As I was watching the debate Tuesday, it occurred to me – for a man who says he can solve problems, John McCain sure hasn’t done it yet. And just look at the list of problems John McCain said he would solve.
SOCIAL SECURITY: "Social Security is not that tough. We know what the problems are, my friends, and we know what the fixes are. We've got to sit down together across the table. It's been done before."
MY TAKE: So, apparently, one day Pres. McCain will cut his afternoon nap short and solve Social Security. Good to know. And when, exactly, has he done this before?
Let's take a look at almost a dozen other problems John McCain assured us last night that he and he alone can fix. There's lots more McCain goodness and reaction (and sources) below the fold...
ENERGY : "Now, I have a plan to fix this problem and it has got to do with energy independence. We've got to stop sending $700 billion a year to countries that don't want us very -- like us very much. We have to keep Americans' taxes low. All Americans' taxes low. Let's not raise taxes on anybody today."
MY TAKE: Good to know that a tax cut will solve our dependence on foreign oil. Gee, this president stuff isn’t hard at all!
MORE ENERGY: "We can work on nuclear power plants. Build a whole bunch of them, create millions of new jobs."
MY TAKE: Yup, yup, absolutely, build a bunch of nuke plants. Just like France. Because, as Republicans well know, that’s our role model. I’m SURE Nevada voters would just love to hear your plans to, you know, actually store all that waste somewhere. From the Las Vegas Sun, in May of this year:
• In 2002, when final approval was assured after 20 years of debate, McCain told his home-state newspaper, The Arizona Republic, that the Nevada dump site would help the federal government resolve "one of the most important environmental, health and public safety issues for the American people."
• Just over a year ago, he was described as adopting a mocking tone when he told the Deseret News in Utah: "Oh, you have to travel through states ... I am for Yucca Mountain. I’m for storage facilities. It’s a lot better than sitting outside power plants all over America."
• Less than three weeks ago, Reuters ran a piece that said McCain "supports the Yucca Mountain storage facility and believes opposition to it is harmful to U.S. interests." And the piece quoted one of his advisers as saying, "The political opposition to the Yucca Mountain storage facility is harmful to the U.S. interest and the facility should be completed, opened and utilized."
Of course, now Sen. McCain is against using Yucca Mountain, and wants an "international" repository for waste. How convenient. Maybe this president stuff is a little tough after al. Sen. McCain had one answer in Arizona, and another in Nevada just a few weeks later. There’s a candidate who’s been calling people out for behavior like that...
"We don't tend to prefer candidates who talk about us one way in Vienna or Youngstown and then another way in San Francisco," said Gov. Palin.
One last point – just how many plants is he gonna build if we’re going to create "millions" of jobs in the nuclear power industry?
MORTGAGE CRISIS: "As president of the United States, Alan, I would order the secretary of the treasury to immediately buy up the bad home loan mortgages in America and renegotiate at the new value of those homes -- at the diminished value of those homes and let people be able to make those -- be able to make those payments and stay in their homes."
MY TAKE: So, if you took out a fixed mortgage you could actually afford and haven’t missed a payment, not only will you be bailing out Wall Street at $6,000 per taxpayer, you’ll also be bailing out all those either voluntarily took on or were tricked into gimmick mortgages they now can’t afford. But nothing for you. So quit asking.
In John McCain’s America, it’s better for me to skip a few mortgage payments, go into default, and they the feds will let me negotiate my mortgage payment down! It’s like magic mortgage fairy dust!
TREASURY LEADER: I like Meg Whitman [former CEO of eBay and current McCain campaign adviser], she knows what it's like to be out there in the marketplace. She knows how to create jobs. Meg Whitman was CEO of a company that started with 12 people and is now 1.3 million people in America make their living off eBay.
MY TAKE: Well, Sarah Palin may read The New York Times, but apparently, Sen. McCain doesn’t.
"On Monday, eBay announced it would lay off 10 percent of its 16,000 workers, including 1,000 permanent employees, and pay $1.35 billion to acquire the Web payment firm Bill Me Later and the Danish classified advertising companies Den Bla Avis and BilBasen. eBay, based in San Jose, Calif., said most of the layoffs would be in its core marketplace division, which has suffered from declining single-digit growth rates while online commerce has been growing at a double-digit clip."
And this:
The Chronicle has reported that the San Mateo County resident "did not vote in more than half the federal, state and local elections since she registered to vote in the county in September 2002."
So you MIGHT want to re-think that Meg Whitman pick. At least he didn’t say Carly Fiorina. What a bang-up job she did at Hewlett-Packard, huh?
PRIORITIES: HEALTH CARE, ENERGY, OR ENTITLEMENT REFORM: " I think you can work on all three at once, Tom. I think it's very important that reform our entitlement programs. My friends, we are not going to be able to provide the same benefit for present-day workers that we are going -- that present-day retirees have today. We're going to have to sit down across the table, Republican and Democrat, as we did in 1983 between Ronald Reagan and Tip O'Neill. I know how to do that. I have a clear record of reaching across the aisle, whether it be Joe Lieberman or Russ Feingold or Ted Kennedy or others.
