Town Hall Debate - Legislative Priorities: What are your ...

SEN. MCCAIN: That was --

MR. BROKAW: Senator McCain.

SEN. MCCAIN: The three priorities were health --

MR. BROKAW: The three, health -- health care, energy, and

entitlement reform -- Social Security and Medicare. In what order

will you put them in terms of priorities?

SEN. MCCAIN: I -- I think you can work on all three at once,

Tom. I think it's very important that we reform our entitlement

programs. My friends, we are not going to be able to provide the same

benefit for present-day workers that we are going -- that present-day

retirees have today.

We're going to have to sit down across the table, Republican and

Democrat, as (he ?) did in 1983 between Ronald Reagan and Tip O'Neill.

I know how to do that. I have a clear record of reaching across the

aisle, whether it be Joe Lieberman or Russ Feingold or Ted Kennedy or

others. That's -- that's my clear record.

We can -- we can work on nuclear power plants, build a whole

bunch of them, create millions of new jobs. We -- we have to have all

of the above -- alternate -- alternative fuels, wind, tide, solar,

natural gas, clean coal technology. All of these things we can do as

Americans, and we can take on this mission, and we can overcome it.

My friends, some of this $700 billion ends up in the hands of

terrorist organizations.

As far as health care is concerned, obviously everyone is

struggling to make sure that they can afford their premiums and that

they can have affordable and available health care. That's the next

issue.

But we can do them all at once. There's no -- and we have to do

them all at once. All three you