Is McCain the fervent deregulator that Democrats portray him to be?
Even McCain has portrayed himself in his public statements as a devotee of deregulation, though his record is not monolithic. Asked last week to point to cases where McCain was pro-regulation, top McCain economic aide Doug Holtz-Eakin cited McCain’s sponsorship of the bill to rein in Fannie and Freddie, his support for allowing the Food and Drug Administration to regulate tobacco, and his opposition to the Telecommunications Act of 1996 (McCain was the only Republican in the Senate to oppose it). McCain backed some bipartisan corporate reforms after the Enron scandal. “He has chosen to regulate where appropriate,” Holtz-Eakin said. On the other hand, McCain backed a moratorium on federal regulation in the 1990s. “I’m always for less regulation. But I am aware of the view that there is a need for government oversight,” McCain told the Wall Street Journal this year. “I am a fundamentally a deregulator.
