In what was being billed as a “major speech on the economy,” Senator McCain today laid forth an, um, underwhelming plan to help the tanking American economic system. In addition to the conservative staple of cutting corporate tax rates, St. McCain proposed a bold plan to help Americans who are having trouble paying their mortgages. His solution: fill out a form at the post office. I kid you not. When it comes to high energy costs, McSame revives a 10 year old Bob Dole plan to suspend federal taxes on gasoline over the summer. Never mind that he wants this plan to go into effect this summer, a whole six months before his term as President would begin. CNN’s Ali Velshi breaks down the specifics (or lack thereof) of McCain’s plan.
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When John McCain admitted that he didn’t understand the economy, he wasn’t kidding. The absurdity of his housing “plan” speaks for itself, but his summer gas holiday plan underscores a fundamental misunderstanding of the energy problems this country faces. Instead of advocating a bold, sweeping plan to wean the country off foreign oil — which is the root of many of our problems far beyond high gas prices at the pump — he dusts off a decade-old plan that would have a marginal effect for a short period of time.
Memo to McCain: The last thing you should do — especially in light of this article in NY Magazine — is propose anything similar to Dole.
John Amato: And I won’t even get into his opposition of the new GI Bill at this time….
Filed Under: Economy, Election 08, John McCain
Tags: John McCain
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Why should we help struggling homeowners? Because they bought a house they couldn’t afford? How about struggling renters that didn’t do that and have to suffer with inflation?
He spews he wants to hold government accountable but does not have the guts to do it in Senate for w and cheney.
heaven forbid you have to go to the post office!
Oh shit, he really is Bush III.
A la economic stimulus package, $300 tax bonus, the “surge”, [insert long Bush policy list here]
kevin @ 1:
The third question answers your first.
As ABC News helpfully reminds us, April 15th is John McCain Tax Flip-Flop Day. McCain, as you’ll recall, twice voted against President Bush’s budget-busting tax cuts for the richest Americans who need them least. But having undergone a supply-side conversion on the road to the White House, John McCain now wants to make them permanent.
For the details, see:
“April 15th is John McCain Tax Flip-Flop Day.”
WARNING***
you will be hearing, and reading more and more about our poor, poor, poor corporate overlords from the GOP and mccain. they will lament over the high corporate tax rate, claiming that the poor corporations are being mistreated. they will demand that public services be cut so that we can cut the corporate tax rate, in order to be more competitive. (nevermind that corporations are moving their operations overseas for cheap labor, scant labor laws, and non-existent environmental laws)
the GOP is going to make a reduction of corporate taxes a staple of their 08 platform. they want people to think that corporations are being treated unfairly, after you stop laughing at the absurd claims remember something: they are not telling you the full truth *gasps*
and consider one more thing:
since the 80s our economic policy has been dominated by the market fundamentalists, neoliberals, reaganites, and “fiscal conservatives.” look at what their policies have wrought. we are worse off. yet, they still want you to heed their advice.
If you fill out a form for tax free gas in the post office
The next thing you know you’re in the Army.
(Never mind we don’t pay much in gas taxes; most of the taxes are VAT’s so favored by the reichwing, already built into the price.)
Raising the gas tax might do more to help us with oil supply and prices than any foolish tax cut would.
I like the Hardball ad on the right: “and you know Matthews will ask McCain the tough questions.”
Hahahahahahahahahahaha!
As one who did NOT buy a house during the “boom” (ie, bubble) out of concern that things would go south quickly– despite the availability of “free money” and despite ridicule from others that I wasn’t hopping aboard the house-flipping gravy train, I have not all that much sympathy for those who have gotten themselves into trouble.
Calling them “homeowners” who are losing their house is disingenuous. They do not own their homes. “House speculators” maybe.
Still in an apartment,
B
kevin @ 1:
Why did they buy a home they couldn’t afford? Think it had anything to do with a greedy industry that convinced them they could afford it?
I’m glad we can find the federal funds to bail out a mortgage merchant, but we have no money to help the common person.
