As U.S. Sen. John McCain drove to an open house in Marana May 26, he no doubt passed the many small businesses that line the sides of the road near the Town Hall.

“We’re telling them that they’re too small to save,” said Arizona’s senior senator of small businesses in a time of big business–favoring bailouts.

”There’s no reason for us to be in the auto business. There’s no reason for us to be in the life insurance business,” he said, adding that General Motors and big financial institutions would be better served if they had entered structured bankruptcy instead of taking federal bailout money.

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The Republican senator’s question-and-answer visit to Marana drew hundreds of attendees who quizzed him on a range of questions from possible candidates for the 2012 presidential election to the future of the GOP. 

“We’re still in step one of the 12-step program: denial,” McCain said, adding that he expects to see a number of Republican governors, such as Louisiana’s Bobby Jindal and former-running mate and Alaska Governor Sarah Palin, rise to prominence in the party over the next few years.

McCain himself is facing competition for reelection to his senate seat next year. Minutemen Civil Defense Corps founder Chris Simcox is challenging him in the Republican primary. 

McCain expressed his concern over the recent trend of the federal government involving itself in business and health care.

“It’s not socialism… but it is closer to the European model,” he said, adding the more federal involvement there is in business, the harder it will be to bring things back to normal when the economy returns. 

“If government gets into the free enterprise system, they don’t get out. That’s what history tells us,” he said.