I hold in my hand one of the most important pieces of paper in America: Table T08-0071, an analysis of candidate John McCain's tax plan.
OK, it's not really in my hand because I'm typing, but I'm looking at it carefully, and you should too. It is a table constructed by the Tax Policy Center's steely-eyed tax analysts, and it reveals nothing less than McCain's secret plan to diminish the US government beyond recognition. If he gets his way, conservatives will finally be able to say they've achieved the goal set out by Grover Norquist: to get government "down to the size where we can drown it in the bathtub."
The numbers in the table show the revenue loss to the Federal government from McCain's proposed tax cuts. In the far right corner is the 10-year total: -$5.7 trillion.
People deride the Republican candidate as "McSame," implying a continuation of Bushonomics as well as the president's foreign policy. But from the perspective of domestic policy, it's much worse. Sure, McCain extends the Bush tax cuts but that's the least of it. At $1.7 trillion they amount to less than a third of the damage.
Note also that the big ticket tax cuts-eliminating the alternative minimum tax and lowering the corporate tax-both follow on another Bush tradition of exacerbating market-driven (i.e., pre-tax) inequalities by cutting high-end taxes the most.
As I stresshere , McCain's plans to pay for these tax cuts amount to filling a crater with a teaspoon of sand. Earmarks won't get you there, so he'll have to go after discretionary spending. In fact, he's already suggesting a freeze in such spending, excluding defense, of course. Sound inoffensive until you consider that we're talking about kids' health care, education, child care, training for displaced workers, environmental and labor protections, and dozens more programs that lots of people actually need and care about.
Plus, he can't fill the hole he's dug with cuts in these programs either, which leads you to the inevitable punch line of all this: his target is the entitlements, Social Security and Medicare. Those programs have always been the big enchiladas for the Norquist shock troops and they've never recovered from their Social Security privatization defeat. Well, they're back, incognito.
McCain's top economist, a number cruncher of great integrity named Doug Holtz-Eakin, responds to the Tax Policy's analysis here, and he makes a good point or two, especially regarding the way they score the AMT, but his counterpoints amount to little more than quibbles. In fact, one can't help wonder if Doug, who used to inveigh against supply-side nonsense, has been drawn to the economic dark side. When recently asked about the extent to which these numbers fail to add up, his response was: "I think what [critics] ought to do is remember that the proposals are going to engender economic growth, which is the best thing you can do for near-term budget improvement." That's pure hand waving of the type with which the old Holtz-Eakin had no patience.
This story has yet to catch the fire it should, and hopefully will, once the D's get focused on McCain and his dim vision of government. But the point born of these numbers is as simple as it is compelling:
For seven long years, we've tried entrusting our government to those who discredit it, defund it, and fundamentally disbelieve in its role, except when they seek a lucrative contract or a bailout. We gone down the road-and it is a crumbling road, with potholes and failing bridges -- where the solution to every problem is a tax cut, where critical agencies are staffed with cronies at best and opposition lobbyists at worst, where secrecy trumps transparency and cynicism rules, where budget resources are never available for expanding children's health care, but always there for war.
Table T08-0071 is a road map to taking us far, far deeper into this morass. We must not go there.
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I quoted this blog on the HillaryFor
Why? you might ask?
There is a large movement afoot there to convince Hillary supporters to vote for McCain if Obama gets the nomination
It is more important to get the Democratic candidate elected in the fall, and this thread is a very important argument to that end. It is "the most important piece of paper.....
Thanks again.
I am an ardent Hillary supporter, and most of the people that Ive talked to who are Hillary supporters
I think you make a mistake of assuming that all people who claim to be Hillary supporters really are what they say they are.
He didn't say "This will help the economy" or "This is what's best for the country".
He said "This is our due" - that pretty well sums it up.
While this type of discussion may not be as EXCITING as those about the latest gaffe or pissing match ,....ultim
Less heat =more light.
