Chapter One: The Economy
McCain: The McCain economic worldview is centered around limiting the government’s role, especially in regulating business. He is also against taxation; a “don’t tax, don’t spend conservative”. I know this is hard to swallow given his recent support of the financial bailout, and his perpetual support of the billions spent by Bush in Iraq. But his positions are hard to pin down, as Tim Dickinson wrote in the latest issue of Rolling Stone
“In March, McCain insisted to The Wall Street Journal that he is “always for less regulation.” In September, with the government forced to bail out the nation’s largest insurance companies and brokerage houses, McCain declared that he would regulate the financial industry and end the “casino culture on Wall Street.” He did a similar about-face on Bush’s tax cuts, opposing them when he planned to run against Bush in 2001, then declaring that he wants to make them larger — and permanent — when he needed to win the support of anti-tax conservatives this year. “It’s a big flip-flop,” conceded tax abolitionist Grover Norquist. “But I’m happy he’s flopped.”
Incidentally, I was made aware of the RS article while perusing the Daily Dish by Andrew Sullivan.
He is a Reaganomics cum Bushonomics supporter, believing that prosperity will trickle down from the super rich to the middle class, but we all know what really rolls downhill, and he is full of it.
He is a “tax reformer”; which means he will make it easier for the very rich to avoid paying taxes while the rest of us pick up the tab. His solution to the sub-prime mortgage crisis has morphed recently from a plan similar to, or at least including, elements of what the Democrats have been proposing, into a more ‘privatized’ version. So rather than try to keep up with McCain’s erratic economic policy shifts of late, I can condense his views to this:
1. He maintains a “privateer” stance which values “the Market” over the everyday concerns of the middle-class and the working poor.
2. He will say anything to get elected, attempting to appeal to his rabid conservative base while lip-syncing the populist’s anthem to the rest of the electorate. He called himself “the first neocon”, a dubious distinction at best.
3. He will abdicate responsibility to the States, in the name of Federalism. So if the credit crunch causes the number of student loan defaults to increase dramatically, he can say that he has called on all 50 governors “…to anticipate loan problems and expand the lender-of-last resort capabilities for each state’s guarantee agency.” But the states themselves are experiencing the economic crunch, and are starting to ask for bailout plans of their own.
4. He has engaged in political posturing and grandstanding concerning the financial meltdown, rather than pragmatic thinking, ”suspending his campaign” to rush to Washington, almost cancelling the debate with Sen. Obama (which he ultimately lost) to no real purpose. He just sat in on the White House conference on the economic bailout package, silent until the end, at which time he made a few inconsequential comments. At this point he still lacks a specific economic plan regarding the grave economic crisis.
Even his own web site gives generalized, garbled, or recently modified versions of McCain’s plans for the economy. The only thing we can count on is his reaching across the aisle with one hand while diddling his lobbyist cronies, under the table, with the other. McCain is so out of touch that 3 weeks ago he proclaimed that the fundamentals of our economy were sound.
Obama: Update # 1, October 13,2008
The main difference with Sen. Obama’s economic world view, as compared to that of John McCain, is that Obama is not married to the laissez faire ideology embraced by conservatives and neocons. Sen. Obama knows that the market system works best when there is the appropriate amount of government oversight. Granted, it is often difficult to know where to draw that line. But not being tied to such an ideology allows Obama to be more pragmatic in his approach to the economy.
He is motivated by a sense of fairness and by what is good for the country as a whole. He is especially attuned to the problems faced by the overwhelming majority of Americans; namely the middle-class and the working poor, and to those truly in need of government assistance. The latter includes many of our brave men and women who are veterans of our military, retired seniors who have worked and paid their taxes and social security for decades, students of modest means who are seeking to enter college so they can fill the jobs important to America while elevating their own economic status, workers who have lost their jobs due to down-sizing or outsourcing and who need temporary help until they can find another job, and the truly disabled.
Sen. Obama is keenly aware that not all of our problems can be solved by government. He has called for Americans to volunteer for service to help address some these issues.
“To restore America’s standing, I will call on our greatest resource – not our bombs, guns, or dollars – I will call upon our people. We will grow the Foreign Service to renew our commitment to diplomacy. We will double the size of the Peace Corps by its 50th anniversary in 2011. And we’ll reach out to other nations to engage their young people in similar programs, so that we work side by side to take on the common challenges that confront all humanity.
I will expand our military, while offering those who serve the promise that they will get the training, equipment, and care they deserve – and that they can trust we will never, ever, send them to fight in a misguided war. And we’ll enlist veterans to help other veterans find jobs; to counsel vets who are confronting homelessness, mental health and substance abuse problems; and to pitch in at VA hospitals and nursing homes.
