John McCain Says: Want to Fix the Economy? Elect a Democrat
A number of people are already mocking John McCain’s "plan" to fix the economy.
Savings from Victory!
First, there’s this little Orwellian gem.
The McCain administration would reserve all savings from victory in the Iraq and Afghanistan operations in the fight against Islamic extremists for reducing the deficit. Since all their costs were financed with deficit spending, all their savings must go to deficit reduction.
Elsewhere, McCain admits we might not have victory in Iraq for 100 years. Until then, I presume we’ll be using deficit spending under President McCain to fund the garrisons of our empire that he’s loath to close down. But once we get victory, we’re going to have "savings," in that we’ll no longer be doing all that deficit spending, and somehow we’ll put the money we never had in the first place and still don’t have to pay down Bush’s Iraq disaster.
Because saying, "if we withdraw from Iraq, we won’t be spending so much money that we don’t have and can’t afford" doesn’t sound quite so honorable, does it, even if the "savings" (as in, huge amounts we won’t be using deficit funding to fund) are bigger and quicker?
McCain Writhes Around on the Third Rail in Glee!!
And then there’s this bit–where he appears to be planning to both privatize social security and cut promised benefits.
John McCain supports supplementing the current Social Security system with personal accounts – but not as a substitute for addressing benefit promises that cannot be kept.
Vote McCain! He will renege on the promises made to our nation’s seniors! Because I hear seniors don’t vote in appreciable numbers!
"Read My Lips: No New Taxes Growth"
McCain, faced with a shitty economy and the prospect of huge deficits, still isn’t going to make the mistake Poppy Bush made. Rather than talking about taxes and deficits, he’ll just magically promise growth!
Growth is an imperative – historically the greatest success in reducing deficits (late 1980s; late 1990s) took place in the context of economic growth.
Or, to state that another way, "historically the greatest success in reducing deficits (later 1980s; late 1990s) took place in the context of tax increases." Only he doesn’t mention that part; it’s so much easier to snap your fingers and make this economic disaster go away.
Democrats Are Good for the Economy, One
But I’m most amused that twice, McCain advocates doing what his Democratic colleagues have been busy doing while McCain was AWOL from the Senate. First, there’s the Housing Bill, in which McCain basically slaps the label "new" on the policy crafted by Barney Franks and Chris Dodd.
John McCain has proposed a new "HOME Plan" to provide robust, timely and targeted help to those hurt by the housing crisis. Under his HOME Plan, every deserving American family or homeowner will be afforded the opportunity to trade a burdensome mortgage for a manageable loan that reflects their home’s market value.
- Eligibility: Holders of a sub-prime mortgage taken after 2005 who live in their home (primary residence only); can prove creditworthiness at the time of the original loan; are either delinquent, in arrears on payments, facing a reset or otherwise demonstrate that they will be unable to continue to meet their mortgage obligations; and can meet the terms of a new 30 year fixed-rate mortgage on the existing home.
- John McCain’s HOME Plan Will Keep 200,000 To 400,000 Families From Losing Their Homes. "But at the same time, McCain is calling for aggressive federal action to help keep 200,000 to 400,000 families from losing their homes. That plan has many of the elements of a proposal by Rep. Barney Frank, D-Mass., and Sen. Chris Dodd, D-Conn., requiring participating lenders to forgive part of the loan principal and then write a new loan that would be backed by the federal government through the Federal Housing Administration." (Tom Raum, "Everyone’s Invited: McCain Economic Plan Draws From Both Parties," Tucson Citizen, 4/17/08)
- How It Works: Individuals pick up a form at any Post Office or download the form over the Internet and apply for a HOME loan. The FHA HOME Office certifies that the individual is qualified, and contacts the individual’s mortgage servicer. The mortgage servicer writes down and retires the existing loan, which is replaced by an FHA guaranteed HOME loan from a lender.
Nice of McCain to include the Raum quote that makes it clear he stole this policy from Franks and Dodd. Now, it might be nice if McCain actually showed up to vote for this–or pressured the head of the NRSC to actually let it pass.
Democrats Are Good for the Economy, Two
But John McCain doesn’t give credit on this policy issue.