McCain's personal story, maverick status, and overall likeabilit
That's why it's even more important to carefully analyze (as our media consistent
Most Americans would agree that we're in a hell of a fix, economical
Many would be quite surprised to learn that the likable Sen. McCain proposes to not only continue these policies but to excacerbat
Many thanks to Jared Bernstein for taking on the dry and often thankless task of raising awareness around this important issue. I hope he and others will continue to do so through November. Regards...
Stuart's "Random Thoughts" blog
We need to end the "me" type of politics. That's one Change I can really beliee in. As a recently retired teacher in an inner city high school in south Los Angeles, I got drafted to serve as senior class sponsor 4 times. I always preferred teaming up with 2 or 3 other colleagues and sharing the responsibi
Beat McCain!
1) Open a toxic landfill in your back yard.
2) Grow opium poppies and marijuana in the front yard.
3) Make the toxic waste and addictive substances into a huge line of consumer products that sell like hotcakes all over the country and run all the honest locally owned merchants out of business.
Oh, wait. If we truly open up markets free of all regulation
Right now, we the 98% are paying heavily for the 2% at the top.
The question is, who is big enough and brave enough to oppose the big moneyed interests and pull this country out of the maw of true evildoers interested only in short-term profit at any cost?
It's hard to believe the Republican
While that 1% is content to keep its gushing profits flowing using the care-laden lives of powerless Americans, they are determined to banish every entitlemen
Finishing up a speech in the family manse of the billionair
Republican
There should be an outcry against the Republican parties tricks to stack the deck in their favor but if there is I certainly haven't seen it ,so maybe media is blacking them out too .
It also includes the roads, the education system, the monetary system (so that you don't have to grow all your own food, and drill for your own oil, and build your own car!!!) etc......
Maybe gov't isn't such a bad thing after all.......
All functions of government simply CANNOT be performed by the marketplac
Throwing the baby out with the bathwater regarding the role of government is how we got into this mess in the first place.
If given a chance, babies do grow up, after all, and eventually bathe themselves
First words I want to hear from the next POTUS - Take all the Bush 2 administra
Each citizen will recieve all the freedom he or she can afford to purchase.
Well said......
There are no insoluble government problems.
Do not let these 545 people shift the blame to bureaucrat
Above all, do not let them con you into the belief that there exists disembodie
Those 545 people, and they alone, are responsibl
They, and they alone, have the power.
They, and they alone, should be held accountabl
We should vote all of them out of office and clean up their mess!
Charlie Reese is a former columnist of the Orlando Sentinel Newspaper.
No normal human being would have the gall of a Speaker, who stood up and criticized the President for creating deficits.
The president can only propose a budget.
He cannot force the Congress to accept it.
The Constituti
Who is the speaker of the House?
She is the leader of the majority party.
She and fellow House members, not the president, can approve any budget they want.
If the president vetoes it, they can pass it over his veto if they agree to.
It seems inconceiva
I can't think of a single domestic problem that is not traceable directly to those 545 people.
When you fully grasp the plain truth that 545 people exercise the power of the federal government
If the tax code is unfair, it's because they want it unfair.
If the budget is in the red, it's because they want it in the red.
If the Marines are in IRAQ, it's because they want them in IRAQ.
If they do not receive social security but are on an elite retirement plan not available to the people, it's because they want it that way.
One hundred senators, 435 congressme
I excluded the members of the Federal Reserve Board because that problem was created by the Congress.
In 1913, Congress delegated its Constituti
I excluded all the special interests and lobbyists for a sound reason. They have no legal authority.
They have no ability to coerce a senator, a congressma
I don't care if they offer a politician $1 million dollars in cash. The politician has the power to accept or reject it. No matter what the lobbyist promises, it is the legislator
Those 545 human beings spend much of their energy convincing you that what they did is not their fault. They cooperate in this common con regardless of party.
What separates a politician from a normal human being is an excessive amount of gall.