John McCain – What Will He Do With Your Money?
October 28, 2008
We are currently examining the economic policies of the presidential candidates. First, we looked at some of the economic policies of Barack Obama, and today we’ll take a look at John McCain’s plan bring the economy out of its current slump. Both candidates have stark differences when it comes to their philosophy for changing the economy, but right now their words are just words. All we can do as voters is discern who we think will stick to their word about their policies. Here is a look at some of the economic policies of John McCain:
Immediate Relief For American Families
Food and Gas Relief:
The gas thing is a little outdated, because I just filled up my gas tank for $2.69 a gallon, which is pretty low for today’s standards. However, back when gas was $4.00 a gallon, McCain wanted to take away the 54 cent gas tax on imported sugar-based ethanol. Of course, oil prices could always shoot up again in the future. McCain also wants to repeal the ethanol mandate in gasoline to help drive back down the price of certain foods.
Housing Plan:
McCain has a plan to help individuals who genuinely can’t afford their current mortgage whom are currently the primary resident in the home. He wants to put a plan together that will allow individuals to apply for a new mortgage at a fixed rate with a different amount. Apparently, if your current mortgage is $300,000, but you can only afford a payment on a $250,000 mortgage, then the $50,000 difference would be forgiven, and the new loan would be backed by the FHA.
Protect student loans:
The goal of McCain’s plan is to make sure that student loans are available during the credit crunch.
Federal Spending Reform
Balancing The Budget by 2013:
By the end of his first term, McCain claims he will balance the budget by administering comprehensive spending controls, reasonable economic growth, and bi-partisanship in budget efforts.
Eliminate Wasteful Spending:
McCain has a decent record when it comes to voting against bills with too much wasteful spending, and he vows to continue that trend if he is president.
Reforming Social Security and Medicare:
How he’s going to do this in four to eight years, I am not sure, but this seems to me to be a typical Republican thing to promise. Social Security and Medicare are basically federal government liabilities, and I think they’ll just keep pumping money into it to fund it.
Small Business
Cut the corporate tax rate from 35 to 25 percent:
No one seems to talk about this in the media. This could be a huge stimulant to the economy. The Republic of Ireland was in a huge economic recession, and then they slashed the corporate tax rate, and their economy is now flourishing. Small business accounts for 80% of American jobs, and his plan focuses on protecting small business owners.
McCain wants to establish a permanent tax credit equal to 10% of wages spent on research and development.
Good for companies in health care, energy, and other innovative industries, but not for the local pharmacy and the general contractor.
Reduce the estate tax to 15 percent. The goal is to help keep businesses in the family.
Miscellaneous
- His would like to ban taxes on goods and services sold on the internet and taxes for cell phone/text message use.
- Promote workplace flexibility by allowing people to work at home, maintain a flexible work schedule, and make health care more portable.
Whoever you support for president, whether it’s McCain or Obama, make sure you get your say, don’t forget to vote next week!
All posts by Erik
There are more than 2 candidates for president. It would have been nice to see how they all stack up against each other rather than just focusing on the two “main” people.
I did a pretty mean comment on your other article about Obama’s use of our dollars. I’m critical of both candidates… time to weigh in on McCain:
Food and Gas Relief: “McCain also wants to repeal the ethanol mandate in gasoline to help drive back down the price of certain foods.” That is stupid! First of all, ethanol is cheaper than gasoline, and thus helps lower the price, and makes the burning of gas much, much cleaner (by over 90%!). So if you’re into the environmental side of things, this is dumb. On the other hand… ethanol did NOT increase the price of food… speculators did. Did you know there was more corn grown in the US than we know what to do with? Did you know that the ethanol industry started using corn because there is too much corn grown due to big subsidies on these crops, designed to help the beef industry and food industries… 87% of corn is fed to animals and the US normally ships 20% of corn out of the country. And also note, corn isn’t the only way to produce ethanol, and it certainly isn’t the best feedstock to produce ethanol… not to mention even if you use corn as a feedstock, there is a byproduct called DDGS, which is actually a superior cattle feed (yes, you can still feed the cows!) which contains all the nutrients necessary since only the starch has been removed for ethanol production, not any of the minerals! It is able to do so because cattle evolved to eat woody brush, not grass and grain and up to 80% of start goes through cattle, undigested… sorry for the big fact lesson… because, as I said before, corn is a stupid crop to use for ethanol when there are other much better ones… but the industry evolved this way because of a surplus of corn production… we needed a use for all that extra corn.. but ethanol can be produced with almost any starch/sugar crop and now with cellulosic ethanol, almost any crop period.
Housing Plan: I’m indifferent to his housing plan because that only addresses the problematic loans, which need to be dealt with, but are only symptoms of the real problem; loose lending practises. What does he plan to do about these loose lending requirements? They need to be stricter to avoid the sub-prime mess altogether. There is a reason Canada didn’t go through the same problems… strict lending requirements on homes… You have to be able to afford a mortgage or you dont’ get it. Pretty simple.
Protect student loans: Sound good. Obama would probably do much the same, I can’t see him not protecting students ability to get loans for education. I could be wrong.
Balance budget by 2013: Wow, a promise that we can actually put a reasonable date on… I hate it when politicians say, “by 2050 I promise we will…” Too many politicians do this way too often. I wonder if McCain will have the guts to cut spending as much as necessary when he only controls so much on the hill. Will his plans even get passed? I have to wonder and think his hands are tied and as such, his plans are useless since the Dem’s won’t let it pass. It’s not that the plan is useless, but it will never be used, which makes it useless… if that makes sense.
Reform social security and medicaid: We’d need more info to actually know if he really has a valid plan or if he’s just making a politicians promise on this one. I’m sure he’ll try something, but whether it’s dumb or smart remains to be seen…
Cut Corporate Taxes: Doubtful, but if he can get it passed, this isn’t a bad idea. However, cutting corporate taxes won’t make balancing the budget any easier.
Research credit: I actually really like this idea, since it will push more R&D to occur in America… and innovation and invention is America’s #1 resource.
Reduce estate taxes: I like this much better than Obama’s plan to increase estate taxes above 50%!! At least families won’t be pressured into moving assets off-shore by McCain’s plan… Obama’s plan is dangerous and will force families with capital to leave… Capitalism without capital? It doesn’t work. On the flip-side, it won’t making balancing the budget any easier.
Overall, I’d say McCain’s policies are less destructive to the economy, despite what many people think. Obama has a cult of personality and a religious like following that thinks he will save them. So, we already know McCain won’t win. He can’t. Plus, democrats will control EVERYTHING on the hill in Washington, so Obama has a TON of power to make all the changes his little heart desires. That’s more dangerous than anything. Little in the way of checks and balances and yet the most leftist President in the history of the U.S.
Just my opinion, but neither candidate is perfect. The less of 2 evils would be McCain if he was willing to end the damn war quickly. But Obama won already (well in a few days he will). The media, and special interest groups, and subsequently the middle class, chose him as the most popular. Yes, the election is a popularity contest, how else can you describe a Bush win against intelligent folks or an Obama win (when Obama is both an extreme leftist and a very good speaker but never quite says “HOW” he intends to make his changes. But he sure does make some great speaches, I’ll give him that!!! He’s loved world-wide like no other politician in history (partly for reasons beyond his control – aka, his race, and partly because he makes such great speaches.) At least we will be entertained!
I can’t argue with most of your post, but Ireland’s economy is no longer flourishing – in fact, they were the first country to enter the most recent recession.