Congress already has investigations underway to examine this kind of wagering in our energy markets, unrelated to any kind of productive commerce, because it can distort the market, drive prices beyond rational limits, and put the investments and pensions of millions of Americans at risk. John McCain believes that where we find abuses, they need to be swiftly punished.
Perhaps McCain is thinking about the investigations Carl Levin launched in 2002. Or maybe the one Carl Levin launched in 2006.
Or maybe he’s talking about S.2642, the Oil and Gas Traders Oversight Act of 2006, which would have provided for oversight over energy speculating two years ago–a bill introduced by DiFi and which, as of this morning, has just one Republican (Snowe) and one Independent (Lieberman) co-sponsor among the 12 co-sponsors.
In fact, of the bills currently proposed to address speculating in the oil markets, just a few have Republican names attached. One Republican out of 58 co-sponsors on Bart Stupak’s HR.6330. No Republicans among the 23 co-sponsors of Harry Reid’s S.3044. No Republicans among the 18 co-sponsors of Durbin’s S.3130. Of the 120 co-sponsors of HR.6264, just seven are Republicans. Toobz Stevens is a co-sponsor of DiFi’s S.3131.
In other words, on the key, substantive issues that would provide relief to Americans in the short term, John McCain is telling you to vote for Democrats.
Which, given how wacky the rest of his plans are, seems like a pretty good idea.
I guess McLame really doesn‘t know how to use a computer. Otherwise, he wouldn’t blithely (blindly) steal from the opposition in the hope no one would notice. What a tool!
Hi Marcy! You didn’t explicitly mention Iran, but it comes to mind big time when the subject of the 100 years war comes up. And this, in turn, brought to mind this insightful post by Chuck Spinney last week at d-n-i.net, which in turn was inspired by Thomas Powers’ “Iran: The Threat” in the current issue of the New York Review of Books. Spinney, who was one of the inner circle of protoges of the late military reformer John Boyd, asserts that Powers’ analysis ignores the broader context of the militarization of American foreign relations:
The USA needs a complete rethinking of its role in the world and what its posture in foreign relations should be, and it’s unfortunate that Obama is so far not taking some leadership in this.
By the way, I think it’s time that the Eisenhower quote be restored to what was in an early draft of the speech: “the military, industrial, Congressional complex.” Boyd understood the threat this dysfunctional alliance posed to the country over thirty years ago.
I agree that the foreign policy of the US needs a complete re look. I also agree with Spinney’s comments but think our militarization of foreign policy goes back in history a lot farther than the Cold War. At least to Teddy’s time – a good read is McCullough’s “Path Between the Seas” about the Panama Canal. And maybe all the way back to Manifest Destiny, etc. I think it is in our DNA.
thank you for the link.
i’d love to see spinney put in charge of pentagon procurement – or something more. if you are as big a fan of him as i am, you might enjoy this interview he did with george kenney. it’s from a year an a half ago – but still worth it and not significantly outdated (and some bits are hilarious).
McCain’s platform sounds so pathetic it makes me wonder all the more why Obama cannot stick with progressive ideas (or even Democratic ideas) in the general election.
Not using a computer (@1) reminds me of the OVP: not having emails is a good thing when inspectors come a calling…
Off topic, have you seen this Telegraph article that British spy chief Alex Allan (Chairman of the Joint Intelligence Committee) found at home unconscious and with “blood everywhere” from a “mystery illness”?
The article goes on to say the government investigated this thoroughly for foul play and concluded he has “pneumonia.” Maybe that is true, but I doubt Whitehall would tell us whether their spy chief was a the victim of foul play from an enemy spy network. And why does ‘blood everywhere’ make me think ‘ebola’ rather than ‘pneumonia’?
Alex Allan rented out the studio apartment in his home? As a spy chief does this introduce an unnecessary security risk?
Sometimes having a “boarder” is a discreet way for having security @ yr. home, or to explain people popping in to check up; in this case maybe yes, maybe no. Circumstances of Allan’s illness do seem a little odd.
