CQ Transcripts Wire
Monday, September 22, 2008; 2:41 PM

SPEAKER: SEN. JOHN MCCAIN, R-ARIZ.

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MCCAIN: Thank you very much. Thank you so much. Thank you all for being here this morning. That's a great welcome. And I'd like to also say as all of you know, he's here, our friend our colleague and great senator from Pennsylvania, Arlen Specter is here. I know that Arlen is here. Thank you, Arlen. Great senator, great lawmaker. And I also found a couple more. That great Irish senator from the state of Connecticut, Joe Lieberman.

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At least he claims it. A lot of us do. And also senator from South Carolina, Lindsay Graham, who is a good friend, good friend also.

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I want to thank you Shamus Boyle, a great job he does as president of this organization. Ned McGinley, Joe Roach, Danny O'Connell, Neil (INAUDIBLE) and Jack O'Connell. Its seems every name has an 'O' in the beginning of the ...

So, I want to say and I hope the entire team from the office is here today with us. Looking forward to meeting Dwight Shrewd. I wanted to make him my running mate before I decided on Sarah Palin. Great, great, great person.

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You know, I don't know why it is that -- and I'm sure you know, but I still don't know why it is. There's only one ethnic joke can be told in politics and that's Irish jokes. And I don't know why that is. But it's just is the case. So, here's the joke.

There's a bar in Philadelphia, empty. One guy down at either end of the bar. Finally, one guy get up, goes down, sits next to the guy next to him in the bar and says, where are you from? He says, I'm from Ireland. He says, really? He says, I'm from Ireland, too. He says, oh, let me buy you a drink. He says no, let me buy you a drink. Buying each other drinks back and forth. The guy says, well where you from in Ireland? He says, I'm from Dublin. He says, no. He said, I'm from Dublin, too. Really? Back and forth. Finally, the guy says, where did you go to high school? He said, I went to St. Mary's. He said you couldn't have gone to St. Mary's. He said, I went to St. Mary's. Wow. Buying each other drinks, a lot of commotion. A guy walks in the bar, sees all the commotion down there and says to the bartender, he says, what's going on down there? The bartender said, it's just the O'Reilly twins getting drunk again.

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And before I go much further I'd to also like to point out what we know and that is the contribution of Irish-Americans in literally every war this nation has been engaged in.

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And I see here with me these guys with hats on. And could I ask our veterans to stand and so we can say thank you for all your service. Thank you. Thank you for being here. Thank you. We're honored. We're honored.

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When you look at the contributions that Irish-Americans have made in every war, including the one we're in today, it's remarkable. It's remarkable. And it's a great and proud heritage. And I want to talk to you about a couple of issues today. And first I'd like to say, thank you for honoring me, the Irish-American presidential forum has been held since 1984. And since its inception, there has been a lack of Republicans. While my affections for Democrats and Independent is deep and wide, I'm proud to be the first Republican to appear before the forum.

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And you're very kind to invite someone with a name like McCain, a Scotch-Irish descendent, whose family came to the New World a number of generations ago. My wife's maiden name is Hensley, by the way. But, anyway, I try to get back to Ireland, as often as possible.

And I's like to begin by talking to you about some of the issues that are concern to Irish-Americans. But, before I do, I's like to take a couple of minutes to talk about an issue that concerns us all. And that's the economic crisis we've all been following. On Friday, I laid out a plan for addressing this crisis. At its heart, my plan is about keeping people in their homes and safeguarding the life savings of all Americans by protecting our financial system in capital markets. Those are priorities. Keep people in their homes and protect their savings. We must do that.

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Senator Obama has declined to put forth a plan of his own in a time of crisis when leadership is needed. Senator Obama has simply not provided it. And the truth is that we don't have time to wait for Senator Obama's input for our nation to act. I think it's clear that Congress must act and act quickly. I laid out my plan and my priorities last Friday. I spoke to Secretary Paulson about it over the weekend. And I've been looking at the plan that the administration has put forth. I urge Congress to study this proposal carefully as they consider the remedy for this crisis.

As for me, I'm greatly concerned about the plan that gives a single individual the unprecedented power to spend one trillion dollars without any meaningful accountability. Never before in the history of our nation has so much power and money been concentrated in the hands of one person. A person I admire and respect a great deal, Secretary Paulson. This arrangement makes me deeply uncomfortable. And when we're talking about a trillion dollars of taxpayer money, "trust me" just didn't good enough. We'll not ...

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We won't solve a problem caused by poor oversight with a plan that has no oversight. And part of the reason we're facing in crisis is an antiquated regulatory system of uncoordinated agencies that just haven't been doing their job.

