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289 Comments
- inactive, on 08/21/2008, -22/+130Digg me down if you wish, but my gut tells me that McCain is dead wrong. We don't just have a subprime mortage crisis, we have a subprime economy. Reckless borrowing, both on the individual level and the national level, is going to have consequences. We'll be lucky if we avoid several years of 1970s-style stagflation.
I hope I'm wrong. But remember that McCain, by his own admission, doesn't understand economics. - PaulMorel, on 08/21/2008, -8/+60"ADD MORE TO THE BUDGET!" - yeah, just keep repeating that stereotype of Democrats. Just ignore the history of the past few presidents. Clinton, the Democrat, ran a lean budget that left this country with a surplus. Bush's budget is completely out of control, wasting billions of dollars on oversightless contractors in Iraq, cutting taxes for the rich and giving tax breaks to companies making record profits (Exxon).
Obama's plan calls for eliminating tax breaks for oil companies, and eliminating Bush's tax cuts for the rich.
If you're a fan of small government, then you're a fool if you vote Republican. Republicans instituted the Patriot Act and related acts that allow them to spy on normal Americans. Republicans want to legislate personal women's health issues and limit access to birth control. Republicans have no problem with planting government operatives as commentators on news networks. Republicans have no problem polluting justice by politicizing the justice department.
Today, Republicans support massive, pork-laden budgets, and invasive, Bill-of-Rights-shredding laws. They are the ultimate example of big government gone awry.
But keep to your stereotypes. You will never vote for a Democrat. You will vote for buzz words and smear campaigns. You would rather call other Americans cowardly then vote based on reality, and in doing so, admit that your former stance was wrong. - tcbishop12, on 08/21/2008, -8/+55RUSSERT: National security, the war in Iraq had been the dominant issue in the campaign until a few weeks ago. And now the economy has taken hold. Ask any of the voters; it's the economy. Senator McCain, you have said repeatedly, quote, I know a lot less about economics than I do about military and foreign policy issues. I still need to be educated. Is it a problem for your campaign that the economy is now the most important issue, one that by your own acknowledgment you're not well versed on?
MCCAIN: Actually, I don't know where you got that quote from. I'm very well versed in economics. I was there at the Reagan revolution. I was there when we enacted the first -- or just after we enacted the first tax cuts and the restraints on spending.
But Issenberg quoted McCain as telling reporters on December 17 in New Hampshire: "The issue of economics is not something I've understood as well as I should," McCain said. "I've got Greenspan's book." - tcbishop12, on 08/21/2008, -9/+55Sen. John McCain’s (R-AZ) rhetoric on the budget has become increasingly muddled. McCain has gone from pushing a balanced budget by 2012, to a balanced budget by 2017, to a “who cares” approach. A brief timeline:
– “McCain pledges to balance the budget by 2012, not by increasing taxes, but by vetoing all pork barrel spending, and curbing outlays for Social Security and Medicare.” [Fortune, 2/19/08]
– “McCain’s overall goal is to balance the budget by the end of his second term, says [economic adviser Douglas Holtz-Eakin]. That would be 2017.” [Robert Samuelson, 2/19/08]
– Holtz-Eakin “said that if the war and the personal and corporate tax cuts that Mr. McCain advocated added to the federal deficit and debt, so be it. ‘I would like the next president not to talk about deficit reduction,’ he said.” [NY Times, 4/14/08]
But in an interview with Bloomberg, the McCain campaign flip-flopped yet again, claiming that McCain would put in place a balanced budget “by the end of his first term”:
Holtz-Eakin…defended McCain’s tax plans, which include extending Bush’s tax cuts, reducing the corporate tax rate and repealing the alternative-minimum tax. McCain would offset those cuts by reexamining the entire federal budget and vetoing earmarks to reduce spending. “That plan, when appropriately phased in, as it has always been intended to be, will bring the budget to balance by the end of his first term,” he said.
In reality, McCain’s tax plan — which doubles the size of the Bush tax cuts, costing more than $2 trillion in their first decade — would create the largest deficit in 25 years. Even with the most generous savings McCain has offered, yearly deficits would increase to $1.2 trillion by FY2017, beginning with $505 billion in FY2009.
When ABC’s George Stephanopoulos confronted McCain with the numbers in April, McCain shied away from his first term balanced budget pledge. “But we’re not going to have a balanced budget before you leave office in your first term?” Stephanopoulos asked. “Well, that still should be a goal, but the goal — the goal right now is to get the economy going again,” McCain responded.
