McCain promises billions in spending

inmytreeinmytree Posts: 4,741
edited May 2008 in A Moving Train
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20080501/ap_on_el_pr/mccain_big_spender;_ylt=AmD4a5L_TfDs.k4.Q9w0Wr9h24cA


McCain promises billions in spending

By LIBBY QUAID, Associated Press Writer Thu May 1, 3:12 AM ET

WASHINGTON - Republican John McCain is making promises that would cost billions of taxpayer dollars, yet he is vague about how he would pay for them.
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McCain is handing around a campaign grab bag of goodies. There are little treats like a summer gas-tax holiday and new mortgages for struggling homeowners, and there are big plums like tax breaks for corporations and families with children.

The expected GOP presidential nominee has nothing on the Democrats. Hillary Rodham Clinton and Barack Obama would spend billions of dollars themselves on things like paid family leave, universal health insurance and preschool for kids.

The difference? Unlike the Democrats, McCain has made a career of trying to cut spending. He rails against spending in nearly every speech. McCain gets laughs by singling out silly sounding projects like a federal DNA study of bears in Montana: "I don't know if that was a paternity issue or a criminal issue."

And he gets attention when he says it was spending, not the war in Iraq, that cost Republicans their control of Congress in 2006.

"The reason why we lost that election, my dear friends, was because we let spending get out of control," he said recently. "We came to power in 1994 to change government, and government changed us."

Now McCain is promising ambitious cuts in spending to pay for his ideas. The cuts would not pay for all his promises, but McCain says they needn't.

"I strongly disagree with the view that just because you reduce the tax burden, just because you let people save and invest more of their money, that therefore there's less money that goes into government," he told reporters last week in Alabama.

McCain said he is not exactly a supply-sider — someone who subscribes to the idea that some tax cuts can pay for themselves by encouraging economic growth. But he certainly leans that way.

"I believe there's more money, because of the increase in economic activity and growth," he said.

Regardless of who wins the November election, it is vital to find a way to pay for new spending or tax cuts, because the next president will face a budget deficit of more than $400 billion. And the deficit will keep mounting as baby boomer retirements swell Social Security and Medicare.

McCain has pledged to balance the federal budget, although he has backed off an earlier promise to do so in his first term and now says he would do it within eight years.

McCain's tax cuts would be double the size of President Bush's:

_First, he wants to extend Bush's tax cuts, which cost an estimated $228 billion annually and are set to expire after next year, according to congressional analysts.

_On top of that, he seeks new tax cuts of about $225 billion a year, according to his own estimate. He would slash the corporate tax rate, eliminate the alternative minimum tax and double the tax exemption for dependent children.

_And the cost of his tax breaks could rise even higher. McCain has proposed two business tax breaks, a credit for research and first-year expensing of equipment; his campaign says they essentially would cost nothing, but the Treasury Department has estimated they could cost more than $140 billion annually.

Those are just the tax cuts. McCain also proposed a new mortgage refinancing program for struggling homeowners that could cost the government $3 billion to $10 billion. He proposed to suspend federal gas taxes for the summer months at a cost of $8 billion to $10 billion.

And McCain has several proposals whose costs are unknown, such as his pledge to give all veterans a plastic card to get medical treatment anywhere they choose, a new student loan program and tax write-offs for companies that provide Internet service to rural areas.

How would he pay for it? New user fees could pay for the gas-tax holiday, McCain adviser Doug Holtz-Eakin said.

Ironically, McCain said those kinds of fees were essentially tax increases when former rival Mitt Romney imposed them on businesses as governor of Massachusetts. Yet McCain has said he doesn't want to raise taxes.

McCain also has sketched out ideas for covering the costs of his $225 billion in new tax cuts, saying he would cut spending, eliminate corporate tax loopholes and spark economic growth by that amount of money.

Yet for all the numbers he has provided, McCain has been reluctant to say exactly which programs he would cut.

He criticizes "earmarks," pet projects tucked into spending bills, like the bear study. He said Wednesday that the bridge collapse in Minnesota last year would not have happened if Congress had not wasted so much money on pork-barrel spending, despite the suspicion of federal investigators that the problem may have been design-related, not spending-related.

Even the earmarks he rails against include things he supports, such as aid to Israel. Last month, after McCain promised to eliminate all earmarks as part of his economic plan, his campaign said he remains committed to aid for Israel.

Thus, the reality of cutting spending may be very different from rhetoric, as McCain has found time and again.

On a swing through Alabama's rural Black Belt last week, McCain rode a ferry boat from tiny Gee's Bend, a town once cut off from ferry service to keep black residents from crossing the Alabama River to push for civil rights.

McCain rode across the river with several elderly black women, quilt makers from Gee's Bend, who sang gospel hymns and held his hands. McCain even took a turn driving the ferry just before it docked.

The ferry came into existence with $3 million in earmarks — the kind of spending McCain says he would stop.

McCain insisted he is not trying to have it both ways. The ferry spending was worthy and would have been eligible for other federal dollars, he told reporters.

"America is supposed to help people in rural settings, people like the quilters who are direct descendants of slaves," McCain said. "It's 'give people a hand up.' That's the essence of government."

