TRB: The illusionist
Watch John McCain saw the budget in half!
Jonathan Chait
The New Republic
If you accuse John McCain of agreeing with George W. Bush on economics, he'll come back at you with the one big issue where he and Bush disagree: spending. McCain may (now) approve of the Bush tax cuts, but he lacerates the president for his spendthrift ways. This, McCain says, is a "fundamental" difference between him and Bush.
But you know who else disagrees with George W. Bush on spending? George W. Bush. The president has been lamenting excessive spending for years now. Bush's line is the same as McCain's: The tax cuts are swell, but "[t]hat's just one part of the equation. We've got to cut out wasteful spending."
Actually, McCain is following the pattern of not just Bush but every Republican president since Ronald Reagan. Phase One is to enact tax cuts and promise that they'll cause revenues to rise, or will cause revenues to fall (leading to spending cuts), or somehow both at once, so, either way, there's no possibility that it will lead to deficits. Phase Two is deficits. Phase Three is to blame the deficits on big-spending congressional fat cats and to issue increasingly strident threats to cut expenditures, without going so far as to identify actual programs to cut.
One of the tropes of this phase is railing against the evils of pork-barrel spending. President Bush's position is that earmarks are really bad. ("The time has come to end this practice [of congressional earmarking]," he urges. "So let us work together to reform the budget process, expose every earmark to the light of day and to a vote in Congress.") McCain's position is that earmarks are really, really bad. He likes to hold up for ridicule a federal program to study bear DNA, and he has taken to using the same language to taunt congressional appropriators ("I'm their worst nightmare") that he otherwise reserves for Hamas.
Another trope is the embrace of the line-item veto as panacea. Reagan crusaded for the line-item veto, as did George H.W. Bush. Today McCain vows, "I will seek a constitutionally valid line-item veto to end the practice [of earmarking] once and for all." When then-Vice President Bush was making the line-item veto a big issue in the 1988 campaign, economist Doug Holtz-Eakin studied state budgets over the previous 28 years. He concluded that "over time, in the hands of Republicans and Democrats alike, the line-item veto fails to cut spending." Apparently Holtz-Eakin has failed to share these findings with McCain, whom he serves as chief economics adviser.
(Continued here.)
Jonathan Chait
The New Republic
If you accuse John McCain of agreeing with George W. Bush on economics, he'll come back at you with the one big issue where he and Bush disagree: spending. McCain may (now) approve of the Bush tax cuts, but he lacerates the president for his spendthrift ways. This, McCain says, is a "fundamental" difference between him and Bush.
But you know who else disagrees with George W. Bush on spending? George W. Bush. The president has been lamenting excessive spending for years now. Bush's line is the same as McCain's: The tax cuts are swell, but "[t]hat's just one part of the equation. We've got to cut out wasteful spending."
Actually, McCain is following the pattern of not just Bush but every Republican president since Ronald Reagan. Phase One is to enact tax cuts and promise that they'll cause revenues to rise, or will cause revenues to fall (leading to spending cuts), or somehow both at once, so, either way, there's no possibility that it will lead to deficits. Phase Two is deficits. Phase Three is to blame the deficits on big-spending congressional fat cats and to issue increasingly strident threats to cut expenditures, without going so far as to identify actual programs to cut.
One of the tropes of this phase is railing against the evils of pork-barrel spending. President Bush's position is that earmarks are really bad. ("The time has come to end this practice [of congressional earmarking]," he urges. "So let us work together to reform the budget process, expose every earmark to the light of day and to a vote in Congress.") McCain's position is that earmarks are really, really bad. He likes to hold up for ridicule a federal program to study bear DNA, and he has taken to using the same language to taunt congressional appropriators ("I'm their worst nightmare") that he otherwise reserves for Hamas.
Another trope is the embrace of the line-item veto as panacea. Reagan crusaded for the line-item veto, as did George H.W. Bush. Today McCain vows, "I will seek a constitutionally valid line-item veto to end the practice [of earmarking] once and for all." When then-Vice President Bush was making the line-item veto a big issue in the 1988 campaign, economist Doug Holtz-Eakin studied state budgets over the previous 28 years. He concluded that "over time, in the hands of Republicans and Democrats alike, the line-item veto fails to cut spending." Apparently Holtz-Eakin has failed to share these findings with McCain, whom he serves as chief economics adviser.
(Continued here.)
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1 Comments:
While McCain may say that Economics is not his strong suit, he certainly understands Personal Finance. Cindy McCain’s tax return indicated over $743,000 in Capital Gains tax income, so the Bush Tax Cuts lowering Capital Gains certainly helped his personal (or at least his wife’s) finances..
Second, he wants to cut Corporate Tax rates … once again, how would this impact his personal (or at least his wife’s) finances.
And lastly, let’s not forget that Gas Tax Holiday. Yes, we consumer would save a few pennies this summer … but since the same gas tax is paid by truckers who move McCain’s Budweiser, they would save a lot more … once again, he knows how to help his personal (or at least his wife’s) finances.
Now, let's move on to Earmarks. Just take a quick look at the DOD budget plan for 2009 and see the earmarks ... then ask yourself, how many of those would you cut ... most appear to be reasonable and necessary ... like Jim Oberstar's request to replace the Fuel Cell Hanger for the 148th Air in Duluth ... or Betty McCollum's request for the Arden Hills Army Training site. Earmarks are like the cherry on the top of the sundae ... easily seen, maybe enjoyable, but actually relatively minor to the whole sundae ... the DOD is still funding 20 more F22's even though the GOA doesn't think its a wise investment.
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