Elephant economics

08Jul08

Presumptive Republican nominee John McCain released “Jobs for America: The McCain Economic Plan” today. It’s a 15 page document detailing how he is going to solve all the nation’s economic problems. And in one term in office, no less.

No, that’s not just me being sarcastic. Here’s a quote from McCain himself at a town hall meeting in Denver, CO:

I have a plan to grow this economy, create more and better jobs, and get America moving again. I have a plan to reform government, achieve energy security, and ensure that healthcare and a quality education are affordable and available for all.

Amid all of the talk that doesn’t really say anything in McCain’s grand plan, he also says that he will balance the budget, help bail people out of foreclosures if they were victims of sub-prime mortgages and simplify and cut taxes. Really wonderful stuff, all of that.

Now comes the tough question. How’s he going to do it? From what I can see, it comes down to five main points.

• Cutting out the pork. Pretty self-explanitory and common enough. I’m skeptical that it will actually happen, though, as it is common enough–politicians say cutting pork will happen, but I’m still waiting for it.
• Cutting out “broken” government programs. According to the document, “[t]he federal  government itself admits that one in five programs do not perform.” Dr. Thomas Rustici, my economics and public policy professor in D.C., would likely say that’s a conservative estimate and he’d also probably be quick to point out that the Grace Commission tried to tell us that in the 1980s and we didn’t do anything about it then.
• Supplementing Social Security with “personal accounts” and smartening people up to what they can reasonably expect from “entitlement programs.”
• Keeping the tax rates low for small businesses as well as providing further tax breaks for corporate America. Still not quite sure how cutting taxes is going to get him closer to his goals, but then I’m  just an English and PoliSci person. I will never claim to understand the ins and outs of economics.
• And then my favorite. This deserves a direct quote as paraphrasing could never do it justice:

The McCain administration would reserve all savings from victory in 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. 

… I seem to recall a firestorm over comments that we could be in Iraq for 100 years. That timeframe doesn’t quite mesh with his goal of balancing the budget by the end of his first term.

All in all, I have come to the conclusion that this document is supposed to make a lot of promises without any real idea on how to achieve them. Which is politics as usual, of course, and to be expected. Just don’t get sucked in.

Filed under: Politics, The Election   |  1 Comment
Tags: economy, John McCain, Politics