DOES McCAIN HAVE AN ECONOMIC PLAN? OF COURSE HE DOES-- STAY THE COURSE, JUST LIKE ALL HIS PLANS

Speaking in Pittsburgh today, McCain-- whose usual answer to where he stands on economic issues is to either say we have to bomb Iran or Iraq or Sunnis or Shiites or, if someone can whisper into his ear, that he'll hire someone for that stuff-- laid out a sadly superficial economic program. The NY Times, politely, refers to it as a "broad look." I call it the John W. McCain "Get Those Damned Kids Off My Lawn Economic Plan." Basically, it's more tax cuts for corporations and the wealthy, a freeze on any kind of aid whatsoever for the non-rich, higher premiums for Medicare and, a suggestion that Bush eliminate gas taxes "this summer."

McCain, who made no mention of his previous pledge to balance the budget by the end of his first term, outlined a long list of tax cuts he favored in the speech, which was delivered on the deadline for filing taxes. He called once again for making the Bush tax cuts, which he voted against, permanent, and for cutting corporate taxes, phasing out the alternative minimum tax and doubling the value of exemptions for each dependent to $7,000 from $3,500. He also proposed giving people the option of using a simpler, shorter tax form.

...On the spending side of the ledger, Mr. McCain pledged to veto every bill that comes to his desk with earmarked pork-barrel projects in it, and to order a one-year freeze on increases in most discretionary spending-- a relatively small portion of the overall federal budget-- while he reviews every federal program, department, and agency.

“While that top to bottom review is under way, we will institute a one-year pause in discretionary spending increases with the necessary exemption of military spending and veterans benefits,” he said. “ ‘Discretionary spending’ is a term people throw around a lot in Washington, while actual discretion is seldom exercised."

And as we saw earlier, McCain is making sure that increased aid for veterans dies in the Senate. He also defended, in his cranky way, predatory capitalism and outsourcing of American jobs. Realistic economists looking at McCain's announcement said that the costs of his tax cuts are three times his savings-- and that he's being overly optimistic on the savings. Apparently a balanced budget is something peoples' great grandchildren can deal with.

McCain, who owns 8 homes and is-- through marriage to an alcoholic beverages distributor's daughter-- one of the wealthiest men in Congress, got confused about how much normal Americans earn. He started ranting and raving that Obama and Hillary would raise American's taxes by hundreds of thousands of dollars, apparently as unaware as Bush that very few Americans even make hundreds of thousands of dollars, let alone pay those kinds of taxes.

Mr. Obama’s spokesman, Bill Burton, responded: “Senator McCain’s economic plan offers no change from George Bush’s failed policies by going full speed ahead with fiscally irresponsible tax cuts for the wealthiest Americans that [the old] John McCain himself once said ‘offended his conscience.’ He also proposes a gift basket of new tax cuts for corporate America at a time when some C.E.O.’s are making more in a day than some workers make in a year. John McCain’s plan is one that could have been written by the corporate lobbyists who run his campaign, and probably was.”

Neera Tanden, the Clinton campaign’s policy director, called the McCain plan “a corporate lobbyist’s dream.” She said that Mr. McCain had proposed “an economic policy that Americans simply cannot afford,” based on corporate windfalls and tax cuts for the wealthy, and that ExxonMobil, which recently reported record profits, would get a $1.4 billion tax cut under the McCain plan.

I was glad to see Clinton put her poisonous alliance with McCain against Obama on temporary hold. Speaker Pelosi had an even stronger rebuttal to McCain's cockamamie package of proposals, which, she points out, are just a continuation of "the failed policies of President Bush that are responsible for the severe economic crisis facing our country," policies that McCain has blithely rubber stamped for years without second thought. "Senator McCain continues to support a multi-trillion dollar war that has taken us deeply into debt, which has taken us into recession. The country simply cannot afford another four years of rising costs, stagnant incomes, and historic deficits. The American people have paid a heavy price under President Bush; they cannot afford another four years of those economic policies with John McCain in the White House."


UPDATE: McCAIN'S ECONOMIC AGENDA PROBABLY WORSE THAN HIS WAR AGENDA-- AND WORSE THAN BUSH'S AS WELL!

And during the McCain campaign conference call with the lobbyists running driving the Double Talk Express, no one could answer how he plans to pay for all the goodies he is promising to disburse. There seems to be a 5-9 trillion dollar gap in his fuzzy math. I think these big numbers give McCain vertigo and he just tells the lobbyists to work it out. These are the factors Republicans won't look at now and won't look at in contextualizing McCain's silly proposals.

• Bush Administration Estimated Annual Earmarks:  $16.8 Billion
• Largest Budget Surplus in History (FY2001): $284 Billion 
• Current Annual Budget Deficit:  $396 Billion
• Discretionary Defense Spending $439 Billion
• Current Annual Non-Defense Discretionary Spending:  $493 Billion
• McCain Spending Hole (10 yrs) $8.4 Trillion
• Current National Debt:  $9.4 Trillion

If McCain still insists he can't understand economics, maybe he should watch the great new War on Greed video:




UPDATE: EVEN IF MOST OF THE MEDIA ISN'T, THE BOSTON GLOBE IS PAYING ATTENTION

An editorial in this morning's edition slams McCain's sham economic "program."

John McCain acknowledged that he didn't know much about economics a few weeks ago, and this shortcoming manifested itself yesterday when he unveiled his fiscal platform. But he does know something about Republican politics. McCain stuck closely to the ideology of the party when he proposed tax cuts that belied his reputation for fiscal responsibility.

The most dramatic plank was a call for a suspension of the 18.4-cent-a-gallon federal tax on gasoline from Memorial Day to Labor Day this year. Not even the inveterate tax cutter George Bush has the nerve to propose that one. How else is the money supposed to be raised to repair the interstate highways? Congress should let this bad idea fade into the autumn without a hearing.

The gasoline tax idea seems devised for sound bites. The substance of McCain's plan, which depends on his election as president and a compliant Congress, is far more dangerous. Earlier in the campaign, he endorsed an extension of Bush's tax cuts and yesterday added several more: a cut in the business tax rate, a phase-out of the alternative minimum tax, doubling the exemption for dependents, and a permanent credit for research and development.