The New York Post, which is “in the tank” for McCain, yesterday published an op ed by Charles Gasparino titled “AN OBAMA PANIC? MARKETS FEAR HIS POLICIES.”
Naturally, on the same day, the the Dow Jones industrial average rose by 936 points. News this morning is that Asian and European markets are rising again today.
The rally has less to do with either Obama’s or McCain’s campaign promises than with the Bush Administration’s decision to follow Europe’s lead and invest up to $250 billion in U.S. banks. But my point is that we seem to have entered a period in which the wingnuts cannot catch a break.
Oh, and did I mention Paul Krugman won the Nobel Prize in economics? Sweet.
Anyway — this morning the McCain campaign released Senator McCain’s plan for creating new JOBS. We know this because the title of the proposal (PDF) is JOBS FOR AMERICA: The McCain Economic Plan. So how does McCain plan to create new JOBS? I skimmed through the report looking for any statement related to jobs, and here is the plan:
- He’s going to balance the budget by 2013. Sure he is.
- He will lower the rate of corporate taxes from 35 percent to 25 percent. And balance the budget.
- He will invest in technology.
- He wants to build 45 new nuclear power plants by 2030, which will create 700,000 jobs.
- He will boost exports with lots of new free trade agreements.
- Investing in clean coal technology will revitalize coal mining — another 30,000 jobs, at least.
- “As Americans retro-fit to improve energy efficiency and reduce their carbon footprint, jobs will flow to the U.S. providers of insulation, windows, appliances, and other sources of energy efficiency.”
- He wants to overhaul unemployment insurance to make it a program for retraining and relocating people who have lost jobs. Uh, John? What if they don’t want to be relocated?
And that’s it. It took him 15 pages to explain that.
I want to point out that he makes no provision for corporations doing anything to get the 25 percent rate. In other words, they can cheerfully export jobs — excuse me, JOBS — overseas, and still get the 25 percent rate. Why cutting their tax rates would change that is beyond me. And of course free trade agreements have worked so well for us in the past.
If you want to see something truly pathetic, check out McCain’s “JOBS for America” video. It says nothing, but it says nothing with great decisiveness. Hysterical.
Charles Gasparino is a wingnut gas bag. I heard him state that Clinton is the root cause of the financial crisis. He thinks Paulson’s interest in environmental issues some how effects his monetary policies. He is the 21st century O’Rielly of CNBC.
Never forget that McCain is a Republican. Just a clue to how a Republican thinks is his idea of how a tax cut (for the rich, which he neglects to mention) would be so beneficial for all of us.
It works this way. That lofty 1% of us will realize a $1000/wk increase in income. The lowly rest of us? About $1.50/wk. Put on your Republican hat and it all makes beautiful sense. The 1% will have the money to hire the rest of us – who are verging on starvation – whereas if that 1% didn’t have that extra thou, we lowly ones would starve to death for lack of a job. Republicans are truly all-heart.
Tax cuts are the Republican panacea for any woe. Hurricane Katrina? They need some tax cuts over there. Astronomical medical bills? How about a $5000 tax credit. And so on.
I found it amusing that in one bullet, he advocates clean coal, and yet in the very next one, he’s talking about reducing our carbon footprint.
This really looks like it was dashed together in a hurry. The two campaigns, Obama’s and McCain’s are such a study in contrasts – steady, calm surefootedness vs a sleepless night of tossing and turning.
Hopefully after Nov 4, we won’t have this joke of a shipwrecked campaign around to insult everyone’s intelligence. At that point the flaws/shortcomings in Obama’s plans – minor in contrast to McCain’s – will start to get the scrutiny they deserve.
Pop quiz, gang. Who said this today (and why?):
I no longer have any clear idea what, exactly, the modern conservative movement stands for…. Eight years of “conservative” government has brought us a doubled national debt, ruinous expansion of entitlement programs, bridges to nowhere, poster boy Jack Abramoff and an ill-premised, ill-waged war conducted by politicians of breathtaking arrogance. As a sideshow, it brought us a truly obscene attempt at federal intervention in the Terry Schiavo case.
Guesses? I’ll check in later with the answer….
Christopher Buckley?
Uh, John? What if they don’t want to be relocated?
Force them, obviously. Look at the record of republicans and coercion. Who was it who put in the central planning Wage and Price Controls, which attempted to tell employers what they could pay and how much they could charge? Nixon. Republican.
Yeah, it was the Terry Schiavo circus that provided my epiphany in understanding that our government under the Bush administration was out of control.
Swami, you are correct, sir!
Part of his resignation rant from the National Review.
We could start “Who’s Next?” pool. Will the last Republican please turn out the lights? We ain’t payin’ your bills no more.
Hey, don’t forget all the JOBS McCain will create for people in the pony-feed industry, when he makes sure that everyone gets a PONY ALL THEIR OWN!!
Not to mention all those jobs cleaning up after the ponies! Never let it be said that John McCain doesn’t know how to shovel the … you know, it occurs to me there was more creativity in that sad excuse for a joke than in McCain’s whole plan.
Sigh.
I haven’t heard any smears from Palin in the last 2 days..What’s that all about? I guess she’s replenishing her venom sacs after a busy week of spewing her poison.
Oh, unemployment insurance. I wonder if this is one of those Welfare Queen arguments where wealthy Republicans just assume people on unemployment are worthless moochers. In New York, anyway, there’s a limit to how long you can be on unemployment before they kick you off and there’s already job training. (If I had been on unemployment any longer than I was last year, I would have had to do a mandatory session at my local career guidance center.) I wonder where I would have gotten relocated to.
Also, did he just pull a Palin by changing the subject to energy policy?