Uriel999
07-06-2008, 08:52 PM
All I can say is :rolleyes: Read the rest at:
http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0708/11553.html
McCain promises to balance budget
By MIKE ALLEN | 7/6/08 10:41 PM EST
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Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) plans to promise on Monday that he will balance the federal budget by the end of his first term by curbing wasteful spending and overhauling entitlement programs, including Social Security, his advisers told Politico.
McCain is making the pledge at the beginning of a week when both presidential candidates plan to devote their events to the economy, the top issue in poll after polls after voters struggle to keep their jobs and fill their gas tanks.
“In the long-term, the only way to keep the budget balanced is successful reform of the large spending pressures in Social Security, Medicare, and Medicaid,” the McCain campaign says in a policy paper to be released Monday.
“The McCain administration would reserve all savings from victory in the Iraq and Afghanistan operations in the fight against Islamic extremists for reducing the deficit. Since all their costs were
financed with deficit spending, all their savings must go to deficit reduction.”
McCain advisers admit that the document is a repackaging of previous policies, without dramatic new initiatives. Some Democratic officials, for instance, thought McCain might try to make a splash by proposing a bold middle-class tax cut.
McCain’s tour of swing states is designed to relaunch his candidacy after a shakeup last week in his campaign organization, which has been widely criticized as soft and slow compared to the Obama machine.
Sen. Barack Obama (D-Ill.) also is spending the week emphasizing economic issues, and plans to emphasize the family-friendly, bottom-up benefits of his proposals.
Obama begins the week in Charlotte, N.C., with what his campaign calls “a discussion on economic security for America’s families.”
The Obama campaign sought to steal Obama’s thunder by holding a conference call Sunday to portray McCain as out of touch and not up to the job on economic matters.
Jason Furman, Obama’s economic adviser, said: “John McCain has no short-run plan to create jobs and get the economy moving again. And his long-run vision is a tax plan that leaves out 101 million households and leaves the rest with only about $125 in the first year of the plan – as compared to Barack Obama’s tax cut for 95 percent of workers and their families totaling $1,000 for a married couple.
“Barack Obama’s economic philosophy is that you empower people to foster bottom-up growth while John McCain hopes that some crumbs from his tax cuts for corporations and the most affluent trickle down to middle class families.”
McCain’s emphasis on balancing the budget is likely to excite conservatives, who have remained skeptical of his candidate, and provoke derision from Democrats, who will argue that it’s a warmed-over version of proposals that President Bush failed to enact.
The budget was in surplus when President Bush took office but now is deeply in the red — $410 billion, the White House projects, blaming the demands of war and homeland security.
McCain begins his tour in Colorado, then goes on to Pennsylvania, Ohio Michigan and Wisconsin – five of this year’s 10 most highly contested states.
http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0708/11553.html
McCain promises to balance budget
By MIKE ALLEN | 7/6/08 10:41 PM EST
Text Size:
Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) plans to promise on Monday that he will balance the federal budget by the end of his first term by curbing wasteful spending and overhauling entitlement programs, including Social Security, his advisers told Politico.
McCain is making the pledge at the beginning of a week when both presidential candidates plan to devote their events to the economy, the top issue in poll after polls after voters struggle to keep their jobs and fill their gas tanks.
“In the long-term, the only way to keep the budget balanced is successful reform of the large spending pressures in Social Security, Medicare, and Medicaid,” the McCain campaign says in a policy paper to be released Monday.
“The McCain administration would reserve all savings from victory in the Iraq and Afghanistan operations in the fight against Islamic extremists for reducing the deficit. Since all their costs were
financed with deficit spending, all their savings must go to deficit reduction.”
McCain advisers admit that the document is a repackaging of previous policies, without dramatic new initiatives. Some Democratic officials, for instance, thought McCain might try to make a splash by proposing a bold middle-class tax cut.
McCain’s tour of swing states is designed to relaunch his candidacy after a shakeup last week in his campaign organization, which has been widely criticized as soft and slow compared to the Obama machine.
Sen. Barack Obama (D-Ill.) also is spending the week emphasizing economic issues, and plans to emphasize the family-friendly, bottom-up benefits of his proposals.
Obama begins the week in Charlotte, N.C., with what his campaign calls “a discussion on economic security for America’s families.”
The Obama campaign sought to steal Obama’s thunder by holding a conference call Sunday to portray McCain as out of touch and not up to the job on economic matters.
Jason Furman, Obama’s economic adviser, said: “John McCain has no short-run plan to create jobs and get the economy moving again. And his long-run vision is a tax plan that leaves out 101 million households and leaves the rest with only about $125 in the first year of the plan – as compared to Barack Obama’s tax cut for 95 percent of workers and their families totaling $1,000 for a married couple.
“Barack Obama’s economic philosophy is that you empower people to foster bottom-up growth while John McCain hopes that some crumbs from his tax cuts for corporations and the most affluent trickle down to middle class families.”
McCain’s emphasis on balancing the budget is likely to excite conservatives, who have remained skeptical of his candidate, and provoke derision from Democrats, who will argue that it’s a warmed-over version of proposals that President Bush failed to enact.
The budget was in surplus when President Bush took office but now is deeply in the red — $410 billion, the White House projects, blaming the demands of war and homeland security.
McCain begins his tour in Colorado, then goes on to Pennsylvania, Ohio Michigan and Wisconsin – five of this year’s 10 most highly contested states.