So which budget plan is it? 2012? 2017? Or none at all? As Holtz-Eakin said in May, “You have to pay for that somehow or you are George Bush III.” - tcbishop12, on 08/21/2008, -6/+34The central issue is how McCain could possibly keep the country's economic house in order with policies that would lead to escalating budget deficits.
McCain's first response when questioned on this in July of this year was to pooh-pooh the projections of the non-partisan Center on Budget and Policy Priorities, which was too bad, considering their numbers -- deficits in the $439-445 billion range -- ended up being rosier than those of the more conservative Congressional Budget Office.
That didn't deter McCain from repeating his famous diagnosis of economic woe: Congress has not restrained spending, and he would curb the profligacy. The only problem being that George W. Bush's White House took wasteful spending to unprecedented new heights, and, seeing how McCain would keep the country tied to Bush's policy priorities, it's hard to see how money would be saved. Maybe McCain clipped some coupons. - donjacko, on 08/21/2008, -4/+21take into account that almost every other major economy is growing faster- thus the US is slowly loosing its global dominance and all of a sudden the "fundamentals" don't look so strong.
perspective - USArugula, on 08/21/2008, -5/+22Good question, vex -- how DOES McCain propose to pay for the War in Iraq, the War in Afghanistan, the war with Russia, the war on Islam, the war on terrorism and following Bin Laden to the gates of hell without raising taxes?
- stormkrow, on 08/21/2008, -2/+19The median income family in the United States paid $3,736 in federal income taxes in 2006 . Here is how that amount was spent:
Military $1,014
Interest on the Debt (Military) $340
Interest on the Debt (Non-Military) $385
Health $779
Income Security $224
Education $169
Veterans' Benefits $125
Nutrition $98
Housing $70
Natural Resources $57
Job Training $11
Other $463
Americans are spending roughly 40 cents of every tax dollar on past and present military spending. Mind you we spend more on our military than almost every country in the world combined.
By cutting funding to needless military expenditures.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_ ...
European Missile Shield
Removing the troops from Iraq
Defense Contractors
Space based weapons platforms
just to name a few.
The chicken hawk neoconservative movement has designed this inproportionate spending ratio to support the military industrial complex since LBJ. It's high past time to roll back those designs and actually force the military to do their constitutional duties which is protect the United States, and NOT help build empires for Big Oil. The policies of our current regime has been one of "pre-emptive war".
US Constitution
ARTICLE II
A well regulated Militia being necessary to the security of a free State, the Right of the People to keep and bear Arms shall not be infringed.
There is no mention of "pre-emptive war" policy in any of our founding documents. This is a neoconservative policy and one that will quickly be abandoned and further should be abolished. The greatest threat to humanity is the neoconservative movement.
Secondly there will be tax cuts for 95% of Americans. The remaining elite and wealthy 5% will see Bushco tax laws repealed and will finally have to pay their share of the burden. This will include removing tax breaks on capital gains and dividends which are in fact a form of income, it is nothing more than a deceitful way to help the rich hide their money. The Bushco special low tax rates on capital gains and dividends reduced income tax payments by $91.7 billion in 2005 and $123.2 billion in 2006.
Additionally the subsidized tax credits afforded to Big Oil and Big War will also be repealed which should make up for an estimated $16 Billion from Big Oil alone. There is no GAO report for tax estimations from the likes of Big War (Lockheed, GE, Honeywell etc.) but their soon would be. I haven't even mentioned the various vehicles mega-corps use to shroud profits and hide monies either off-shore or through LLC partners. If one were to go over mega-corps books thoroughly with a fine tooth comb you could find possibly tens if not hundreds of billions of dollars in unpaid taxes.
Citizens for Tax Justice is a non-partisan group that has many conservative "true republican" members.
http://www.ctj.org
Hate to say it but with the right mind set and accounting you could easily find $500 billion dollars in unpaid taxes for a single year. Further you could cut military expenditures in half by following the Constitution and shutting down the neoconservative movement. That's a balanced budget and we're paying off our grand-children's debt. - Suzilla, on 08/21/2008, -2/+18@vex
The segment creating jobs is creating them in China, India, Viet Nam, etc.; not here. - davdev, on 08/21/2008, -5/+20He loses all credibility when he says we are the "greatest exporter". Exporter of what? Jobs, maybe, but that is about it.
- USArugula, on 08/21/2008, -5/+20Ah, yes, trickle down economics. You seem to have forgotten the surge in the homeless rate under Reagan. Reagan did some great things, managing the economy wasn't one of them. It took one of those nasty tax-and-spend Democrats (Clinton) to not only balance the budget but give us a surplus. Personally, I'd rather pay more taxes and not worry about paying my bills then get a tax break and starve. Of course, since I and 95% Americans make well under $250,0000 in salary per year, I'll have the benefit of both: a better economy without paying more in taxes.
