeb)
Orlando Sentinel (endorsed GWB/Jeb)
Bradenton Herald
Pensacola News Journal
Daytona Beach News Journal
Palm Beach Post
Gainesville Sun

So 4:38, what is smart fiscal policy about giving illegal immigrants trillions of dollars in entitlement programs, as McCain proposed under his failed immigration plan?

I like the fact that McCain is honest.

Willard Mitt Romney seems like a con man, always hiding something.

4:35 ARE YOU KIDDING ME?

McCain is so far from a Conservative. He voted againts tax cuts. He joined Kennedy and Martinez in crafting this summer's Amnesty Bill which the American People stop by shutting down the Congressional Calling Board. And, must we forget McCain Fiengold.

Not to mention Government intervention in Global Warming.

He is trying hard to keep his sheep costume on...

This man may be a Republican but he is NO Conservative.

Mike Huckabee has a extremely critical and negative push poll going into Fl against Mitt Romney.

He must be desparate; the calls are not only misleading they are outright lies.

Huckabees record is liberal and if this is the only measure he can use he should pack it in. The poll was appalling.

Calling from from Herndon VA robo calls

I agree with 441pm - Mitt has a very used car salesman quality to him.

None of those newspapers endorsed George W. Bush's reelection, nor did they endorse Jeb Bush's reelection.

Liberal newspaper endorsements are just another indication that John McCain is the choice of liberals and Democrats.

They only states McCain has won are those who allow independants to vote in the primaries.

Fingers crossed that Mitt pulls off the election here in FL.

Mitt is way too polished... slimy feeling.

4:42p - Tampa Tribune and Orlando Sentinel did endorse Jeb and GWB.

A Car Salesman is better than a Washington insider who has been in Congress for 20+ years and the only thing he has to show for it is liberal policy.

Mitt didn't seem so polished when he was yelling at that guy in a wheel chair who pressed him on some of his flip flops.

[fact]

Yes, I agree. McCain has been the most consistent conservative in the race.

When Guiliani was endorsing Mario Cuomo and Mitt was as liberal on social issues as Ted Kennedy, John McCain was defending Reagan's conservative policies!

[Mac is Back]

If you call reducing government spending, building a strong military, and a pro-life record liberal then you are lost. You clearly don't have a clue what core conservative issues are.

John McCain sure isn't defending Reagan's policies now.

Barack Obama is doing a better job of it than McCain is.

4:42 - the Tampa Tribune did not endorse GWB for re-election. Get your facts straight.

4:47 - What about pro-stem cell research, pro-illegals and amnesty, and pro-limiting the first amendment through McCain Fiengold?

Those certainly aren't conservative views.

McCain may have some issues right but others he is dead wrong on and unwilling to lead on.

None of our options are solidly conservative.

That "straight talk" is going to send him straight back to the Senate Office Building. It certainly worked in Michigan.

4:51 - Not just stem cell research but EMBROYNIC stem cell research from aborted babies. Doesn't sound pro-life to me.

Mac Is Back, is amnesty for illegal immigrants, as John McCain fought for, a core conservative issue?

Is John McCain's opposition to tax cuts and his class warfare rhetoric in opposing those tax cuts?

McCain ran as a liberal Republican in 2000, spent the past eight years fighting conservatives in congress, as is now trying to remake himself as a Reagan Republican. John McCain and his mindless followers say one thing, his record say another.

Amen 4:55

So, instead of having a CAT fund or having any sort of planning for catastrophic events, McCain is saying that the best thing for the U.S. is to continue to write blank checks on our children's future?

We don't inherit the earth from our forefathers, we borrow it from our children.

4:36 anyone who condemns torture, as far as I am concerned, is a true American. I cannot imagine how it is possible that anyone with any grasp of the principles of life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness and other pillars of Americanism can POSSIBLE find any fault with someone who condemns torture.

John McCain condemns torture. Why? Two reasons:
1) It is indecent and un-american;
2) It was done to him and he understands that if you do it to others, it will more likely be done to you.

McCAIN FOR PRESIDENT!

4:40 and others (if there are any) GET OFF THE ILLEGAL ALIEN KICK you sound like broken record. They come here for jobs. If there weren't any, they would leave. They stay because they get hired. They get hired because there is a need for their labor. If they were gone, we would have shortage of labor. That would drive our economy down and the prices of everything up. Get it now?

We owe our children a strong economy and a nation they too can be proud off. How do you accomplish that by depressing our economy by driving away 12 million workers and torturing people?

5:21, just because you repeat it over and over again doesn't make it true. Illegal immigrants take jobs from willing american workers, and they cost us more in subsidies and entitlements than they contribute to our economy. Besides, even if your economic theories were correct, are you saying John McCain is willing to break the law and allow illegal immigrants to stay, so long as it helps our economy?

McCain is a tax-cutter.

Ask Jack Kemp! He knows a few things about the subject.

[good lord]

Mitt is trying his hardest to pander to every FLA voter.

Here is his attempt at "Who Let The Dogs Out"...

http://abcnews.go.com/Video/playerIndex?id=4165598&affil=wplg

[Mitt's best friend...]

From Time magazine:

"Romney strapped a dog carrier — with the family dog Seamus, an Irish Setter, in it — to the roof of the family station wagon for a twelve hour drive from Boston to Ontario, which the family apparently completed, despite Seamus's rather visceral protest... dog excrement found on the roof and windows of the Romney station wagon."