As the article notes, pneumonia can be associated with a productive cough and this can contain blood, but not that much and is inconsistent with “blood everywhere”. Also if he was coughing up blood, this would take a while, and if he was coughing up so much that it was getting on everything, then you have to wonder why he didn’t contact medical personnel. A more likely explanation also noted in the article is hematomesis or throwing up blood as from a stomach or esophageal bleed. This could produce sufficient blood to go everywhere. Aspiration of some of this material could lead to an “aspiration” pneumonia.
Reminds me of a previous odd death.
Analyst Robbed During Shooting
Disclosure May Quell Putin Speculation
By Eric Rich
Washington Post Staff Writer
Monday, March 5, 2007; Page B01
” The noted expert in Russian intelligence who was shot outside his house in Prince George’s County last week — a crime that raised the possibility of international intrigue in the Washington suburbs — also was robbed of his wallet and briefcase, law enforcement sources said yesterday.
That property was taken from Paul Joyal supports the theory that he was shot during a robbery rather than in retaliation for public criticism of the Kremlin, according to two sources who spoke on condition of anonymity because the investigation is ongoing.
Joyal, 53, was critically wounded in the driveway of his home in the Adelphi area Thursday evening, four days after he alleged in a television broadcast that the government of Russian President Vladimir Putin was involved in the fatal poisoning last fall of Alexander Litvinenko, a former KGB agent who was living in London.”
“Joyal was shot hours after meeting with a former KGB general, Oleg Kalugin, near the Spy Museum in Washington. Kalugin, a family friend and a member of the museum’s board, has said he was shocked when Joyal’s wife called later that evening to tell him that Joyal had been shot.”
Golly, no one could have predicted that a professional would fake a robbery in order to hide his or her tracks. Proof would be nice, but without a greater sense of urgency to inquire and less credulous reporting, we’ll never look for it, much less find it. That same lack of willingness to inquire seems to be plaguing journalists everywhere.
It could not have died a quicker news death. The really strange part was they met at the Spy Museum in DC. Coincidence …I think not.
It makes me wonder how thoroughly the US would have publicly investigated a suspicious death owing to radiation poisoning after tea at a posh hotel. Food poisoning, no doubt, not errant or planful Russian counter-intelligence activity.
Oh, but McCain’s plan only helps deserving homeowners! So it’s much better than those awful libruls who want to give money to Cadillac-driving subprime borrowers…
I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again: McBush is the best campaigner that Obama has. Obama could likely win by keeping his mouth shut and just letting McBush talk!
Boxturtle (Looking forward to the debates. Or to watching McBush try to weasle out of them)
Apparently, besides unable to use a computer, and having (by his own judgement) scant knowledge of economics, McSame also has an affection for for gambling, and gambling without declaring it on his taxes. Money laundering those Abramoff bribes?? Taxes are for little people.
We had better elect a Democrat.
Interesting server hiccups @ interesting times you’ve been having @ FDL.
Not sure where all those “victory” savings are gonna come from. We’ve been using the Chinese credit card to finance the war for years, and now I guess he thinks that we can use the same credit card to pay down the credit card bills.
Wait! I know! He’s gonna switch cards to take advantage of those low, low balance transfer rates!
Fucking genius, I tells ya!
I just want to know when the McCain “Victory Savings” will kick-in on reducing the deficit.
Well since he wants to be in Iraq for 100 years, I’m thinking it would be sometime after that.
Drat!
I like that Voodoo Economics bit:
Yea. I wish I had my own Terminator, too, dickwad.
Is McCain’s ”Economic” Plan meant to be comic relief or to verify what we already knew: John McCain knows nothing about economics and he’s so self-centered, he assumes that we know as little about it as he does. If this is a plan, it’s purpose is to absolve McCain from liability for his economic mismanagement in the same way that Bush’s FISA ”amendments” are meant to absolve him from serial violations of federal law.
Note on latest Obama decision on late term abortion. From Democracy Now.
“Obama: No “Mental Distress” Exception for Late-Term Abortions
Meanwhile, Obama has told a Christian magazine he supports a ban on late-term abortions as long as there is an exception for the physical health of the mother. But Obama said mental distress should not qualify as a justification for late-term abortions. Obama said, “I don’t think that ‘mental distress’ qualifies as the health of the mother. I think it has to be a serious physical issue that arises in pregnancy, where there are real, significant problems to the mother carrying that child to term.”
