The Bush League of Nations Blog

“McCain is not McAbel.”

For more than 25 years, John McCain has taken a 100%-tax-free disability military pension—now more than $58,000 tax-free per year. The present value of this stream of payments is about $2 million.

Based on McCain’s income tax bracket, the pension is currently worth more than $75,000 annually on a pre-tax basis, which is more than 50% greater than the total annual income of average Americans Joe and Judy Lunchpail. McCain is not required to report these payments on his income tax returns.

To be clear, because McCain served more than 20 years in the U.S. Navy, he is entitled to a retirement pension. He earned it. However, the conversion of his pension into a 100%-tax-free disability pension raises questions about the man who frequently rails against the federal government.

McCain currently triple dips at the federal public trough he criticizes. In addition to his tax-free disability pension, he also receives Social Security benefits as a senior American, and a $169,300 salary and full cushy benefits as a U.S. Senator. If we count the additional crony benefits McCain receives as a well-connected career politician, he is in fact a rare "quadruple dipper."

On Friday, April 18, 2008, the McCain campaign reluctantly disclosed that he accepted the 100%-tax-free disability pension when he retired from the U.S. Navy in 1981, about eight years after his return from Vietnam.

Such a revelation would be fatal to any Democratic candidate running for president, but not John McCain. Fortunately, he is protected by America’s Big Media, which over the years have invested too much in the creation and careful nurturing of the “McCain Myth” to start being fair and balanced now, or to even ask questions.

On April 22, 2008, the LA Times reported on McCain’s disability pension in rather ho-hum fashion, and the rest of America’s Big Media viewed the bombshell as no more newsworthy than a minor fender bender.

An important clarification is warranted. Although some bloggers referred to McCain as 100% disabled, the “100%” in the LA Times article refers to the portion of McCain’s benefit that is tax free, not to his disability percentage. The two percentages are likely to be quite different.

We don’t know what disability percentage McCain received, as he has not disclosed this. It would be astounding if it were 100% or anything close to it, say anything over 50%.

McCain is obviously not 100% physically disabled. He is only a small fraction, perhaps one-fifth, as disabled as countless American heroes who have returned home as casualties of the GOP’s endless war on Iraq and America.

After returning in 1973 from his imprisonment and torture in North Vietnam, McCain went though extensive rehabilitation and was sufficiently fit to regain flight status and serve in the U.S. Navy for several more years, until 1981, when he retired with disability.

He then was fit enough to serve for more than 25 years in the U.S. Congress.

He has been fit enough over the years to have countless hundreds of meetings with well-heeled lobbyists, and to accept from them countless millions of dollars in campaign contributions.

McCain’s doctors say nothing to suggest he is physically unfit to be president. His campaign managers portray him as a robust man, even able to hike the Grand Canyon “rim to rim” in 2006.

McCain was fit enough to commit adultery, to divorce his first wife (who had suffered severe injuries in an automobile accident when he was a prisoner of war), and then—before the ink was dry on the divorce decree—to marry his second wife, who by chance had a fortune estimated at $100 million. One year later McCain accepted his 100% tax-free disability pension—welfare for the wealthy.

McCain’s behavior regarding his 100% tax-free disability pension raises several questions—ignored by America’s Big Media—that relate to McCain’s integrity, judgment, morality, and fitness for public office.

1. Was the Navy’s disability program gamed to award extra undeserved benefits to McCain, whose father and paternal grandfather were both famous four-star Navy admirals?

2. When will the American public see the records regarding the awarding of McCain’s pension?

3. What disability percentage was McCain given?

4. Does McCain’s disability consist of both physical and mental disabilities? If his total disability percentage is anything close to 100%, his physical disabilities should make up only part of it, leaving the lion’s share for mental disabilities.

5. More specifically, does McCain suffer from post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and other psychological disorders resulting from his more than 5 years in captivity? What else better explains his anger and proclivity for war?

6. Why does McCain—who received the best medical care and benefits when he was in the military, and who is one of the most self-righteous “mavericks” and self-styled “straight shooters” in the history of the U.S. Senate—repeatedly vote against giving his brothers and sisters in arms the full medical care and benefits they deserve and need?

[Hint: The words “greed,” “hypocrite,” “public trough con,” “welfare for the wealthy,” and “not his brother’s keeper” should appear prominently in your answer.]

PTSD is suffered by a disturbingly high percentage of America’s finest who served in Iraq and Afghanistan.

Yet McCain, who takes care of himself, does so little to help them. But no one should be surprised—after all, a man and a party who have so little respect for America’s foot soldiers cannot be expected to care for the footless ones.

Which brings us back to America’s Big Media. They will ensure that this story has no legs.

John McCain, have you no sense of decency? No sense of shame?