"Romney coolly pulled off the highway and into a service station. There, he borrowed a hose, washed down Seamus and the car, then hopped back onto the highway."

Well, I am a McCain supporter, but I must say, he can kiss good-bye any endorsement from Charlie Crist.

He just lost himself about 5 election points. Thursday is going to be brutal.

Maybe McCain should research the flow of money within insurance companies and their state-specific subsidiaries... like Allstate and then Allstate Florida. What happens during good years - kinda like when Florida insurers saw profits of 3.8 billion in 07? Where do those profits go? And when there is a bad year, the nationals wash their hands and have Florida Gov't bail them out...

I agree, McCain should have just said, "I'll study the issue..." But now his big fat mouth has got him in trouble, once again.

Johnny, please get a competent staff. You are not being served well.

He has opened the door to Giuliani to nail him in Thursday's debate.

At least John McCain is telling it like it is, the truth.

Other candidates are making promises and positions that they have no power to deliver.

Look at Romney in Michigan. Promising to get auto jobs back. Look at Rudy on his position on a National Cat. fund for natural disaster like hurricanes.

Exactly how is Rudy, going to get this passed in Congress. The last time I looked, each state had 2 Senators & 2 votes. How will he convince non-costal states to support this. THE TRUTH IS, IT'S NOT GOING TO HAPPEN.

Romney & Rudy need to stop pandering with "false promises"

For agreeing to let the state reinsure them for big loses, insurance companies should have been required to pay 50% of their profits in a good year to the Citizen's fund...

Romney is not the right candidate for this country. He is fake and gets angry at any disagreement. Upset because he's a mormon, upset because lobbyists are part of his campaign and it's pointed out, upset upset upset.

[Publius, the anti-Ceasar.]

The First Amendment to the Constitution is not Progressive. It gives greater weight to the right of the individual to speak, to write, and to associate than to any collective purpose the government might have in suppressing speech. That right includes inevitably a right to spend money to speak, to write, and to associate. Without the right to spend, the other rights would have no concrete meaning.

In contrast, Progressives see speech as a means to a collective good -- improved public debate -- attained by government restrictions on individual liberty. In this view, free speech and free spending are mere self-interest or selfishness, vices to be overcome by benevolent censors.

For McCain, such self-interest should be sacrificed to the higher cause of "clean government." Hence, McCain's infamous statement on Don Imus's radio show: "I would rather have a clean government than one where quote First Amendment rights are being respected, that has become corrupt. If I had my choice, I'd rather have the clean government

[flip and flop]

does anyone know which side of the issue that Mitt is taking today?

what about tomorrow??

I'm delighted to see that the fringe right wing wants to write-off indpendents. The message: you don't matter; we only care about what we want.

By dissing the Indys you are in fact trying to make this election a base election like 2000, 2004, and 2006. Republicans will surely lose in 2008 if that happens.

We need someone who can reach out to the middle and carry us in November.

Either we will or the Dems will.

[read romney's record]

Who knows what Mitt believes??

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a9IJUkYUbvI

A lot of scared Rudy and McCain supporters posting anti-Mitt stuff on here. Could it be because Mitt is winning Florida according to the latest poll by a credible national organization?

Mitt and Rudy can try to run from their records...

Why don't they run on them?? Because their records are Liberal to the core.

Polls change as much as romney's policy positions

Facts are stubborn

Willard mitt romney will have to face the ugly facts soon

Mitt's record? Depends on the day of the week.

flip-flop ... flip-flop ... flip-flop

Say what you want about Mitt but he's gotten more votes from Republicans than ANY OTHER presidential candidate so far.

I sense that the recent new activity on the Buzz is due to out of state paid blog staff - hey guys, your propoganda doesn't sell on this blog - go peddle it elsewhere

Mitt spent more money than ANY OTHER candidate.

He's wasted the money that his eight great-grandmothers passed down to him.

Actually most polls have McCain leading. You can check it at RealClearPolitics.

Plus that last Rasmussen poll was conducted with nearly 3/4 polled before McCain won South Carolina.

New SurveyUSA poll has McCain up 5% over Rudy. Poll was just done on 01/20/08.

http://www.surveyusa.com/client/PollReport.aspx?g=4f0c993c-0669-4011-93c1-097cfdf1e0d4

All early voting exit polls show that Giuliani is way, way out in front. His strategy is working.

I'm relatively new to Florida - been living here just under two years. As a relative "outsider", let me say that the idea of a national Cat fund is absolutely laughable. I grew up in Wisconsin, which has no hurricanes, no earthquakes, and (almost) no wildfires or floods. Just a few spring tornadoes every year. Why should the people in Wisconsin pay into some fund that benefits only those living thousands of miles away?

If you want to live here in paradise, be willing to pay for it. Don't expect the rest of the country to subsidize your existence. Form relationships with other states that have similar issues (CA, LA, MS, AL) and solve the problem yourselves. Or move. I hear Tennessee is nice.

A national CAT fund has merit. It would be part of FEMA.

Or everybody here could go without insurance & wait for FEMA aid after hurricane. What's the difference?

"I do not support a national cat fund. We have that policy. It's called FEMA"-John McCain

Wow, I really want to entrust my property and livelihood in FEMA's hands...

[Dan]

You guys in Florida are always trying to get rust belt states to pay for your hurricane damage. Suck it up and act like the conservatives you claim to be and take care of your own problems.