McCain Admits His Economic Plan ‘Disagrees With The Experts’
McCain Admits His Economic Plan ‘Disagrees With The Experts’
Yesterday, Sen. John McCain (R-AZ) presented an economic plan that offers a $1.7 trillion tax cut for corporations, “more than twice as much as McCain gives families with his child deduction,” as The Wonk Room’s James Kvaal and Robert Gordon noted.
Today on MSNBC, McCain was asked if he is understating the costs of his tax cuts. “Independent experts say your tax cuts would cost at least $100 billion more than you say and that the savings would not materialize,” Andrea Mitchell said. McCain retorted:
I disagree. I disagree with the experts. I disagree. I disagree. I disagree with the experts. I have experts of my own. I have many experts of my own who say that this will stimulate the economy, will create jobs, and increase revenues over time.
McCain said Ronald Reagan also reduced taxes in 1981. But when Mitchell noted that Reagan did “bust the deficit,” McCain tried to dodge: “Not early on it did — I am a deficit hawk.”
Watch it:
McCain said he has his “own experts.” But even they have disagreed with him. Kevin Hassett of AEI, a McCain adviser, claimed McCain’s tax cut plan would grow the economy, but added, “It is beyond the reach of economic science to explain precisely why that happens, but it does.”
Douglas Holtz-Eakin, his chief economic advisor, has also concluded that huge tax cuts don’t pay for themselves. As CBO director in 2005, he conducted a study into whether a 10 percent reduction in personal taxes could pay for itself by spurring economic activity. The study concluded:
Under various assumptions, the supply-side economic effects of the tax cut are estimated to offset between 1 percent and 22 percent of that revenue loss over the first five years and add as much as 5 percent to that loss or offset as much as 32 percent of it over the second five years (see Table 3). According to models that account for both supply-side and demand-side effects, those effects might offset somewhat less than 15 percent of the revenue loss over the first five years.
McClatchy explained that Holtz-Eakin’s conclusion essentially means: “lower tax rates wouldn’t come close to paying for themselves.”
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McCain economics = voodoo
beads, rattles, witch doctors
oh, my!
April 16th, 2008 at 4:38 pmHey McCain
Are your “experts” the same ones who claim you’re a foreign diplomacy and national security “expert” who cannot state correctly the sect al Qaeda is or who said the other day on Hardball with Matthews that Iran is still looking to develop nuclear weapons when the entire US intelligence community already claimed otherwise ?
Those “experts” ?
April 16th, 2008 at 4:40 pm“It is beyond the reach of economic science to explain precisely why that happens, but it does.”
_______________________________________________
It’s beyond the reach of science to explain how it’s possible to spin straw into gold, too. The reason it can’t be explained is because it’s not possible. If it’s really possible, it’s explainable.
April 16th, 2008 at 4:43 pmHmmpphhh.. My ‘experts’ are more ‘expert’ than your ‘experts’.
Expect more of this, stay tuned.
April 16th, 2008 at 4:45 pmCorporations NEED this money desperately in this economic climate…
The first in line for this hallelujah bonanza golden shower (heh): BP and Shell…
April 16th, 2008 at 4:46 pmThis is the man who you want to be your next President? Are you kidding me. His own experts (CEO’S trying to screw the american public some more before the whole economy collapes)disagree on how to screw the american public. Just wait til the Dems have resolved there race and really start to pick apart his plan to destroy this nation.
April 16th, 2008 at 4:47 pm“Don’t disagree with me or I’ll get angry! Arrrggghhh!! McCain SMASH!!”
April 16th, 2008 at 4:49 pmDid he threaten to draft the little jerk who was interviewing him?
April 16th, 2008 at 4:52 pmwhen McSame talks of the economy images of chaos on the deck of the USS Forrestal come to mind. go figure!
April 16th, 2008 at 4:56 pmSounds like the old man has lost his freaking mind or borrowed a page out of the Bush Cheney Rove playbook.
April 16th, 2008 at 4:58 pmMcCain crashed 5 US aircraft, as prez, he will crash the US economy….oh, wait- too late.
April 16th, 2008 at 4:59 pm“McCain said Ronald Reagan also reduced taxes in 1981.” Then he RAISED taxes 7 times. It wasn’t until the 3rd tax raise that the economy started coming back!
