McCain: GOP will debut 10 promises

Senate Republicans will lay out a 10-point election year agenda this spring, Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) suggested on Tuesday morning.

McCain said Republicans would craft a list of 10 legislative pledges which they would seek to enact within the first 60 days of taking back control of Congress, if they were to do so in this fall's elections.

"We Republicans have to provide — and we will later this spring — a positive vision with what we want to do for the country," McCain said during an interview on KFYI radio in Arizona.

The Arizona senator said that those 10 promises could include things such as a balanced budget amendment to the Constitution, and absolute cuts in federal spending.

The proposal mirrors the "Contract with America" promoted by Newt Gingrich and other House Republicans before the GOP won back control of Congress in 1994.

McCain said that he thinks the GOP can win back the House and Senate, where inroads into the latter were furthered by Sen. Evan Bayh's (D-Ind.) decision Monday to retire.

"I believe that we can regain control of both houses of Congress," McCain said. "I really believe that this can be a seminal election."

But the Republican senator, who was the 2008 GOP presidential nominee, must first fend off a primary challenge from former Rep. J.D. Hayworth (R-Ariz.).

McCain fielded some tough questions from conservative Arizona callers, but said he welcomed the primary race.

"I've been in tough races," he said. "I'm ready to place my credentials before the people of this state, and I'm proud of my record."