I already posted on McCain’s gas-tax-holiday proposal. But what about the other things he said in his big economy speech in Pittsburgh today? Here’s my summary of the main points, with my commentary in italics.
1) Jimmy Cayne and Angelo Mozilo are naughty men who got paid lots of money for being naughty. But I’m not going to actually do anything about that. He’s right about the first part, and I haven’t heard anybody else offering great ideas on what to do about it, so I guess he comes off okay on this.
2) The Dems say tax increases will be necessary to pay for the rising cost of Medicare and Social Security. I, however, will render tax increases unnecessary by “reforming and protecting Medicare and Social Security.” Sorry dude, but it’s either reform or protect. To obviate the need for future tax increases, we’d need some seriously sharp cuts in Medicare spending in particular. If that’s what you want, say it.
3) I’ll veto lots of spending bills, especially the ones with earmarks in them. Great! But (a) we’ll believe it when we see it and (b) nondefense discretionary spending, even if it’s full of earmarks, is not what’s driving the coming budget crunch.
4) I want to cut the corporate tax rate from 35% to 25%. This actually might be a good idea–the U.S. currently has the second-highest corporate tax rate in the industrialized world (after Japan), and lowering the rate would give corporations less incentive to locate operations abroad. So cutting this rate wouldn’t be a big revenue loser, and it might be a job creator.
5) I’ll abolish the Alternative Minimum Tax. Everybody says that. But it doesn’t mean anything unless you explain how you’re going to make up the lost revenue, which McCain does not.
6) I’ll raise the dependent tax exemption from $3,500 to $7,000. Doesn’t sound like such a bad idea. I think it would make the income tax a bit more progressive, at least for people with kids. But it will cost money.
7) I’ll propose a flatter, fairer, alternative tax system. Too vague to say much about, although I guess flatter means he’s for making the income tax less progressive, which seems a little backwards in an era of rising income inequality.
8) I’ll do some stuff that will make health care better, but I’d rather not say what, other than that it will involve “generous tax credits.” Whatever. I guess that’s really a topic for another speech, anyway.
9) The Medicare prescription drug benefit should be means-tested so Warren Buffett and Bill Gates pay for their own danged prescriptions. I had no idea that Bill Gates was already on Medicare. Sounds like a good idea, though.
10) I’m for free trade, especially with Colombia. That’s actually kind of a brave thing to say, especially in Western Pennsylvania.
11) I’m for some sort of government-backed mortgage plan that sounds like the one Chris Dodd and Barney Frank have proposed. Okay.
12) I’ll restore “transparency, accountability, and personal and corporate responsibility” to Wall Street and corporate America, but I’m not saying how. Sigh.
All in all, I’d say McCain is continuing to give the impression that he’d rather be talking about something, anything other than the economy. (And you know, sometimes I feel the same way.)