April 16th, 2008 at 5:02 pmCouldn’t help but notice from the picture – is McBush slowly getting a US Flag tattooed to his forehead?
April 16th, 2008 at 5:05 pmMethinks the media, honest or otherwise, should really get in his face on this issue and his other flopflips. They need to start talking about ISSUES instead of fluff. This crap about bitterness and race and elitism and fear is nothing but a distraction.
April 16th, 2008 at 5:05 pm“I disagree with the experts.”
April 16th, 2008 at 5:06 pmSounds like he’s ready to step in W’s shoes.
McCain: “I disagree. I disagree with the experts. I disagree. I disagree. I disagree with the experts. I have experts of my own. I have many experts of my own who say that this will stimulate the economy, will create jobs, and increase revenues over time.”
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Sounds like McCain had to go out shopping until he found some “experts” who would tell him what he wanted to hear.
Perhaps these “experts” will also tell him who to blame when this strategy does nothing except bloat the coffers of big business, erode the middle class, send our debt skyrocketing and the value of our dollar sinking at even more ridiculous rates than they are now, and turn our nation into a third-world country. Oh, that’s easy — they will just blame the “liberals”.
April 16th, 2008 at 5:09 pmHurry! Hurry! Hurry!
Get yore flag tattooed on yore four-head before their gone you unAmerikan unpatriotic scum!
snark!
April 16th, 2008 at 5:10 pmJohn McCain told Larry King:
“I’d like to convince people, because of my extensive background on the economy and knowledge, that I can see a path through this difficult time we’re in.”
One month before this statement he said: “The issue of economics is not something I’ve understood as well as I should,” he said. But, “I’ve got Greenspan’s book,” he assured the audience.
John disagree all you want. You are just confused. Here are the facts: McCain has refused to explain how he will pay for the never-ending war in Iraq while making Bush’s tax cuts permanent. Together, they would cost $6.3 trillion over 10 years. McCain’s Short-Term Solution For the Economy? Tax Cuts for the Wealthy in Two Years, Of Course.
Forget the experts, John we can’t afford to have you as President. China will have a marker(loan) we will not be able to pay back. We are having a hard enough time keeping up on just the interest payments. John what you propose is no better than the sub-prime lenders, borrow (with Interest)more than you can afford to pay back. I for one, do not want to mortgage our entire country away.
April 16th, 2008 at 5:10 pmI disagree. I disagree with the experts. I disagree. I disagree. I disagree with the experts. I have experts of my own. I have many experts of my own who say that this will stimulate the economy, will create jobs, and increase revenues over time.
Chimpy-one , has trained you well , old one ……….
April 16th, 2008 at 5:13 pmTHE END OF NET NEUTRALITY IS NEAR!!!
John McCain’s economic plan is to get Hillary elected.
April 16th, 2008 at 5:15 pmHow can anyone, no matter how brain-dead a Republican they might be, listen to McCain without feeling sick or laughing hysterically? He supports the troops, but won’t support a new GI Bill. He admits to knowing nothing about economics but disagrees with the economic experts. He wants to “help” the middle class but he wants to first eliminate any taxes on his rich buddies. He hates the special interests but has no one but lobbyists working for him. He criticized Bush’s handling of the occupation but he wants to keep doing it exactly the same way Bush has.
WTF?
April 16th, 2008 at 5:20 pmAh, he’ll never be a Bush replacement at this rate. To successfully replace Bush, he must strongly disagree.
April 16th, 2008 at 5:37 pmThis is the man who will most likely be the next president of the United States. The MSM will react with its accustomed barred teeth for the Democratic nominee on such essential and important issues as whether coffee should be accepted when offered at a campaign stop and how well the candidate bowls. McCain will be trumpeted as the great American hero and the inheritor of the Bush codpiece.
None will question the validity of the Laffer curve in increasing tax revenue which depends upon growth in production, efficiency and wealth through the reinvestment of tax dollars in the economy. However, tax rates are low enough now that there would be little additional investment. Profits retained by corporations rose to their highest levels after the Bush cuts. Off shoring of jobs means that most of the money and multiplier effect of expenditures are seen over seas. Loose regulations and lax tax enforcement has increased sheltering of corporate and individual wealth overseas without as significant a growth in tax revenues.