I wonder if he realizes that in many instances the doctors have determined the fetus is dead. In order to save the mother from having to carry to term a dead baby they intervene with an abortion. The percentage of late term abortions is very low with most physicians deciding on this option only if there are serious problems both mental and physical. Can we please leave the decisions to the mother and her doctor?
How far center can we expect our candidate to go?
Does McCain really want to be President? He seems more like a “place holder” to me…but I don’t know for what or for whom…it all just seems odd to me.
I think McCain wants it a lot. I also think that, like Bush, he wouldn’t know what to do with it. McCain’s backers may reveal themselves a bit when we learn who they choose for his VP. Then again, it may be another crowd pleaser who’s job is to sit at the front desk and persuade visitors that he works there.
You don’t think it’ll be Crist, now that he’s gone to the trouble of finding himself a beard? I mean, after this third rail business, McCain’s going to need Crist’s help to win FL.
The most important thing Florida could give the nation is Mr. McCain’s new retirement home. It should be available full-time by mid-November. Right on the beach would be good; he can then enjoy what global warming is not doing to the environment. Cindy would love it, too; no state income tax and lousy public schools.
There are a lot of us in AZ that would help them pack. It sure would be nice to have a real Senator again.
I also liked the limitation in the proposed housing assistance program that requires would be beneficiaries to be otherwise ”creditworthy”.
I assume that means creditworthy but for the damage to one’s credit from having trouble paying mortgage fees, penalties, charges, excess interest rates and um, repaying the principal and the nominal interest rate that sold the ”mortgage product” in the first place. Not to mention other debt with those nasty cross-default clauses, which put borrowers in default of one obligation – regardless of whether payments on that debt were current – by virtue of being in default on another obligation. Or, maybe Congress is ignoring that context in hopes it won’t have to take its begging bowl back to Wall Street to ask for more.
If Congress is serious about reining in the excesses of the mortgaging lending industry, it necessarily will need to take on the related and equally nefarious excesses of its consumer lending brethren. Lowering the predatory portion of borrowing costs will free up resources – including the emotional energy of many families – that power our economy and sustain our communities. The price is making a few predatory lenders a little less wealthy. That’s the same easy fix – sidestepping predatory lenders – that would free up more federal dollars for student loans.
OT,
Any news on the NLT July 3, 2008 Fitz Letter?
I checked Waxman’s website, but no updates…
OT – Kennedy half way through six week chemo treatment, more here.
Thanks for that update…
McCain calls Social Security an Entitlement Program (that needs a Republican style fix). Look out, Seniors. McCain is gonna screw you and he is telling you so up front.
McCain calls for more Medicaid cuts, too. Medicaid recipients have been clobbered by Bush. McCain is gonna whack them some more. He says so – right up front.
Maverick McCain is a real Republican like Bush. He’s gonna screw the little guy some more.
this is possibly the most idiotic statement i have ever heard a politician make
if spend money on a house and then get rid of the house without selling it, there is no way “not spending” on that house will get me the money back that I spent on it.
this economy is in depression status thanx to this presidents rediculous “economic strategy”, his entire purpose was to redistribute middle class wealth to the wealthy and have us pay to rebuild those assets.
Reminds me of the conversation I had with my wife: Just because we’re not buying the Mercedes we can’t afford doesn’t mean we can now pay for the European vacation we can’t afford.
These people are completely nuts.
I have a feeling that McCain’s people know that you can’t repay borrowings with more borrowings. It would be more intellectually honest to say that deficit spending, eg, in infrastructure, would generate local employment and tax revenue and yield worthy longterm investments. But it would not reduce overall debt except to the extent it seeded additional private sector investment.
But that’s not where McCain wants to go, I think. He’s promoting current spending, not investment. He’s spending tax dollars on crony corporations who aren’t reinvesting in the US or aren’t sharing a reasonable portion of revenue with those whose work – including most of what I guess we should now anachronistically call middle management – generates it.