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Comments

  • lazymoon13lazymoon13 Posts: 838
    the dems plan on out spending him by more then double. but thats ok?
  • inmytreeinmytree Posts: 4,741
    lazymoon13 wrote:
    the dems plan on out spending him by more then double. but thats ok?

    is saying you're going to cut spending then propose more spending ok with you...?
  • lazymoon13lazymoon13 Posts: 838
    inmytree wrote:
    is saying you're going to cut spending then propose more spending ok with you...?

    where does he say he will promise more spending?
  • inmytreeinmytree Posts: 4,741
    lazymoon13 wrote:
    where does he say he will promise more spending?

    good catch...I stand corrected...

    I guess I was looking at his tax cuts for the wealthy and corporations with no plans on how to replace that revenue as "spending"...and you're correct, I'm was wrong to use the word "spending"....

    do you know where John is going to get the money to fund his tax cuts...?
  • lazymoon13lazymoon13 Posts: 838
    inmytree wrote:
    good catch...I stand corrected...

    I guess I was looking at his tax cuts for the wealthy and corporations with no plans on how to replace that revenue as "spending"...and you're correct, I'm was wrong to use the word "spending"....

    do you know where John is going to get the money to fund his tax cuts...?

    why cant certain wasteful programs be cut permanently? cutting taxes and cutting spending is alot better then the dems plan. raise taxes and raise spending.
  • inmytreeinmytree Posts: 4,741
    lazymoon13 wrote:
    why cant certain wasteful programs be cut permanently? cutting taxes and cutting spending is alot better then the dems plan. raise taxes and raise spending.

    sounds good...

    any specifics on which "wasteful programs" will be cut...? pretty vague, don't ya think...

    the gas tax holiday will leave huge gaps in the highway trust fund...I don't know about you, but I think roads and bridges are pretty important...

    please understand, I'm all about cutting taxes...but it shouldn't be done in a willy-nilly fashion and should be done so with transparency. And the consequences of cutting those taxes should be clearly outlined...
  • lazymoon13lazymoon13 Posts: 838
    inmytree wrote:
    sounds good...

    any specifics on which "wasteful programs" will be cut...? pretty vague, don't ya think...

    the gas tax holiday will leave huge gaps in the highway trust fund...I don't know about you, but I think roads and bridges are pretty important...

    please understand, I'm all about cutting taxes...but it shouldn't be done in a willy-nilly fashion and should be done so with transparency. And the consequences of cutting those taxes should be clearly outlined...

    yea I agree. as for what should be cut specifically, dont know. military would be nice to cut in half. but sadly, that wont happen with mccain. but with such a huge budget cuts can be made. like you, I hope it gets spelled out more clearly.
  • inmytreeinmytree Posts: 4,741
    lazymoon13 wrote:
    yea I agree. as for what should be cut specifically, dont know. military would be nice to cut in half. but sadly, that wont happen with mccain. but with such a huge budget cuts can be made. like you, I hope it gets spelled out more clearly.

    well, my friend, it sounds as if we're in agreement...:)
  • slightofjeffslightofjeff Posts: 7,762
    what kind of slanted propaganda is this? As if all the wild and wonderful things our Democratic friends are proposing will come free of charge, from the Universal Health Care fairy?

    Jesus. Is it too much to ask for just ONE unbiased news source in America?
    everybody wants the most they can possibly get
    for the least they could possibly do
  • jeffbrjeffbr Seattle Posts: 7,177
    It isn't really news that the dems and reps propose spending billions of dollars. That's how they get elected.
    "I'll use the magic word - let's just shut the fuck up, please." EV, 04/13/08
  • lazymoon13lazymoon13 Posts: 838
    what kind of slanted propaganda is this? As if all the wild and wonderful things our Democratic friends are proposing will come free of charge, from the Universal Health Care fairy?

    Jesus. Is it too much to ask for just ONE unbiased news source in America?

    I particularly liked how inmytree bolded the made up headline......twice. great touch.
  • Has McCain stopped confusing Al-qaeda with Shia yet?

    frightening...
    Progress is not made by everyone joining some new fad,
    and reveling in it's loyalty. It's made by forming coalitions
    over specific principles, goals, and policies.

    http://i36.tinypic.com/66j31x.jpg

    (\__/)
    ( o.O)
    (")_(")
  • lazymoon13lazymoon13 Posts: 838
    Has McCain stopped confusing Al-qaeda with Shia yet?

    frightening...

    and this has to do with spending/taxes how?
  • lazymoon13 wrote:
    and this has to do with spending/taxes how?

    competency for starters...
    Progress is not made by everyone joining some new fad,
    and reveling in it's loyalty. It's made by forming coalitions
    over specific principles, goals, and policies.

    http://i36.tinypic.com/66j31x.jpg

    (\__/)
    ( o.O)
    (")_(")
  • inmytreeinmytree Posts: 4,741
    lazymoon13 wrote:
    I particularly liked how inmytree bolded the made up headline......twice. great touch.

    and...?

    it's funny how you and I agreed "as for what should be cut specifically, dont know. military would be nice to cut in half. but sadly, that wont happen with mccain. but with such a huge budget cuts can be made. like you, I hope it gets spelled out more clearly"

    mature, indeed...

    keep smokin the McCrack...
  • lazymoon13lazymoon13 Posts: 838
    inmytree wrote:
    and...?

    it's funny how you and I agreed "as for what should be cut specifically, dont know. military would be nice to cut in half. but sadly, that wont happen with mccain. but with such a huge budget cuts can be made. like you, I hope it gets spelled out more clearly"

    mature, indeed...

    keep smokin the McCrack...

    I was replying to slightofjeff. you are the one who agreed this "spending billions" is bullshit. just sayin..
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