McCain Campaign Conference Call On John McCain's Jobs For America Economic Plan

"Today, Senator McCain has kicked off a week-long event that is focused on the number one issue facing American consumers and that's the economy." -- Meg Whitman

Today, U.S. Senator John McCain's presidential campaign held a press conference call with Meg Whitman, former eBay CEO, and Doug Holtz-Eakin, senior policy adviser, to discuss John McCain's Jobs for America economic plan:

Meg Whitman: "Today, Senator McCain has kicked off a week-long event that is focused on the number one issue facing American consumers and that's the economy. And at the town hall today, he first acknowledged how serious the economy challenges are for average Americans at the pump, at the grocery store, in the home mortgage crisis, and just general security about jobs and where this economy is headed. And then he presented a comprehensive program to get our economy back on track with a real focus on job creation with a focus on job creation in small business. As most of you on the call I'm sure know, 70% of new job growth creation in the U.S. every year is from small business. How do we help small business? And how do we have government stand by the side small business as opposed to stand in the way of small business to create jobs?

"And he first outlined his tax policy and how that would benefit small business, the 23 million small businesses that obviously file under the individual income rate. He talked about reducing the business tax rate from 35 to 25%, and then talked about tax incentives to really spur innovation around R&D and equipment and technology. He then talked about his energy policy and the energy policy is deeply linked to his overall economic policy because of course at the root of challenge is cost of oil and cost of energy, and reiterated some of the highlights from the Lexington Project last week. And then touched on health care and how really having health care as affordable, portable for a small business is so important. And then talked about the fiscal discipline, comprehensive spending controls that the federal government could use to get our fiscal house in order, and highlighted, as we have in the past, that the government is now 60% bigger than i t was even eight years ago, and we are going to have to make some tough choices and really get our spending under control."

Doug Holtz-Eakin: "If you look at the John McCain Jobs for America plan, what you see are striking initiatives that directly take on important issues in energy and controlling our energy future, health care and transforming the American health care sector, reforming Washington so that its responsive to genuine needs, and retaining our preeminence in international trade. All those issues, however important in their own right, he looks at through the lens of jobs, job creation. He builds his policies so that we get better health care, but we get it in a way that promotes the ability of small businesses to hire people and expand. We get an energy policy that addresses the needs for national security and our environmental objectives, but also so that we get rapid job creation in the United States. It's a comprehensive plan. It's one that has vision for the future and one that America desperately needs today."

Listen To The Full Conference Call.