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KANSAS CITY, Mo. – Although John McCain has called Social Security “a disgrace,” he still cashes his own retirement check every month.
“I’m receiving the benefits, the system is broken and, unfortunately, my children and grandchildren, according to the trustees of the Social Security system, will not have the same benefits the present retirees have,” McCain told reporters Thursday.
McCain’s 2007 tax return shows Social Security benefits of $23,157 for the year, an average of $1,929.75 a month.
People are not required to take Social Security payments, according to B.J. Jarrett, a Social Security spokesman.
“An individual does have the right to refuse his/her Social Security retirement benefit. However, Social Security is an entitlement program and an individual would essentially be forfeiting a benefit based upon contributions during his/her working lifetime,” Jarrett said.
John McCain launched a new TV ad Friday that accuses presidential rival Barack Obama of switching positions on Iraq “to help himself become president” just as the Democratic candidate prepared to make a high-profile trip to Baghdad.
McCain’s sharply worded criticism was not limited to the ad. He said Friday that Obama would be facing a far less secure Iraq “if we had done what he wanted to do.”
The 30-second ad is running on national cable and in 11 battleground states.
“Barack Obama never held a single Senate hearing on Afghanistan,” the ad’s announcer says. “He hasn’t been to Iraq in years. He voted against funding our troops. Positions that helped him win his nomination. Now Obama is changing to help himself become president.”
John McCain and Barack Obama vow to reform the nation’s defense procurement if elected president, yet each is unwilling to take a firm stand against the skyrocketing cost of a plum White House perk: the new Marine One helicopter.
Originally carrying a hefty price tag at $6.1 billion, the fleet of 28 helicopters being built to fly the next president is now projected to cost $11.2 billion.
At $400 million apiece, the helicopters far exceed a prime example McCain uses on the campaign trail to rail against congressional pork-barrel spending, a $230 million “bridge to nowhere” in Alaska. The British have bought the same base model helicopter for $57 million each.
In separate interviews with The Associated Press, the Republican and Democratic presidential candidates pledged to look at the program but stopped short of saying whether it should be canceled. Any review after January would butt up against the first deliveries of the helicopters, slated for 2010.
German Chancellor Angela Merkel will welcome Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama to her office in Berlin next Thursday, her spokesman said Friday.
Spokesman Ulrich Wilhelm said the meeting at the chancellery is expected to take place Thursday morning.
Obama’s stop in Berlin is part of a tour of the Mideast and Europe aimed at burnishing his foreign policy credentials.
Obama also is expected to deliver a speech in Berlin. It remains unclear where that event might take place.
