Slog - Comments on John McCain Will Declare Victory on the Deficit

Comment by Fnarf

Fnarf — Thu, 10 Jul 2008 10:50:17 -0800

McCain's own people admit that his "Eliminate Wasteful Spending" plan will save a whopping $18 bn if they're lucky. Meanwhile, his tax plans will add another $300 bn a year to the deficit, and his war plan costs even more than Bush's. Net result: economic collapse, or possibly the Chinese bankers stepping in and delivering some hard truths. If China stops seeing our treasury notes as a good investment, our entire economy goes into free-fall.

Comment by Lara

Lara — Thu, 10 Jul 2008 10:51:29 -0800

How long do you bet it'll take before he steals Chuck Norris from Huckabee and touts him as our economic solution: repaying the national debt one can of whoopass at a time!

Comment by flamingbanjo

flamingbanjo — Thu, 10 Jul 2008 10:51:44 -0800

The only possible savings I can figure he's actually hoping to generate (as opposed to the flat-out lying in the 'plans' mentioned here) are the entitlement programs: Medicare, Medicaid and Social Security. In other words, roll back the New Deal. I know there's a lot of talk about moving past the Culture Wars from the sixties, but Republicans are still fighting the Culture War of the thirties.

It seems like bankrupting the government is part of the plan, not an unfortunate side effect.

Comment by bohica

bohica — Thu, 10 Jul 2008 10:58:42 -0800

Since all the costs were financed with deficit spending...all the savings isn't savings. It's just borrowing less. We're in a deficit even without Iraq/Afghanistan war spending...and ending those wars isn't suddenly going to generate income.

Comment by Eric L

Eric L — Thu, 10 Jul 2008 11:01:10 -0800

Now, now, I read through the plan and it just isn't true that there are no numbers in there. In fact, most of the proposals that will increase the deficit have numbers attached. $2 billion/year for "clean coal", $5000/family or $2500/individual for health care, etc. It's just every proposal that would get him closer to his goal of balancing the budget that has no numbers attached, or even any kind of specifics that would allow you to guess at the numbers...

Comment by Eric L

Eric L — Thu, 10 Jul 2008 11:07:39 -0800

@3:

He does imply that changes to Medicare and Social Security are part of his plan, though he likes to be as vague as possible especially regarding what he's doing with Social Security. The thing is, he's claiming he'll balance the budget in 4 years, but a long term solvency fix for Social Security shouldn't affect the budget over the next 4 years. What's more, Social Security is in the black, so it hardly seems fair to balance the budget at the expense of Social Security.

Comment by lostboy

lostboy — Thu, 10 Jul 2008 11:09:46 -0800

It's worse even than Ryan S. paints it. McCain's plan is like saying,

Once I finish my home theater, I'll be free from borrowing $500 each month to fund it.

Then I can start borrowing $500 each month to make the loan payments!

Comment by Will in Seattle

Will in Seattle — Thu, 10 Jul 2008 11:11:09 -0800

Victory?

Maybe if you're the Red Chinese that McCain is working for.

Comment by Chip

Chip — Thu, 10 Jul 2008 11:26:15 -0800

How is this any worse than the standard supply-side argument of lower taxes generating more revenue than the previous higher taxes?

Comment by lostboy

lostboy — Thu, 10 Jul 2008 12:00:32 -0800

Chip @9, the lower tax/higher revenue argument is actually rational in the right context.* McCain's plan for GWoT savings is inherently bullshit.

* Oversimplification: Setting tax rates is similar to retail pricing; take the up slope of profit margin (tax rate) and the down slope of unit sales (taxable economic activity) and then find the peak of the combined functions. Supply-siders' self-serving game is to blindly insist that the peak occurs infinitely close to zero (like Wal-Mart customers convinced that price is all that matters).

Comment by CP

CP — Thu, 10 Jul 2008 19:17:03 -0800

Slopes on graphs? NERD PATROL!

Tax cuts _are magic._ All tax cuts increase revenue and balance budgets!

flamingbanjo, painting the Fed. Gov't into a corner with deficit spending has been a stated goal of the lulu right since the Reagan years. They like having the gov't weak, it keeps it from upsetting any applecarts. Surely you're aware of Grover Norquists's quote re. drowning it in a bathtub?

Oh, and it's not just the Culture Wars of the 30's, and I'm not being paranoid: they want to roll back the Progressive era of McKinley & TR, too. Damn that federal slaughterhouse inspection! I wish I was making this up. I am not.

There's really very little secret what the Turtlemen are up to. Times are tough in this flattening world, fellow citizens. Do like McCain or Friedman and find yourself a loaded spouse! Then lecture about the need for belt-tightening.

Comment by CP

CP — Thu, 10 Jul 2008 19:20:53 -0800

Oh, and how 'bout that wacky premise? All an imperial power has to do to win a counterinsurgency campaign is TRY EXTRA HARDER! Oh yeah. Works every time. For as long as you're willing to pound your head against the wall.

Home team advantage: patience, and nowhere else to go. And usually, nothing else to do but fuck with you.