As for, "How do the Democrats propose to balance a budget when their platform clearly outlines massive increases in the federal budget?"
I dunno, make the uber-wealthy pay their fare share to support the country that made them rich? All take and no give is un-American. - socalftw, on 08/21/2008, -0/+14Why doesn't McCain answer the question? Why doesn't he elaborate on why he feels the fundamentals of our economy are strong? I have yet to hear any in depth answer from McCains mouth regarding solutions or approaches to any important issues rather than his short meaningless ***** answers or just ducking the question.
Strong my ass:
" - Inflation is rising.
- Real wages are declining.
- Unemployment is increasing.
- Cost of food is rising.
- Optimism about economy is declining.
- Foreclosures are still increasing." - Suzilla, on 08/21/2008, -0/+12@bpotts
The facts say otherwise. Budgets and the National Debt remain steady or shrink under Democratic administration, but increase under Republican administrations.
http://www.lafn.org/gvdc/Natl_Debt_Chart.html
http://www.cedarcomm.com/~stevelm1/usdebt.htm - kingmanic, on 08/21/2008, -4/+16Republican "Strong" Economic fundamentals:
-Soaring public debt
-Soaring personal debt
-Highest mortgage default rate in a generation
-Rising Jobless rate
-Negative average income growth when adjusted for inflation
-Banking Crisis
-GM (whats good for GM is good for America) is facing financial crisis - 17999, on 08/21/2008, -13/+25Our GDP is still positive, so no recession.
The dollar is rebounding because the rest of the world is looking at the US as the safest port in the worldwide storm.
Gas prices hurt, but not as much as health care costs, and those have been high for a while now.
What's really "hurting" the average American is the inability to use a home as an ATM.
The economy is not great, but it's not as bad as it was under Carter, or even in the early 90s. You want bad, raise taxes and tighten the money supply. Then, it will be the killing fields out there. - shadow010, on 08/21/2008, -5/+16Really? a country with over a billion people that's industrializing and doing heavy trade will not overtake our 300 million, already industrialized country? McCain always delivers on not believing in reality.
- Mjgsimple, on 08/21/2008, -3/+14The budget is too big because of the increasing military and surveillance expenses of the Bush Era. Any other program could easily be funded by reducing extravagant military expenses. Simple.
- sircomix, on 08/21/2008, -5/+15The rich corporations are doing fine after 8 years of having the Prez on their payroll.
I, on the other hand, often can't afford gas or food, and I work two pretty good jobs.
Seriously. Tax breaks to the PEOPLE, not the the massive corporations and the rich bitches like McCain! - Echota, on 01/05/2009, -10/+20smacked down for being ignorant of the way things really are in america.
- tekhak, on 08/21/2008, -6/+16Anti McCain this. Anti McCain that...
What happened to the good old days of Ron Paul? - pintomp3, on 08/21/2008, -3/+13a high GDP is no indicator of how the average person is doing. chile under pinochet had a high GDP also. all that meant was there were a few people making a ***** of money, while unemployment, hunger, and homelessness was growing.
- inactive, on 08/21/2008, -4/+13Radical left?
You keep using that word. I do not think it means what you think it means. - DAILYCROW, on 08/21/2008, -0/+9Cheap beer has a more vigorous market in hard times because the average person has less money to spend on the desired fine beers. For people like McCain hard times is good times.
- minorthreat, on 08/21/2008, -1/+10We can just not pay them back.. now that would be a real war.
- wunksta, on 08/21/2008, -0/+9overgeneralize much? and is there only two choices?
and do you know how much we subsudized the oil companies? how about our military industry? how about the agriculture sector? how about all the pork barrels and bail outs that have occurred? who voted for those?
yeah - cubicledrone, on 08/21/2008, -7/+16Let's talk some economy numbers:
1. Wages have been stagnant for 36 years. In other words, we're paying 2008 bills with 1972 paychecks.
2. 50% of the working-age adults in this country are NOT employed full-time
3. Between 2002 and 2005 the average pay for college graduates fell.
4. Of the top 20 fastest growing jobs in this country, only five require a college degree
People who are currently in their prime earning years are not getting married, buying homes or starting families for one simple reason: they can't afford it. They are also underemployed, meaning we are wasting the educations of millions of people. If this continues, they will have nothing to provide to the next generation to help them establish themselves.