I believe we need a high level of oversight board to impose accountability and establish concrete criteria for who gets help and who doesn't. They must ensure that throughout this crisis, the government is a careful steward of the taxpayers' dollars.

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This oversight board should be bipartisan and have qualified citizens who have no agenda but the protection of taxpayers in the financial markets. People like Warren Buffet, who supports my opponent. Governor Mitt Romney, or maybe Michael Bloomberg, an Independent, to oversee this. The firms we help need accountability, too. We can't have taxpayers footing the bill for bloated golden parachutes like see in the Lehman Brothers bankruptcy with the top executives ...

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My friends, the top executives are asking for $2.5 billion in bonuses after they ran the company into the ground. The senior executives of any firm that's bailed out by the Treasury should not be making more money than the highest paid government official. We should have that criteria.

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And let's have some transparency in this process. Let's have transparency. The American people have the right to know which firms will be helped, what selection will be based on and how much that help will cost. The details of the process and the transaction itself should be made available online for public scrutiny.

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And as Congress examines this package, I would encourage all members to set aside the pressures of Washington and Wall Street. As we determine what to do, we need to put our country first and focus what's best for mainstream. It's the excess and greed of Washington and Wall Street that got us in this situation to start with. We must help keep people in their homes. We must protect American savings and we must keep students with loans in school.

What we need ...

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... what we need in any reform is accountability for Wall Street, accountability for government, and a commitment to protecting peoples' homes and life savings and restoring our financial markets. Times are tough. Times are tough for our economy, and I expect more tough economic news before the election.

My commitment to the American people is to fix the Wall Street mess, reform Washington, and most importantly, enact a pro-growth agenda to create jobs for Americans and get this country back on track. That's what I promise you.

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Now there's a couple of things we could learn from the Irish in that regard. A commitment to low business taxes and free trade has made it the home of choices for businesses around Europe and the world. I believe that both these policies are important examples. And if I'm elected president, my agenda will include increasing trade between the United States and Ireland, along with a successfully completed recent discussions on visas for the benefits of all of our citizens.

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Finally, let me say that if you look around the world today, it's easy to see problems and challenges almost everywhere. Our country is in the midst of two wars. Our economy is in turmoil. A number of regions around the globe are unstable or unfriendly. You saw the blowing up of the Marriott Hotel in Islamabad just in the last couple of days. But events in other places are inspirational, and that's certainly true of Northern Ireland. Many of those who saw decades of fighting in that proud and beautiful land thought that the day might never come when talk took the place of tanks and ballots the place of bullets. That day is gone in Northern Ireland, and we're all, Irish and American alike, better off for it.

And so ...

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... when in May of last year the world saw images of a devolved government in Belfast restored under the leadership of Ian Paisley and Mark McGinnis it captured a political courage the previous generation could scarcely have imagine. Now there remains hard work ahead.

As you know, there is still a big problem about the police and the administration of justice. We know that that's the last hurdle, though, really the last major hurdle. I am remaining committed to do everything I can to get us through that last hurdle. It is an honor ...

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... it's an honor for the United States to be trusted as an honest broker by both parties to the Good Friday Agreement. If I'm elected president I'll continue America's leadership role. I am committed, as I know the American people are committed, to furthering the bonds of cooperation that have been forged in Northern Ireland's peace process. As a demonstration of the commitment, I will continue the practice begun by President Clinton of appointing a U.S. special envoy for Northern Ireland.

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I know that Senator Obama has questioned whether that appointment is need. I would urge him to reconsider. I want to assure you that if I'm elected president there will be no weakening in America's commitment to peace in Northern Ireland, and I'll maintain the special U.S. envoy. The people of Northern Ireland want the same things that we as Americans want ... the opportunity to build a better life for themselves and their children.

I'd like to talk about one more issue with you that has been important to the people in this audience and this leadership of our Irish/American organizations throughout America, and that's the issue of immigration. My friends, I just want to remind you of a bit of history. I knew that if I took on the issue of illegal immigration it was going to hurt me in my own party because I knew that I had to reach across the aisle to Ted Kennedy, and we had to work together for comprehensive immigration reform because we cannot have a continuing situation where there are 12 million people in this country illegally in broken borders. But we also have to have a temporary worker program.

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So -- so we came up with a comprehensive plan, and we worked, and we worked, and we brought it to the floor of the Senate twice. And we came very close. And it didn't make me the most popular member of my own party. And it almost cost me the nomination of my party. But I believe we have to have a commitment because it's a national security issue as well as economic issue as well as a humanitarian issue that we enact comprehensive immigration reform. The three major parts of that ...

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... the three major parts of that are having our borders secured. And we must secure our borders not just from illegal immigration ...

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... but also because we have to stop the flow of illegal drugs that are flowing across our southern border as well.

END