So why would McCain go to such lengths to put out this crap? Perhaps it’s smoke and mirrors, a distraction and a preventive measure to persuade a passive press not to ask him what his economic priorities really are?
i believe that S.2642 has been lost in committee – the dems haven’t done anything with it.
earlier this year the democrats energy bill, s.3044, which failed a cloture vote with 51 votes in favor, i thought was a pretty lame bill – there was very little on speculation regulation (and i’m pretty sure it would have been ineffective). most of the bill was devoted to such things as windfall profit taxes, suspension of purchases for the strategic petroleum reserve, expansion of anti-trust laws to oil producing countries (called “nopec” – no joke).
last week carl levin’s office told me he had closed the enron loophole via the farm bill, but as far as i can see his amendment does no such thing (see greenberger’s written statement beginning on page 6, june 3 senate commerce committee hearing).
finally, 2 years later we’re starting to get some real actions. for example, as far as i can tell, H.R.6330 looks good.
best i can say is that the democrats are less bad for the economy than the republicans. the best thing the dems have going for them is that the republicans make them look good in comparison.
Seems the neoMcCain’s revised platform is the typical Republican mix of policies, balancing the budget on the backs of the poor, which blunts the irrascibility of a ‘maverick’ candidacy, whatever that might be. Barack Obama’s opening remarks in congress often were deferential, but he seems comfortable going where he is headed now, addressing big tent issues. I doubt McCain appreciates how taught constitutional protections have grown in these brief eight years, a classical problem with vision of the aristocracy. Anyone who ever has visited his native state AZ knows when McCain thinks of ways to improve housing, the most likely solution for him to find is to waive environmental safeguards, sacrificing durability for quick profit by cronies. The issue of peace is one the energyCo marcom folks are going to keep off their news bulletins, as long as the public is willing to watch fuel prices and other petroderivative products costs treble in eight years’ span, as they have done; but resource extrators’ wildcatting has had costs for Detroit, as well. Republican policy weighs suppression of environment law as the preferable course to letting an influential state like CA pass, for example, a mandatory catalytic converter law; that initiative took CA 10 years to implement, given federal foot dragging. For neoMcCain the only distinctions must be his chosen cronies need to have the profit guarantees. One of the worthwhile things OT I have seen occurring in FL is FSU’s ongoing research in coral fish habitat related to anthropogenic impacts, next symposium November 2008; I have yet to hear whether Crist has packed the FL SupCt, presumably that action plan is near completion. One of neoMcCain’s worst ideas is to torque Scotus to the right, another sphere in which neoMcCain appears to have little appreciation for the constitutional reverberations of the course his party has imposed on his campaign. He seems far different from the midnight aggregator of the gang of 14 to hold Frist’s nukeCloture plan in abeyance. I would think LatinAmerica must be worried, as well, about the portent of neoMcCain hemispheric policy. Several countries have experimented in electoral liberalism, a course which deserves a chance during a foreseeably difficult time in the region.
EW,
Sent you an email with an attachment…
McCain to balance the budget by 2013
McCain’s happy talk express, leaving a very bad stench.
How could anyone vote for this dodo?
McSame says we can grow our own victory gardens, sell the stuff on our sidewalks and send the money to fund the war, balance the budget and save the environment! It saves gas too cuz you don’t have to drive to the store!
We can also speculate on our own mortgages and the money we make can pay the mortgage!
Meanwhile…back at the Reality Ranch, gas is nearing $5/gallon in my ‘hood.
$5 a gallon? Well, it just goes to show that you should have married a moneybags and you wouldn’t have to worry about the cost of gas.
re Enron loophole in commodities futures only faux eliminated by recent energy bill passage by supermajority over Bush veto, appreciation to selise @31 for MGreenberger link. In my usual haste, I had read his work only in the habeas abolition context, where his measured pronouncements have been thorough, as well. He had written on Rasul, Hamdi, Odah, and fairly recently on Boumediene vis a vis closure of gitmo[v.@Fn#2].
That commerce hearing on petrol is an interesting session.
thanks for the link john – i only started reading greenberger after hearing him in that excellent june 3 hearing (which, btw, i ripped an mp3 of in case anyone would like it for their ipod)