It's just mind-boggling. The complete lack of understanding of the pain we have endured as a nation just in the last 18 months is staggering. I sometimes truly wonder if they realize the current generation's complete inability to get and keep a stable job? That's the true cause of most of the mortgage problem: Stagnant wages and unstable jobs. The numbers are quite clear. - donjacko, on 08/21/2008, -12/+21the radical left?
can i point out that your idea of radical left is centre right in Europe. (hence most Europeans cringe at the thought of McCain a president)
and can i also point out that the fundamentals of the US economy are not strong - at least not compared to those of its competitors and that actually most economists acknowledge that. - CrackyJSquirrel, on 08/21/2008, -0/+9And then we will really see who is prepared to take that 2 am phone call...... From China's Debt Collectors...
- stealthc, on 08/21/2008, -0/+9Extremely good question, but if you think McCain is going to diminish the budget by even one penny, I want some of whatever it is you're smoking.
- Echota, on 01/05/2009, -7/+15you must be one of the rich people to talk like that....
smacked down for talkin trash! - growler1, on 08/21/2008, -2/+10Where's the personal responsibility when it comes to owning up to messing up the country (and a few choice parts of the world), neocons?
Riddle me that. - pintomp3, on 08/21/2008, -7/+15when your job is exported to another country, your home is foreclosed, and you don't have health insurance for your diabetes... it's all in your head. right mccain?
- inactive, on 08/21/2008, -5/+13McCain really is totally, utterly out of touch. He really appears at this point to be basically stupid. But this is a trend in America, electing stupid men to high office. God help us.
- pintomp3, on 08/21/2008, -4/+12of money, to china.
- hangman16, on 08/21/2008, -0/+7Ah I love the partisan mudslinging. People blinded into thinking one party is right and the other is wrong. Just sit back and argue about all the trivial issues while both parties increase the size of the government and the amount of control it has over you.
Don't you see this is the goal of politics? Getting you to believe that all the bad stuff is the fault of the 'other' party. In reality of course all the bad stuff is a product of the direction our government is moving (yes, both parties) and the status quo.
Get all the real dummies to vote on trivial issues like abortion and gay rights which don't ACTUALLY matter in the large scheme of the countries health. For the smarter people get them to think one party is good and the other is evil and trying to destroy America. Keep them divided. If they unite that's when the status quo and those in power have a real problem.
As long as people are divided and blind to the real issues that both sides of the aisle do secretly and without the public knowing this will all just continue the way it is going. Don't other people see this!? - matthewinDRO, on 08/21/2008, -3/+10"If the economy is not treating you well, just sell one of your houses" - JM
- ashwinmudigonda, on 08/21/2008, -4/+11He is parroting Bush. That is exactly what the Chimp said.
- inactive, on 08/21/2008, -0/+7Well for one, we can stop the tax cuts to the rich and corporations that Bush set in place, and bring them back to the normal levels they had been for some time. We can stop rewarding companies for sending off our jobs to third world countries where corporations can take advantage of impoverished citizens and bring those jobs back to the US, where the economy really needs them. We can cut military spending in Iraq, which has gone out of control and is going out of the bounds set by the congress to begin with.
Hmm. Thats a start. - inactive, on 08/21/2008, -3/+10Everyone on Digg is an economist these days...
- bunnyandzombie, on 08/21/2008, -7/+14McCain is out of touch on several levels. He's clueless about the economy, has very bad ideas about the war, and is the biggest flip flopper we've seen in the past twenty years.
Let's face it, McCain is not the man to get us out of this mess. - richirwin, on 08/21/2008, -4/+1077% believe that McCain would closely follow President Bush’s policies.
What are the other 23% thinking he'll do? Blow fairy dust and fix the economy? - inactive, on 08/21/2008, -4/+10Having China buy all our war debt can't be a bad thing. Not at all.
- Suzilla, on 08/21/2008, -1/+7@elcalrissian
George Bush has virtual approval: it's called a veto threat. You think 580+ members of Congress want to wrangle ad infinitum over a budget that they have good reason to believe will be vetoed? The goal is to get something that all can agree to and that the president will sign. They have pretty good idea, before the fact, of what he will or will not approve.
As far as increasing the size of government, do your homework. Government bureaucracy and spending increase under Republican administration and hold steady or decrease under Democratic administrations. The role of "tax and spend" that is always pinned on Democrats has been turned on its head by Republicans. In fact, the dynamic is spend, then tax. The Republicans spend like drunken sailors when they get the purse strings, leaving it to the Democrats to figure out how to pay the tab. - DAILYCROW, on 08/21/2008, -4/+10I think he means, "Fundamentalist have strong hunkering down instincts, despite all signs they are wrong in their world view perspectives"
- inactive, on 08/21/2008, -0/+6I only wish this graph could be embedded in the comments so these chumps could actually see the data, rather than fob it off like they seem to be intent on doing.