One would imagine that there would be concerns about a 71 year old man who barely graduated from the Naval Academy (bottom 5 of his class) who neither studied or (until the latest flip-flop)did not have expertise in economic issues, flip-flopped on the Bush tax cuts and so much else. However, he throws a hell of a barbecue and fits that macho image that really determines the qualifications of a person to be president. We will have more Republican rule because the press and right wing noise machine will convince everyone that McCain is a liberal, has simplified all of those nasty issues into very simple solutions and is a nice guy with whom to have a beer.
April 16th, 2008 at 5:38 pmMcCain said he has his “own experts.”
Yeah, like Phil Gramm [R-Enron].
With “experts” like Gramm “advising” him, McSame may well out-live the US economy.
April 16th, 2008 at 5:50 pmIf McNutzi is allowed to implement another four years of the supply side myth he better mandate adding Mandarin Chinese to the elementary school curriculum because that is what we will be speaking by the time those poor kids start looking for jobs.
Then again, if the voters buy this crap after suffering the effects of the Reagan and Bush(squared) contributions to the national debt, the country deserves what it will get.
April 16th, 2008 at 5:58 pmTHE GREAT AND POWERFUL WIZARD OF McOZ HAS SPOKEN!!!!!
April 16th, 2008 at 6:04 pmSo he read Greenspan’s book last month and now he knows more than the experts — not that the “experts” have been so right, but that he thinks he is qualified is astonishing.
Actually, it sounds a lot like W who thought he knew all there was to know about anything when he took office too.
McCain = Bush .. again.
April 16th, 2008 at 6:47 pmI’m cool with that
Why should I payfor Israel’s killing of Palestinians and for their continuation of an illegal occupation?
I don’t want my Tax dollars to go to people who believe that God/Jebus/Bible, gives them the right to take the Land of others, and oppress them.
April 16th, 2008 at 6:58 pmBack in 2002, Vice President Cheney famously told Treasury Secretary Paul O’Neill, “Reagan proved that deficits don’t matter.” Now just two months after promising to balance the federal budget by the end of his first term, self-described Reagan foot soldier John McCain has decided he agrees.
For the details, see:
April 16th, 2008 at 6:59 pm“McCain’s Deficit Attention Disorder.”
To be fair. One must account for what day it is, and which “experts” he feels a need to “agree” with./snark off
Tomorrow his “steadfast position” will change to suit expediency.
April 16th, 2008 at 7:26 pmAll McCain is doing is trying to bribe voters to vote for him in the vain hope that they will get a tax cut. Hopefully voters are smart enough to realize that a tax cut while we are still occupying Iraq, have giant deficits and are still borrowing billions from China is the dumbest thing any President could possibly do.
April 16th, 2008 at 7:42 pmMcCain: “I will seek a constitutionally valid line-item veto to end the practice (earmarks) once and for all.”
You can be sure the pig with the Isreali marks on it’s ears will enjoy a full trough…
April 16th, 2008 at 8:28 pmConsidering that the quagmire which is Iraq is at least partly due to the fact that Bush likewise ignored the experts such as General Shinseki — and has continued to do so ever since when they try to tell him what he doesn’t want to hear — American voters should be seeing some serious red flags with regard to that statement. After all, the experts are often experts for a reason — usually because they’re the ones who are proven right at least as often as not.
April 16th, 2008 at 8:38 pm.
McOnomics anyone?
.
April 17th, 2008 at 1:11 amJohn disagree all you want. You are just confused. Here are the facts: McCain has refused to explain how he will pay for the never-ending war in Iraq while making Bush’s tax cuts permanent. Together, they would cost $6.3 trillion over 10 years. McCain’s Short-Term Solution For the Economy? Tax Cuts for the Wealthy in Two Years, Of Course.
Forget the experts, John we can’t afford to have you as President. China will have a marker(loan) we will not be able to pay back. We are having a hard enough time keeping up on just the interest payments. John what you propose is no better than the sub-prime uniwill 255-3s4400-g1l1 battery,uniwill un255 battery lenders, borrow (with Interest)more than you can afford to pay back. I for one, do not want to mortgage our entire country away.
October 15th, 2008 at 8:16 am