“John McCain never met a war he didn’t like.”

This phrase was repeated several times during the recent election. Stories on The Hill blog and today’s Arizona Daily Star prove that slogan to be right. From The Hill:

Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) argued in an interview Sunday that the U.S. has not exacted enough pressure on North Korea and that the current tensions in the region may present an opportunity for regime change.

“I think it’s time we talked about regime change in North Korea,” he said, quickly adding that he did not mean “military action.”

Yeah, right, he’s not talking about “military action”. How else do you accomplish “regime change?” McCain goes on to chide China– a diplomat, he’s not.

“We’ve got to understand that China is not what we want it to be, but is not playing a responsible role on the world stage, much less on the Korean Peninsula,” McCain said. “They [China] could bring the North Korean economy to its knees if they wanted to. And I cannot believe that the Chinese should, in a mature fashion, not find it in their interest to restrain North Korea. So far, they are not.”

“We have to make adjustments to our policies,” he said of China, calling it the “key” to keeping peace.

China has called for the renewal of the six-party talks, which would involve the U.S., Japan, Russia, and North and South Korea.

Not to be outdone in the saber-rattling category, Arizona’s other senator, Jon Kyl, has been delaying the ratification of the New Start treaty with Russia– saying the Senate has “higher priorities” in this lame duck session than nuclear treaty.

What could be a higher priority than national security and the control of nuclear proliferation? Tax cuts for the rich, of course. From the Arizona Daily Star:

Kyl denied there was any partisanship behind his calls for a delay. He said the Senate has more urgent business to attend to in the weeks before it breaks for Christmas, including dealing with potential tax increases and funding the government through the rest of the budget year…

Without [ratification of the treat], as of next week the U.S. will have had no weapons inspectors in Russia to verify cuts in its nuclear arsenal since the last treaty expired in 2009.

This is politics as usual from Arizona’s 2 Senators. They’re not taking care of business; they’re grandstanding in the media to pump up the importance of their largest patron– the military industrial complex. When the Congress starts talking about budget cuts next year– if they can make the case for an evil scary world– they can protect the Pentagon budget.

I got an idea, Jon and John, if you really want to deal with the countries budget problems: 1) let the tax cuts sunset; 2) don’t start any new wars; 3) end the ongoing wars; 4) wage peace; 5) invest in the country’s future– rather than investing in destruction.

>Senate Republicans– including Arizona’s John McCain and Jon Kyl– have repeatedly blocked extension of unemployment benefits in recent weeks.

Since benefits started to expire in May, more than 1 million Americans have lost their unemployment benefits.

Ironically, the same people, who spent like drunken sailors and cut taxes for the rich (thus reducing the country’s revenue) during the Bush years, now use the we-must-live-within-our-means excuse when asked to support measures that will help working class Americans.

“The debate has little to do with economic reality and everything to do with political posturing,” according to the NY Times.

At the same time they were ignoring millions of jobless Americans, Republicans worked to preserve loopholes in the banking reform legislation that would benefit wealthy money mangers and stopped moves which would halt tax avoidance by some small businesses– thus ignoring 2 strategies that would nip away at the deficit.

The Republicans don’t care about reducing the deficit; they’re just using it as an excuse to say, “no” to Main Street Americans, while continuing to say “yes” to Wall Street.

The Congress has now left DC for an Independence Day break. Too bad McCain doesn’t have any campaign events planned for this weekend. It would have been a great opportunity for jobless Arizonans to ask him about his vote.