MY TAKE: So, when he takes that afternoon to fix the easy problem of Social Security, first thing he’s going to do is slash benefits. Thanks for the warning, Sen. McCain.
CUTTING SPENDING: "I believe that we have to eliminate the earmarks. And sometimes those projects, not -- not the overhead projector that Sen. Obama asked for, but some of them that are really good projects, will have -- will have to be eliminated, as well. And they'll have to undergo the same scrutiny that all projects should in competition with others."
MY TAKE: Now I’m confused. First, he said cut all earmarks. Well, that’s $18 billion, which covers about 2.5% of the $700 billion we just spent on the bailout, which doesn’t count the money already spent on Bear Sterans, AIG, and the rest before the bill.
But then he says, maybe not all programs have to go – they just have to undergo "scrutiny." So, he’s NOT going to kill all earmarks. Huh?
TAX CUTS: "So let's not raise anybody's taxes, my friends, and make it be very clear to you I am not in favor of tax cuts for the wealthy. I am in favor of leaving the tax rates alone."
MY TAKE: Great, just great. Except he doesn’t leave them alone. He EXPANDS them for the ulta-rich.
The Republican presidential candidate proposed cutting the corporate tax rate to 25 percent from 35 percent. McCain, speaking to a rally under a tent in the rain, said that would expand the economy, creating jobs and opportunity.
He said his plan was "pro growth, less taxes and less spending." He contrasted it with "the Democrats' tired ideas of tax and spend."
McCain appeared to be resisting temporary economic relief for individuals, even as President Bush indicated support for a short-term boost and Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke called explicitly for it. Bernanke urged the government to adopt a plan quickly and make it temporary, and said "putting money into the hands of households and firms" would be more effective than measures such as making Bush's tax cuts permanent.
McCain adviser Doug Holtz-Eakin suggested the Arizona senator does not favor temporary relief at this time. "We haven't seen household declines in spending," he said.
And his attacks on Obama’s plan, that 50% of small businesses would se their taxes go up? Yeah, about that:
For all these reasons we judge that the actual number of small-business employers who would face higher tax rates under Obama is probably far below 663,608, and certainly a far cry from McCain's ridiculously inflated 23 million figure.
AL QAEDA AND PAKISTAN: "I'll get Osama bin Laden, my friends. I'll get him. I know how to get him. I'll get him no matter what and I know how to do it. But I'm not going to telegraph my punches, which is what Sen. Obama did. And I'm going to act responsibly, as I have acted responsibly throughout my military career and throughout my career in the United States Senate."
MY TAKE: So, you’re going to share this plan with the Bush Administration ... when? Seriously, you can get him? Can we fly you to Warizistan now and let you take him out now? I mean, I know you don’t do weekends, but you could wrap this up bin time for the early-bird special on Friday, right? Can you at least whisper the plan in the ear of your home-boy, Gen Petraeus? ‘Cause a lot of us Americans would really like to see him gone. Do we HAVE to wait until January? I mean, seems like it would really help your campaign if you could deliver him now.
HEALTH INSURANCE: "I want to give every American a $5,000 refundable tax credit. They can take it anywhere, across state lines. Why not? Don't we go across state lines when we purchase other things in America? Of course it's OK to go across state lines because in Arizona they may offer a better plan that suits you best than it does here in Tennessee. And if you do the math, those people who have employer-based health benefits, if you put the tax on it and you have what's left over and you add $5,000 that you're going to get as a refundable tax credit, do the math, 95 percent of the American people will have increased funds to go out and buy the insurance of their choice and to shop around and to get -- all of those people will be covered except for those who have these gold-plated Cadillac kinds of policies."
MY TAKE: Let’s be clear – John McCain himself just told us HE WILL TAX HEALTH BENEFITS. And he wants to convince us this is a good thing. But here’s the thing about tax credits – you don’t get them until you’ve already spent the money. McCain will give $5,000 in tax credits. So you only break even if you spend only $5,000 for health care. Find a plan that will cover your (let alone your family) for $5,000. Really, I’ll wait. Get back to me when you find one.
There are so many things wrong with McCains attack’s on Obama’s plan and his absolutely nightmare tax credit plan that it’s difficult to even know where to begin. So I’ll just say it again, Joe Biden style, and leave it there:
John. McCain. Wants. To. Tax. Your. Health. Insurance.
It’s not spin, it’s not a "deceptive" ad. It’s straight from "I won’t raise taxes!" himself. He’s gonna tax health benefts for the first time in this nation’s history.
I don’t want to see John McCain’s easy fix for Social Security, or his "Shhhh, don’t tell anybody!" plan for Pakistan, and "millions" of jobs in the nuclear power industry.
All I can say is...
VOTE OBAMA/BIDEN NO. 4th
NOTE: All quotes taken from CNN.com’s transcript of the debate.