- inactive, on 08/21/2008, -2/+8"can i point out that your idea of radical left is centre right in Europe. (hence most Europeans cringe at the thought of McCain a president)"
And why should we care about the politics of Europeans?
And source those "most economists" that would agree with the statement "the US economy is fundamentally unsound". If you can find one, I'd like to meet him. - inactive, on 08/21/2008, -9/+15It seems that way to him because laid off workers buy even more of his wife's beer. ***** as it is.
- stormkrow, on 08/21/2008, -0/+6The median income family in the United States paid $3,736 in federal income taxes in 2006 . Here is how that amount was spent:
Military $1,014
Interest on the Debt (Military) $340
Interest on the Debt (Non-Military) $385
Health $779
Income Security $224
Education $169
Veterans' Benefits $125
Nutrition $98
Housing $70
Natural Resources $57
Job Training $11
Other $463
Americans are spending roughly 40 cents of every tax dollar on past and present military spending. Mind you we spend more on our military than almost every country in the world combined.
By cutting funding to needless military expenditures.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_ ...
European Missile Shield
Removing the troops from Iraq
Defense Contractors
Space based weapons platforms
just to name a few.
The chicken hawk neoconservative movement has designed this inproportionate spending ratio to support the military industrial complex since LBJ. It's high past time to roll back those designs and actually force the military to do their constitutional duties which is protect the United States, and NOT help build empires for Big Oil. The policies of our current regime has been one of "pre-emptive war".
US Constitution
ARTICLE II
A well regulated Militia being necessary to the security of a free State, the Right of the People to keep and bear Arms shall not be infringed.
There is no mention of "pre-emptive war" policy in any of our founding documents. This is a neoconservative policy and one that will quickly be abandoned and further should be abolished. The greatest threat to humanity is the neoconservative movement.
Secondly there will be tax cuts for 95% of Americans. The remaining elite and wealthy 5% will see Bushco tax laws repealed and will finally have to pay their share of the burden. This will include removing tax breaks on capital gains and dividends which are in fact a form of income, it is nothing more than a deceitful way to help the rich hide their money. The Bushco special low tax rates on capital gains and dividends reduced income tax payments by $91.7 billion in 2005 and $123.2 billion in 2006.
Additionally the subsidized tax credits afforded to Big Oil and Big War will also be repealed which should make up for an estimated $16 Billion from Big Oil alone. There is no GAO report for tax estimations from the likes of Big War (Lockheed, GE, Honeywell etc.) but their soon would be. I haven't even mentioned the various vehicles mega-corps use to shroud profits and hide monies either off-shore or through LLC partners. If one were to go over mega-corps books thoroughly with a fine tooth comb you could find possibly tens if not hundreds of billions of dollars in unpaid taxes.
Citizens for Tax Justice is a non-partisan group that has many conservative "true republican" members.
http://www.ctj.org
Hate to say it but with the right mind set and accounting you could easily find $500 billion dollars in unpaid taxes for a single year. Further you could cut military expenditures in half by following the Constitution and shutting down the neoconservative movement. That's a balanced budget and we're paying off our grand-children's debt.
Call me a coward again and there will be problems. - Mohdoo, on 08/21/2008, -1/+6Technically, is it not a good idea to act as if the economy is doing well? One of the biggest contributors to an economy continuing to fall is people being scared. If you assure people the economy is fine, they are less likely to stock pile money, and more likely to spend. And spending helps.
I am voting Obama, but there is more than one reason Mccain could be saying the economy is fine. - Suzilla, on 08/21/2008, -0/+5@zoom1928
Glad to hear you're doing so well. However, your point contains a logical fallacy (composition): What's true for you as an individual is not necessarily true for the rest of the country as a whole.
I'll wager you live in the Washington D.C. area, which has long been regarded as recession-resistant. Even if it's someplace else, it's probably in a large metro area that has a disproportionate number of companies that require skilled labor, hence the relatively good health of the local economy. Get out into middle America and you'll find housing values haven't gone up quite so much (National Assoc of Realtors reports a 15% average DROP in home prices over the past year), and the jobless rate outside of major metropolitan areas is closer to 10 or 12 percent.
McCain's claims that the economy's fundamentals are strong is totally in sync with Bush's "I don't see anything wrong with the economy" statement the other day. Both men are spouting the corporatist party line. -
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