Sunday, January 27, 2008

McCaininomics

Recently my friend David challenged my support of John McCain on the grounds that McCain would not handle the economy appropriately.  Here is a link from the New York Times and my critique.

Good Things: Mandates to address global warming and Medicare, cuts to programs that are ineffective, pursuing tax reforms suggested by a bipartisan commission, reference to Theodore Roosevelt, recognizes and honestly discusses the complexities of globalization, support for alternative energy and educational programs, commitments to reduce pork barrel spending.

Bad Things: Similar to other Republican candidates he advances the idea that we can increase revenue by cutting taxes.  

Unclear: As noted in the article it is unclear whether he will in actuality be able to balance the budget, however he is certainly paying more lip-service to it than other candidates.

His assertion that cutting government spending would stimulate the economy.  To me, this sounds like he was confusing short and long term.  It is fairly clear that in the short term cutting government spending would not stimulate the economy and would in fact slow it.  However if he is trying to say that cutting government spending would improve the economy in the long term that is certainly a more defensible position.  It is an opinion that could be argued either way rather than an almost indefensible misunderstanding.

Altogether I find McCain's policy more appealing than other candidates as do a great deal of more qualified economists.  Critiques of other Candidate's economic policy to follow.

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