McCain supports Bush's Social Security Reform: Imagine if it had gone through!

[amborin]

"Eugene Robinson: McCain is not the man who is going to save the economy

BYLINE: By Eugene Robinson Syndicated columnist


John McCain was telling the truth when he said that economics wasn't his strong suit. In response to what many economists have called the worst financial crisis since the Great Depression, the Republican nominee has sounded and let's be honest here totally, embarrassingly and dangerously clueless.

His now-famous remark Monday about how "the fundamentals of our economy are strong" would almost by itself be enough to justify my assessment. But he committed what was probably an even worse gaffe on Tuesday when, as the behemoth insurance company AIG teetered on the brink, McCain took a stand. "I do not believe that the American taxpayer should be on the hook for AIG," he said. "We cannot have the taxpayers bail out AIG or anybody else."

Within hours, the federal government had bailed out AIG to the tune of $85 billion. Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson and others who know how Wall Street works understood that if AIG were to collapse, much of the financial system might follow.

McCain quickly changed his tune, saying the government was "forced" to rescue AIG because of "failed regulation, reckless management and a casino culture on Wall Street." That sounds OK, but wait a minute. If he had any idea of what he was talking about if he had any inkling of how big AIG is, or how central the company has become then why on earth would he have taken a stand against a bailout in the first place? Doesn't he have economic advisers who could fill him in?

Oh, I forgot. McCain's top economic guru, Douglas Holtz-Eakin, was busy explaining to reporters that McCain, as chairman of the Senate Commerce Committee, "helped create" the BlackBerry. The McCain campaign quickly dismissed Holtz-Eakin's remark as a "boneheaded joke," but it was delivered with an awfully convincing deadpan. The blogosphere lit up with comparisons to Al Gore's alleged claim to have invented the Internet.

Adding insult to injury, one of McCain's most vocal campaign surrogates former Hewlett-Packard chief executive Carly Fiorina volunteered that McCain wasn't qualified to run a major corporation. She gave the same assessment of Sarah Palin, Barack Obama and Joe Biden, but the McCain campaignEnhanced
's high command was so piqued that it canceled Fiorina's planned television appearances.

In an attempt to get back on message, McCain released new television ads Wednesday on the subject of the economy. "I'll meet this financial crisis head on," he says in one. "I won't tolerate a system that puts you and your family at risk. Your savings, your jobs I'll keep them safe."

In fairness, Obama hasn't come up with a magic bullet to solve the financial crisis, either. There are differences, though. For one, Obama's proposals for action a stimulus plan, protection for homeowners in peril of foreclosure, increased regulation are more specific than McCain's. For another, Obama blames the crisis on "an economic philosophy that sees any regulation at all as unwise and unnecessary." McCain now calls for better regulation, too after enthusiastically playing a major role in the frenzy of deregulation that helped create this awful mess.

In other words, McCain is running against his own record.

To cite one example, McCain backed landmark legislation in 1999 that removed the walls between banks, investment firms and insurance companies. That bill allowed a company like AIG to expand beyond its traditional insurance business which is still profitable into exotic new products that ultimately brought the company down.

McCain, who told the Wall Street Journal in March that "I'm always for less regulation," now asks voters to believe he will be a champion of tough, unblinking oversight. He's shocked and outraged that Wall Street's preening Masters of the Universe threw a drunken toga party and smashed all the furniture but he helped buy the beer and told the cops to look the other way.

Here's something that really ought to grab everyone's attention: McCain supports George W. Bush's idea of channeling at least some Social Security funds into "personal accounts" that individuals would invest on Wall Street. Some of that money would have been entrusted to firms such as Bear Stearns (failed), Lehman Brothers (failed) and Merrill Lynch (sold at a fire sale). Imagine what this crisis would be like if Americans' Social Security benefits were evaporating along with their housing values and their 401(k) accounts.

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from: Contra Costa Times (California)

September 22, 2008 Monday

[amborin]

1. McCain's stance on social security: taking money out and investing it

"The Boston Globe

June 14, 2008 Saturday
THIRD EDITION

Candidates offer Social Security plans

SECTION: NATIONAL; Pg. A5



Barack Obama, highlighting differences with John McCain Enhanced Coverage LinkingJohn McCain -
on Social Security, declared yesterday that he would shore up the program by imposing payroll taxes on wages above $250,000 a year.

Now, the first $102,000 in salary is taxed at 6.2 percent. In specifically setting for the first time where he wants to apply further payroll taxes, Obama's proposal would create a so-called donut hole, because income between $102,000 and $250,000 wouldn't be taxed.

"Right now, the Social Security payroll tax is capped," Obama said in Columbus, Ohio, on day five of his economic tour of battleground states. "That means most middle-class families pay this tax on every dime they make, while millionaires and billionaires are only paying it on a very small percentage of their income.

That's why I think the best way forward is to adjust the cap on the payroll tax so that people like me pay a little bit more and people in need are protected. That way we can extend the promise of Social Security without shifting the burden onto seniors."

Pledging to protect Social Security "today, tomorrow, and forever," Obama said 97 percent of Americans would not be affected by his plan.

He also hit McCain for being open to private savings accounts to supplement the retirement benefits, saying that amounts to privatizing Social Security.

McCain denied again yesterday that he supports privatization, though he has sounded open to the possibility in the past.

"I will not privatize Social Security, and it's not true when I'm accused of that," he said at a town hall meeting in New Jersey. "But I would like for younger workers, younger workers only, to have an opportunity to take a few of their tax dollars, a few of theirs, and maybe put it into an account with their name on it."

The McCain campaign also questioned the impact of Obama's tax proposals on seniors.

While Obama proposes to eliminate income taxes on seniors with less than $50,000 a year in income, McCain's campaign cited an analysis that Obama's plans would increase the tax bills for 10 million senior households, in part because of his proposal to raise capital gains taxes.

"Barack Obama likes to think that his tax increases will only hit a few Americans, but in truth his economic plan will be a disaster for everyone, especially seniors," Tucker Bounds, a McCain spokesman, said in a statement."


AND----

"On taxes and spending, Mr. McCain has a mixed record. He supports extending President Bush's tax cuts.

He opposed tax increases pushed by President George H.W. Bush in 1990 and President Clinton in 1993 and voted in 1997 to cut capital-gains taxes. The senator also broke with the White House and Senate Republican leadership by voting against the Medicare prescription-drug entitlement and he supports permitting workers to invest part of their Social Security savings in higher-yielding private accounts. But according to the Club for Growth, "his overall record is tainted by a marked antipathy towards free markets and individual freedom," which includes support for raising Social Security taxes and a 282 percent tax increase on cigarettes. "

from:The Washington Times

January 25, 2008 Friday

McCain vs. McCain

BYLINE: By THE WASHINGTON TIMES

SECTION: EDITORIALS; A18