Yes! More of this please...!
Barack is in Las Vegas today giving a really scathing speech on the housing crisis and the economy in general. It is chock-full of policy proposals but he is also quite expertly tying Mccain to Bush. He even poked fun at the sad little fundraiser they are having in Arizona today!
Some highlights
On the fundraiser
I just had the privilege of visiting with Felicitas Rosel and Francisco Cano at their home here in Las Vegas.
Today, John McCain is having a different kind of meeting. He’s holding a fundraiser with George Bush behind closed doors in Arizona. No cameras. No reporters. And we all know why. Senator McCain doesn’t want to be seen, hat-in-hand, with the President whose failed policies he promises to continue for another four years.
That’s the choice in this election. On issue after issue, John McCain is offering more of the same policies that have failed for the last eight years. That’s the agenda that he and the President are raising money to support later today. But I’m here in Nevada because we know it’s time to turn the page.
The crux of his tying Mccain to Bush is both foreign policy (which Bush's appeasement tantrum didn't help) as well as the economy, and that is the focus today's speech.
On Mccain's Housing Plan (and lack thereof)
Now I know that John McCain doesn’t like to talk about the economy. Earlier in the campaign, he admitted that, "the issue of economics is not something I’ve understood as well as I should." Apparently, that hasn’t changed, since his plan amounts to little more than borrowing bad ideas from George Bush.
For months, John McCain struggled to come up with a real plan to address the housing crisis, even as millions of Americans faced the nightmare of not being able to pay next month’s bills. It took him three tries to come up with answers for struggling homeowners, and he still came up short.
So Mccain' propoal, even after three tries was the same non-interventionist philosophy that Bush followed and which got us into this mess. Barack's speech touches on his own plan which includes a new FHA Housing Security Program (that Chris Dodd designed) and a Foreclosure Prevention fund, and increased regulation for lenders.
On the Bush/Mccain Tax Cuts:
Finally, we need a tax code that’s fair. John McCain is running for a third-term of tax cuts that only shift the burden onto working people. That might make sense to the Washington lobbyists who run John McCain’s campaign, but it won’t do anything to help families who are struggling.
Barack then lays out his own tax code which features no income taxes for senior making less than $50,000 and rolling back the Bush tax cut.
It's a very strong speech! Check out the full thing here.