And we’ll use technology to connect people to service more extensively and effectively. We turn to websites like craigslist to find apartments and jobs. So we’ll expand USA Freedom Corps to create an online network where Americans can browse opportunities to volunteer. You’ll be able to search by category, time commitment, and skill sets; you’ll be able to rate service opportunities, build service networks, and create your own service pages to track your hours and activities. This will empower more Americans to craft their own service agenda, and make their own change from the bottom up.”
Barack Obama’s plan to help all Americans serve their country will
- Expand AmeriCorps from its current 75,000 slots to 250,000 slots, enabling the program to establish five new Corps that address some of America’s most pressing challenges: Classroom Corps, Health Corps, Clean Energy Corps, Veterans Corps, and Homeland Security Corps.
- Engage retiring Americans in service on a large scale by expanding and improving Senior Corps, VISTA and other programs that connect individuals over the age of 55 to volunteer opportunities.
- Double the size of the Peace Corps from 7,800 volunteers to 16,000 by its 50th anniversary in 2011 and work to partner volunteers with people from other nations.
- Establish an America’s Voice Initiative to recruit and train Americans that are fluent speakers of local languages to bolster our public diplomacy efforts abroad
- Create a national online network, modeled on Craigslist, to connect volunteers to service and donation opportunities
- Establish a goal of having middle and high-schoolers contribute at least 50 hours a year to community service, and reach that goal through national guidelines for service-learning and additional resources for schools to develop successful programs.
- Connect disadvantaged youth to service opportunities and a pathway to success through the creation of Green Job Corps and the expansion of YouthBuild from 8,000 slots today to 50,000 slots over the next eight years.
- Create a new American Opportunity Tax Credit to ensure that the first $4,000 of a college education is completely free for Americans willing to complete 100 hours of public service a year.
- Promote College Serve-Study by immediately increasing the percentage of Federal Work-Study Program funding that goes to community service jobs from 7 percent to 25 percent, and helping colleges and universities reach a goal of 50 percent of serve-study over time.
- Expand the capacity of the nonprofit sector by establishing a Social Investment Fund Network to provide R&D capital to encourage innovation, find out what works, and expand successful programs to scale across the country.
- Create a Social Entrepreneurship Agency to enable nonprofits to build capacity through improved collaborations with government Senator Barack Obama
Rather than the “top down” approach favored by McCain and Bush, Sen. Obama knows that our economy is driven by the American consumer. Our economy will grow, as it always has, from the bottom up. Corporations after all, need hordes of qualified, motivated employees. They also need a middle-class that is employed and prosperous who will spend, invest, pay taxes, and save. These are the elements of a strong economy in a democracy.
Obama’s comprehensive plan to strengthen the American economy will:
• Cut taxes for 95 percent of workers and their families with a tax cut of $500 for workers or $1,000 for working couples
• Provide generous tax cuts for low- and middle-income seniors, homeowners, the uninsured, and families sending a child to college or looking to save and accumulate wealth
• Eliminate capital gains taxes for small businesses, cut corporate taxes for firms that invest and create jobs in the United States, and provide tax credits to reduce the cost of health care and to reward investments in innovation
• Dramatically simplify taxes by consolidating existing tax credits, eliminating the need for millions of senior citizens to file tax forms, and enabling as many as 40 million middle-class Americans to do their own taxes in less than five minutes without an accountant
Read more details about Senator Obama’s economic platform here
Today, Monday October 13, 2008, Obama will lay out a more detailed rescue plan for the middle class. Below is a preview of his statement.
From the Washington Post Posted by Foon Rhee, deputy national political editor October 13, 2008 11:53 AM
The Obama campaign issued a summary of his plan:
– A temporary tax credit for firms that create new jobs in the United States over the next two years.
– New legislation to allow families to withdraw 15% of their retirement savings – up to a maximum of $10,000 – without facing a tax-penalty this year (including retroactively) and next year.
– Financial institutions that participate in the Treasury’s financial rescue plan should be required to adhere to a homeowners code of conduct, including a 90-day foreclosure moratorium for any homeowners living in their homes that are making good faith efforts pay their mortgages.
– The Federal Reserve and the Treasury to work to create a program to lend to state and municipal governments, similar to the steps the Fed recently took to provide liquidity to the commercial paper market.The campaign also said: “Obama’s plan also calls for temporarily eliminating taxes on unemployment insurance benefits; keeping all options on the table to help our automakers weather the financial crisis; having the Fed and Treasury prepare for guaranteeing a broader range of liabilities of the banking system; and instructing Treasury to help unfreeze markets for individual mortgages, student loans, car loans, loans for multi-family dwellings and credit card loans.”
McCain’s response so far is a statement which lacked details but which is punctuated with the usual platitudes. A reiteration of his narcissistic talking points as desultory and unfocused as is his entire campaign.
New York Times article on Senator Obama’s economic proposals, October 13, 2008
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