He is advocating a bold, sweeping plan to ween the country off foreign oil….you just don’t get it.
HOT AIR.
The official renewable energy source of the GOP.From what I hear we have an endless supply beacause no one else wants it.
Cut taxes?
I’m in! This guy is the real deal.
Signed,
Stupid Murkin
McCain offers an incoherent pile of nonsense and he’s “getting closer to specifics”.
Democrats put out a detailed plan and it’s completely ignored, and asked repeatedly why they “don’t have a plan”.
I have a sense that McSame is on the way to a complete mental meltdown. I just hope he waits to implode until after his nomination is finalized.
Why am I paying to bail out some homeowner who got in way over his head??? Boo f*cking hoo. If you’re too damn dumb to understand the responsibility you’re undertaking, that’s your problem. Don’t come crying to me looking for a hand out.
You fools- don’t you see, if the gas tax is suspended, it’s MONEY$ in our pocketses. And we’ll have John McCain to thank for it! We’ll virtually owe him our votes then, for getting us more MONEY$ in these less-moneyed times!
Well, the stupid people will, anyway…
Federal Gasoline tax is a whole 19 cents a gallon, whoop-de-shit!
solid @ 10:
LOL, Tweety with his man crush St. McCain. It’s going to be a 1 hour asskissing session.
Hopefully Villanova’s students will really get a chance to pound McLame on his views and show how out of the American mainstream he really is.
The Truth Hurts @ 17:
speaking of dumb…
if you were a homeowner, say one that was not in risk of losing your house, you should/would realize that mass foreclosures hurt YOUR home’s value.
and no one is looking to “you” for a handout, that cliche is so friggin dumb.
I listened to the whole clip. Did I miss the post office part?
The Truth Hurts @ 17:
mmmkay…
What about the effects of the widespread problem mmkay?
The economy is getting effed up and somehow turning our backs will make it better?
kevin @ 1:
You don’t get it. It’s not a question of helping a bunch of undeserving dummies who bought too much house with too little equity.
What MUST happen is that the financial system, which still runs on regualtions written in the 1930s, has to be comprehensively re-regulated. All those idiots who signed dumbass subprime contracts were only able to do so because the banks and mortgage companies threw their old lending standards out the window. It used to be that banks held mortgages to maturity, which meant they had to eat bad loans. Then the Wall St. brokerage houses figured out how to securitize mortgage loans, so the mortgage lenders sold their portfolios to bondholders. There were no regulations to enforce lending standards. Everybody involved made huge commissions and fees on this little scheme. The lenders said to themselves, ‘Hey, I don’t have any risk any more - if the mortgages go bad, it’s the boldholders’ problem. Yippee!!’. Result: anybody with a pulse could get a mortgage, sometimes for more than the value of the property, principal payments deferred for years, and other insane gimmicks.
Don’t blame the borrowers, blame the brokers, banks, CEOs and the government.
An 18 cent cut in gas prices would put us back to 2 weeks ago, for a few days. The dollar would then drop, and gas would continue to climb in price. Its the result of 8 years of Bush/Republican shock and awe: borrow, lie, kill and spend.
McCain to Nation - “Get a horse.”
“Why should I bailout homeowners, blah, blah…”
Ahh, I see some of the troglodytic right has made their way over here feigning indignation about helping out their fellow Americans. Surely, these upstanding principled rightwingers were just as outraged that we bailed out a brokerage firm using tax dollars.
That’s the problem with the cons. They have no problem socializing corporate losses but a huge problem with socializing losses for individuals.
kevin @ 1:
Ken, when you retire be sure to decline your SS check and if you’re ever unemployed best of luck…why should I and the rest of us help YOU…obviously you would have lost your job due to your own incompetence.
