Stretching with Biden

McCain: I have always been committed to the principle that it is not the duty of government to bail out and reward those who act irresponsibly, whether they are big banks or small borrowers. Government assistance to the banking system should be based solely on preventing systemic risk that would endanger the entire financial system and the economy.

But six months later, McCain softened his language. Essentially, he supports bailing out unsuspecting borrowers and punishing the irresponsible ones (lenders, too). Biden leaves some important phrasing out of his quote from the Sept. 5 statement posted on McCain's campaign Web site:

McCain: As I promised last night, I will fight for those that lost their jobs, savings, and real estate investments. Some Americans have been left behind in the changing economy, and it often seems your government hasn't even noticed.

The Web site also includes this statement on McCain's approach to helping those with mortgages: "No taxpayer money should bail out real estate speculators or financial market participants who failed to perform due diligence in assessing credit risks. Any assistance for borrowers should be focused solely on homeowners and any government assistance to the banking system should be based solely on preventing systemic risk."

Too Generous to GIs?
McCain has made his military service record a cornerstone of his campaign. So this attack from Biden had a loud bark, but we find that the factual bite is not quite as strong:

Biden: When George Bush initially opposed a new GI bill that would send a new generation of veterans to college, John McCain stood with him, calling Senator Webb's effort too generous.

But McCain never actually said the bill was "too generous." A June report from Congressional Quarterly used the phrase to characterize his and Pentagon officials' position:

CQ (June 21): GOP Sen. John McCain of Arizona, his party's presumed presidential nominee, has endorsed a less costly plan that he says is more in line with the thinking in the Pentagon, where officials worry that a too-generous aid program will harm long-term retention rates in the armed forces. But Republicans and the White House cast that plan aside last week in holding up their end of the deal to get through the supplemental war-funding bill.

It's true McCain actively worked against Virginia Democrat Jim Webb's proposed GI Bill. And it's true McCain supported a less-costly Republican version of the bill. A compromise eventually led to a modified version of Webb's proposal being folded into the fiscal 2008 supplemental spending bill, which was eventually signed into law. McCain did not vote on that bill. According to McCain spokesman Robert Fischer, McCain supported the compromise but was not present for the vote.

McCain may indeed have worried that making GI benefits too attractive could depress retention rates. But we've found no evidence that he used the words "too generous," which implies that he didn't think veterans deserved to be rewarded for their service. In addition, his office issued a press release voicing a different concern with Webb's bill: