Krugman: McCain’s economic plans are ‘Bush made permanent.’
Krugman: McCain’s economic plans are ‘Bush made permanent.’
On Saturday, New York Times columnist Paul Krugman argued on his blog that “the combination of the Bush tax cuts and McCain’s extensions and revisions would leave the federal government without sufficient revenue to do its job.” Krugman added that McCain’s top economic adviser, Douglas Holtz-Eakin, is resorting to “sophistry” to defend McCain’s plans. In his Times column today, Krugman continues his critique, saying that McCain’s economic proposals are “Bush made permanent“:
The McCain campaign wants us to accept the success of that deception as a fact of life. Mr. Holtz-Eakin is saying, in effect, “We’re not engaged in any new irresponsibility — we’re just perpetuating the Bush administration’s irresponsibility. That doesn’t count.”
It’s the sort of fiscal double-talk that has been a Bush administration hallmark. In any case, it offers no answer to the principal point raised by the Tax Policy Center analysis, which has nothing to do with scoring: the McCain tax plan would leave the federal government with far too little revenue to cover its expenses, leading to huge budget deficits unless there were deep cuts in spending.
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Meh, the military is being funded just fine. That’s the true government, and it’s “job” to the neocons.
April 28th, 2008 at 12:29 pmoh great, JUST what we need, PERMANENT VOODOO ECONOMICS
wake me up when we get out of this nightmare
April 28th, 2008 at 12:31 pm…the McCain tax plan would leave the federal government with far too little revenue to cover its expenses, leading to huge budget deficits unless there were deep cuts in spending.
Instead of reducing taxes, let’s reduce the number of Goopers in this Country, beginning with McBush III.
When Fascism arrives in America, it will be wrapped in a flag and carrying a bible…while being led in rhetoric and torture by the Supreme Court of the United States.
April 28th, 2008 at 12:34 pmHey, the cons don’t give a damn about defecits. As a matter of fact, they create huge deficits on purpose to use as an excuse to slash domestic spending.
April 28th, 2008 at 12:35 pmThey could just borrow the crap out of China and call their collateral (US of A) “reverse ownership,” if it makes them feel any better.
April 28th, 2008 at 12:37 pmKrugman: McCain’s economic plans are ‘Bush made permanent.’
I was thinking more along the line of “Stupid made permanent.”
But I guess that Stupid is now considered synonymous with Bush.
April 28th, 2008 at 12:38 pmThe g.o.p. game plan has always been to starve the federal government under the guise of lower taxes.
April 28th, 2008 at 12:42 pmBut hey, they’ve got a crumbling bridge to sell the American public.
(P)resident McCain, it’s no longer in the budget to pay your salary. We’re gonna have to let you go..
April 28th, 2008 at 12:50 pmBomb the Arabs. Sing praise to Jesus. Borrow the money from the Chinese. Let our children pay the bill. Everything’s fine here.
April 28th, 2008 at 12:51 pm#13 of 20 questions John McCain will never be asked:
13. You’ve called yourself a “deficit hawk.” But with cost estimates for your tax plan topping $2 trillion, isn’t your claim of fiscal discipline simply unbelievable?
April 28th, 2008 at 1:02 pmTwo weeks ago, you told NBC’s Andrea Mitchell, “I’m a deficit hawk.” Yet James Kvaal and Robert Gordon at the Center for American Progress documented that your tax plan “is enormously expensive, costing more than $2 trillion over the next decade and essentially doubling the Bush tax cuts.” A 2005 CBO study by your current economic adviser Douglas Holtz-Eakin showed that “lower tax rates wouldn’t come close to paying for themselves.” And just this week, you abandoned a pledge you made just two month ago during the Wisconsin primary to balance the federal budget by the end of your first term. Why shouldn’t we view your claim to be a deficit hawk as a joke? Isn’t the McCain tax plan reckless? Shouldn’t the American people be worried when you say “I disagree with the experts?”
The rebate money we get should say “Made in China” on it. We borrow 2 billion a day from them.
