No Straight Talk from McCain on Economics

The Straight Talker, who warned us he was weak on economics, blew a big hole in his presidential vessel the other day by talking straight on the subject with the Wall Street Journal. John McCain has already embraced George Bush's Hundred Year War in Iraq. Now McCain says he also wants to revive Bush's plan to privatize Social Security. And he wants to cut the corporate income tax by one-third, though it has already been eviscerated by Republican loop holes. And the Senator's goal for tax reform includes a "fairer, flatter tax" which can only mean more regressive tax-cutting in the Reagan tradition.

The country and campaign reporters are presently fixated on fine-print arguments between Obama and Clinton, but John McCain's bold declarations to the Journal's Bob Davis provide devastating material for the fall campaign. On one level, the Republican nominee seems to be correcting the record, getting his policy positions even more closely aligned with Bush and the Grover Norquist school of perennial tax-cutting.

Deliver more boodle to the corporates and high-end incomes, so the federal government will be starved for revenue. This is meant to reassure the money guys expected to finance his campaign, but it ought to alarm anyone who still sees McCain as a level-headed moderate who thinks independently. The media truth squad should have fun trying to make sense of the McCain agenda. His remarks will provide content for multiple sharp-edged attack ads.

Consider Social Security. The right's long-running campaign to dismantle the Social Security system by shipping its funds to Wall Street as "individual accounts" turned out to be George Bush's political Waterloo. The plan failed miserably because people figured out the implications. Now McCain says he still backs Bush's blueprint and will revive it as president. Davis was confused because there is a very different Social Security reform plan posted on McCain's own website that would not divert any Social Security funds to private investment firms. Asked about this contradiction, McCain said he would change the website.

"As part of Social Security reform, I believe that private savings accounts are part of it--along the lines that President Bush proposed," McCain affirmed. McCain's economic aide, Douglas Holtz-Eakin, poured a little more oil on the fire by explaining that Social Security benefits must be cut to keep the system solvent. "You can't keep promises made to retirees," Holtz-Eakin said. "But you can pay future retirees more than current retirees."

Does that sound like Straight Talk? Actually, it sounds just like the right-wing double-talk that finally caught up with George W. Bush. When the fall campaign gets underway, Senator McCain will doubtless be asked about his economics. I suspect he will straight-talk his way into deeper trouble.

Comments (9)

1. Mr Greider....you DO know what political party John McCain belongs to, don't you?

   Posted by Mask at 03/04/2008 @ 4:31pm

2. Privatizing SS is the Holy Grail....even many Dems know that's the Final Solution.....

   But, as I get ever closer to collecting on it, my support, which WAS Rabid, is fading, year by year. A bit Selfish perhaps, but at some point, a system is beyond serious reforms.....and Boomers, the "Me Generation", half of whom have no savings to speak of, won't tolerate any cutting of benefits!

   Posted by Happy at 03/04/2008 @ 4:40pm

3. Obama will run circles around McC in debates, while the GOP continue the slime attacks begun by Billary.

   But if Billary should bludgeon their way into the nomination, backlashes of several varieties could hobble Billary & hand it to McC.

   Billary, salvage what dignity remains, and do leave the stage gracefully. Is that too much to ask?

   Posted by sloper at 03/04/2008 @ 4:42pm

4. Great story. Double talk, saying one thing concerning NAFTA publicly whilst an advisor in a private meeting with the Canadians is saying something completely different.

   Oh......wait......this story was about McCain.....

   Oops......wrong double talker. My bad.

   Posted by bleedingheart at 03/05/2008 @ 04:09am

5. My problem with cutting taxes for big corporations is that it's supposed to spur growth, put people to work, and help the economy, and it does that in spades - but in India, China, Mexico, etc. The CEO's who supported Bush and support McCain because they know what's right for America are taking tax breaks and using the money to build plants and make products and save their money overseas. Great Americans, one and all.

   You guys want tax breaks? How about linking tax breaks with reinvestment in this country - you get tax breaks when you increase the number of jobs in America, you get tax breaks when you open factories in America, you get tax breaks when you hire Americans in American towns and cities to do the jobs they used to do. Yeah, prices of consumer goods might go up, but so would the standard of living and the amount of disposable income (and the amount of debt might - I said might - be reduced). Everybody wins, because the fiscal conservatives get their tax breaks, lower and middle income taxpayers make more money, more people are working, less people on the public dole, greater prosperity, a greater level of national pride, all in the name of patriotism.

   Posted by Turk33 at 03/05/2008 @ 09:54am

6. Anyone who believes almost $ 3 trillion in taxes is starving the Fed Govt should be kept as far away from the treasury as possible ...BECAUSE THAT IS THE PROBLEM WITH THE LEFT...NEVER ENOUGH OTHER PEOPLES MONEY FOR THEIR "HELP".....and that is precisely why libs should never be given the keys to the vault...

   JM,

   You've got to be kidding me. Libs with the keys to the vault should be watched?! What about W with the keys to the vault. That idiot has run up an unprecidented deficit while cutting taxes for the wealthy at the same time.

   Can't you people add? If you want the federal government to fund wars in Iraq and Afghanistan and permanently fund Israel because God mandates it, you have to pay for it one way or the other. Since these private businesses aren't going to pony up the cash for this, the federal government is the entity paying for the wars. So, you are at a crossroads with yourself. If you truly are the conservative you claim to be (inverse of liberal) you would be for ending these wars that are bankrupting our nation.

   So, you don't mind throwing billions upon billions of U.S. tax dollars into other countries, just not this one. Heaven forbid Americans might get a break from paying into social security all of their lives. Now, people like you and McCain wish to take that money and have it invested into corporate chieftons that will take that money, siphon it off in the form of mergers, off shore acquisitions, split the money up and divvy it up for themselves while the people who actually have ownership of their social security money get a fraction of it? Pull your head out, if social security was that bad of an investment, wall street wouldn't want to get their God damned greedy mits on it. If social security is going under, then either change the retirement age, or increase the percentage of money going into it. It's not that effing hard to figure out.

   Posted by Wolfgang1 at 03/05/2008 @ 10:22am

7. Posted by TURK33 03/05/2008 @ 09:54am

   Great idea. I can think of a number of oil companies that would love to expand drilling and exploration as well as build more refineries. More jobs, cheaper energy, no down side.

   Oh wait...........

   Posted by Next Door at 03/05/2008 @ 10:36pm

8. Posted by BLEEDINGHEART 03/05/2008 @ 04:09am

   Well, well, here we are a day later, and it turns out that Ian Brodie, who leaked the "wink wink" memo, says that the NAFTA assurances came from the Clinton campaign.

   Oops...

   Posted by drhammer at 03/06/2008 @ 07:47am

9. Posted by NEXT DOOR 03/05/2008 @ 10:36pm

   Pure genius.

   Use more of our tax money to bribe the world's most profitable corporations to invest in their own industry.

   Eight years of greed and constitutional disrespect, and all I get is a FUCK ME t-shirt...

   Posted by drhammer at 03/06/2008 @ 07:58am