Samson- @ 21:
I gotta defend the original post. Sorry if defaulting borrowers bring down the values of homes in your neighborhood, including yours– but if those other houses were valued too highly as a result of the bubble, that means the value of your home SHOULD go down too as its worth was overestimated. In other words, your house *never* was worth what you thought it was worth– it gained its perceived value from the other houses. But since those homes were artificially inflated due to the bubble, you’re gonna have to accept the true value of the house. You don’t get to pick and choose the market value any more than the defaulting homeowners do.
B
Grandpa…I can’t get to the Post Office…too far…and the Pony Express is too expensive.
kevin @ 1:
I bought a house in ‘93 and avoided the ARM exactly because I KNEW it would come back to bite me later on. I deliberately saved enough to put down so my payments would be within my budget. From 2000 to 2007 people in Socal were buying up whatever they could for vastly inflated prices, betting on the equity to compensate for the astronomical payments. I have little sympathy for the homeowners who bought from these predatory lenders thinking they were going to make a killing in the market. Caveat Emptor.
There are thousands of people who purchased “Cheap” homes in the inland valleys and deserts of Socal during this time, even though they had to commute 1-2 hours one way to work in San Diego or LA. Now they are getting the double whammy in lower home values and higher gas prices. Plus you MUST have a/c out there in the summer, so the utility bills will run around $300/ month on average.
U.S. bankruptcies soared 38 percent in 2007: government Reuters - 1 hour, 3 minutes ago
I blame both. I personally watched people buy houses out of greed- houses they could not afford. I heard talk in elevators from people hyping the crap out of each other about free loans and flipping and all that. Many– not all or necessarily even most, but certainly MANY people bought homes irresponsibly, and to bail them out at taxpayers expense creates moral hazard and punishes those who were responsible during a 10-year period of mass dare I say insanity.
B
The real joke is this is supposedly the second “major” speech this old douchebag has given about the foreclosure crisis and it’s still nothing but empty rhetoric. McSame has absolutely nothing to offer the American people.
While I will NEVER dispute that the banks are a huge part of the problem,
MURKINS ARE STOOPID!
Yeah, let’s cut more taxes and not pay for it. Put it on our tab, let someone else pay for it. When the nations credit card gets maxed out, just raise the limit again. Simple! When are people going to wake up the right-wing tax cut lie? They habitually try to scare the hell out of people with the standard “they’re gonna raise your taxes!” line. Hey they haven’t raised your taxes, right? No, they’ve only created an economy where you’re paying 3 times more for food, for energy, for everything. But they didn’t raise your taxes, so they must be on your side…
Bored @ 11:
Yeah, your mom’s!
Maybe if we promise him his own room at the nursing home with occasional conjugal visits from his rich trophy wife McBush will eventually just go away.
Oh, you burned me good. Yeah I’m living in my mom’s apartment. Thanks for the keen commentary.
B
.
So McFish now thinks there IS a problem with the economy?
.
Besides:
“Property is theft”
John Reed
I can’t afford the gasoline to get to the Post Office.
Besides:
My house is free & clear but it has lost 25% in value since the debacle began.
Mad Max Inflation
Bored @ 11:
How many times are you going to post this same statement? It seems like a daily thing with you.
Great, so you pay some landlord’s mortgage. You seem very proud. I am a homeowner and actually have equity in my property (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Equity), just like your landlord.
L.A. Confidential @ 31:
And a merry old time they are having in Bankruptcy Court, thanks to Clinton/McCain et al.
Samson- @ 7:
This is why I’m an embittered American.
McCain concluded his press conference with, “Now all yall young uns git offa ma lawn!”
Oil pushes to new high above $113; gas prices also at record.
Let’s just let the “gamblers” continue to destroy the country without any checks or balances.
The article says:
“Never mind that he wants this plan to go into effect this summer, a whole six months before his term as President would begin…Instead of advocating a bold, sweeping plan to ween the country off foreign oil…he dusts off a decade-old plan that would have a marginal effect for a short period of time.”
Of course this plan goes into effect “six months before his term as President would begin.” That’s just the point, isn’t it? This is a plan to create a short-term dip in gasoline prices right before the election. That’s bound to favor the incumbent party, no?