April 28th, 2008 at 1:10 pmIt’s about time someone is finally calling out Mr.McCain on his failed economic policy. This man and his neocons will drain this nation of its wealth. Please take the time to view http://www.zeitgeistmovie.com for the complete truth if your are open to real facts. The economic portion of the documentory will spell out what needs to change. The ride is finally over, well almost over. The people are getting the truth, all be it slowly.
Don’t let Authority be the truth, Let Truth be the authority OF US ALL.
April 28th, 2008 at 1:12 pmAll Failure, All the Time.
April 28th, 2008 at 1:17 pmMcCain has said “he doesn’t know anything about economics”, but he knows that his tax cuts will widen the gap between the middle and upper class even more.
The Reagan tax cuts, like those under George W. Bush, heavily favor the wealthy. These tax cuts therefore mean more money for the rich, with less government revenue to spend on social programs. This creates the need for cuts in social spending.
Republicans are not prone to worry about the poor or middle class. We are not their voting base.
April 28th, 2008 at 1:30 pmMcCain has said “he doesn’t know anything about economics”, but he knows that his tax cuts will widen the gap between the middle and upper class even more.
The Reagan tax cuts, like those under George W. Bush, heavily favor the wealthy. These tax cuts therefore mean more money for the rich, with less government revenue to spend on social programs. This creates the need for cuts in social spending.
Republicans are not prone to worry about the poor or middle class. We are not their voting base.
April 28th, 2008 at 1:30 pm“My goal is to cut government in half in twenty-five years,” he says, “to get it down to the size where we can drown it in the bathtub.” – Grover Norquist
April 28th, 2008 at 1:55 pmThe long term neocon/neonobility vision is to turn us all into modern day indentured servants–owing our souls to the company stores! The irony is Cheney-Bush constantly screamed “class warfare” when ever anyone tried to level the playing field for working class stiffs, when, all along, they were waging class warfare!
April 28th, 2008 at 1:58 pmtechsong Says:
The rebate money we get should say “Made in China” on it. We borrow 2 billion a day from them.
April 28th, 2008 at 1:10 pm
______
And we repay that loan with every Wal-Mart purchase.
April 28th, 2008 at 2:02 pmPaul, you’d better knock it off. You’re going to piss the senile old coot off.
April 28th, 2008 at 2:03 pmtechsong Says:
The rebate money we get should say “Made in China” on it. We borrow 2 billion a day from them.
And it’s only an advance on next year’s taxes, so we’ll all be paying it back next April.
April 28th, 2008 at 2:04 pmNot going to be too permanent once the populace starts rioting over food and gas prices that will go up to unreasonable highs after Bush attacks Iran.
April 28th, 2008 at 2:17 pmTaxes are such a easy thing to scare people with; they are the perfect boogie-man for the fear party. Their fear potential grows as the tax structure becomes more regressive. Their fear potential grows as people see that influence is being used by the rich to evade them. Their fear potential grows as the deficit explodes. It’s a gift for the Republicans that never stops giving. A guy in a trailer park will rail against a ‘death tax’ for inheritence even when he’d have to double his net worth every two years for the rest of his life for it to apply to him, because he dreams of being as rich as Paris Hilton. That’s his ‘American Dream’ now, not home ownership, healthcare when he needs it, college for his children, or a secure retirement. The American Dream has gone from a secure and prosperous middle class life to “Lifestyles of the Rich and Famous” where people laze about in obscene indolence and luxury, and to hell with the little people who cook and clean and launder and landscape.
April 28th, 2008 at 2:20 pmTaxes will scare most people when they face stagnant or falling incomes. However, taxes are much less an issue when people are watching their incomes rise quickly enough to offset the additional tax bite. Clinton, for all of his faults, was able to deliver and to reduce the deficit.
The Republican elite want a permanent tax structure reflecting the Bush policies. Go to angrybear@blogspot.com which has a very good comparison of the performance of Democratic and Republican adminstrations across a many different economic and social indicators. The Democrats end up with better performance for a very good reason. Democrats believe in common good. The Republican elite believe in greed, selfinterest, anything to succeed and that wealth is not only an economic measure but moral indicator as well.
April 28th, 2008 at 3:40 pm