Role reversal: McCain has a plan; Obama takes a pass
By Nick Ragone | Related entries in NewsJohn McCain did something unusual for John McCain: he got ahead of an economic issue.
McCain beat Hank Paulson to the punch today with his own emergency economic plan, which includes new regulations, firing SEC Commissioner Cox, and the establishment of the Mortgage and Financial Institutions trust, which would serve as a RTC-like body to purchase the toxic loans that are poisening the financial system.  Reuters has a good summary of the plans details, which at points differs from Secretary Paulson’s plan.
And what did Barack Obama have to say on the matter of the market meltdown? He held a presser, flanked himself with Clinton vets like Laura Tyson and Robert Rubin, and then promptly said nothing. The best he could offer was that he was waiting to see what the administration had to offer (ostensibly so that he could then say the exact same thing).
It was an odd way to end a truly remarkable week. You would have thought the roles would have been reversed, with Obama offering a detailed plan and McCain ducking the issue, but nothing about this election cycle has been normal.
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September 19th, 2008 at 8:57 pm
Here is McCain’s policy position on healthcare appearing in this month’s issue of Contingencies, an actuarial magazine:
Opening up the health insurance market to more vigorous nationwide competition, as we have done over the last decade in banking, would provide more choices of innovative products less burdened by the worst excesses of state-based regulation.
See if you can spot the devastation in that sentence.
Yes, John McCain, champion of regulating the banking industry today, was touting deregulation of banking as a success just in the past few weeks, and would like to apply all that success in deregulation to healthcare.
Spin that one, Nicky.
September 19th, 2008 at 9:22 pm
Imagine that, someone bright enough to keep his mouth shut, knowing that whatever he said was going to be irrelevant after Paulson was done. Obama is so impressive in his intelligence so often. Not perfect, no one is, but better than McCain or his primary economic advisor, Phil Gramm.
September 19th, 2008 at 9:55 pm
This is one time where it makes absolutely no sense for McCain to “have a plan” … especially one that is different than that being put forward by the Fed/Treasury.
This is a pure grandstanding political stunt.
Country first … hardly.
September 19th, 2008 at 10:37 pm
Todd wrote:
“This is a pure grandstanding political stunt.”
My exact thought. The guy who self-deprecatingly admits his lack of deep understanding of economics, who five days ago displayed stunning prescience in proclaiming again that the fundamentals of the economy are strong, has a plan to fix this mess going forward and I’m supposed to take him seriously?
Pull my other leg… it plays Jingle Bells.
When this all shakes out, Johnny, I suppose you can say you were the first one with a plan. I guess you win, Senator McCain.
To be fair, here’s what Obama said today in part:
“Finally, given the gravity of this situation, and based on conversations I have had with both Secretary Paulson and Chairman Bernanke, I will refrain from presenting a more detailed blue-print of how an immediate plan might be structured until I can fully review the details of the plan proposed by the Treasury and the Federal Reserve. It is critical at this point that the markets and the public have confidence that their work will be unimpeded by partisan wrangling, and that leaders in both parties work in concert to solve the problem at hand.”
Talk to the Treasury Sec’y: Check
Talk to the Fed Chairman: Check
Get out of their way and let them do their work: Check
Recognize that their hard work influences the all the hard work that follows: Check
We just had eight years of shooting from the hip. Not for this guy. No mas. No mas.
September 19th, 2008 at 11:41 pm
But don’t you think that McCain was undermining Paulson?
Also, Obama talked through a detailed economic plan 3 days ago that talked about greater oversight. I posted it here. Watch the whole thing.
September 20th, 2008 at 1:33 am
@Justin: Who are you asking?
September 20th, 2008 at 4:04 am
McCain cant actually fire cox. he has a plan that cant actually be carried out, that sounds great.
September 20th, 2008 at 3:14 pm
It’s so bizarre having Nick around here. I mean, he’s kinda right. McCain did give his plan, and Obama, not so much. But honestly, I don’t want either one of them being even remotely responsible for the cleanup on this mess. This is the kind of mess that instant, ideological reactions can only make worse. Regulation is necessary, but it needs to be sane regulation, rather than the insanity of things like Sarbanes-Oxley. I’m hoping that when Obama gets around to speaking up, those will be the words that come out of his mouth, but we’ll see.
September 20th, 2008 at 5:26 pm
Hey, my first semi-positive comment. Thank you! I hope it doesn’t go to my head lol …
September 20th, 2008 at 6:41 pm
What we are seeing here is the ultimate failure of the free market.
In a free market, these companies would be allowed to fail, but because the free market encouraged the consolidation of what were once myriad companies, the failure of a single company with that much significance to the country cannot be tolerated.
Reagan, Bush, Clinton, and Bush again have all been free marketeers with complete disregard for the longer term implications of a free market; making matters worse still is under Bush we have nationalized risk and privatized profit.
Adhering to the antitrust laws we have on the books would have maintained competition and allowed for the failure of the losers.