McCain’s “Pension and Family Security Plan”
By Justin Gardner | Related entries in 2008 Election, Economy, McCain, VideoThis is pretty much the whole speech.
The basic points are good, except for #4…
1. Lower taxes for seniors tapping their retirement accounts and suspend rules that force seniors to liquidate their accounts during economic crisis. (1/2 New)2. Accelerate the tax write-offs for those forced to sell at at a loss in the current market. (New)
3. Reduce capital gains taxes for ’09 and ’10.
4. His Homeowner Resurgence Plan, where mortgages would be purchased directly from homeowners and mortgage services and replaced with manageable fixed-rate mortgages.
5. For workers, eliminate taxes on unemployment benefits.
I can’t think of anybody who likes #4, which is McCain’s $300B mortgage buyout plan, especially since it doesn’t buy the house at the real value, but instead buys it at the inflated value.
Personally, that doesn’t seem to me like he’s fixing the housing market. Well, it depends on what you mean by the word “fix.” I guess in one sense he would be “fixing” it, but not in a productive way.
What do you think?
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October 14th, 2008 at 3:04 pm
numbers 1, 3, and 5 are much like some of Obama’s points. Maybe McCain is just a victim of poor timing, but this type of stuff just seems like copying Obama and then claiming to be the “change candidate.”
October 14th, 2008 at 3:06 pm
Justin,
I really can’t have an opinion on these proposals because they’re so irrelevant! It’s like a High School term paper, while you’re involved in the process it seems so important, you learn a lot about the subject you’re researching, do the best you can to get a good grade, hand it in, and it’s all but forgotten a week later except the pat on the back when you take it home. In other words, it’s all academic except for the process, which in McCain’s case shows just how erratic, unfocused, and swayed by all the influences he has upon him. Which is a lot like the past eight years only with the “maverick” nonsense mixed in.
The best example IS point #4 as you mentioned. It wants to do exactly the opposite of what the House Repubs were fighting for and which John McCain heroically rode into town on his white horse to save the day for. The reason so many people hate it is that it lets everyone off the hook for the bad decisions they made at the tax payers expense. This is the wrong thing to propose doing especially if you’re a free market proponent. It would be one thing if you’re trying to moderate the two opposing sides to reach a compromise, but this just simply contradicts the position he took during that first bailout proposal. It makes no sense and thus isn’t getting any real traction in the real world.
October 14th, 2008 at 6:07 pm
Do you think this will change even one voter’s mind?
http://www.entertonement.com/collections/4700/John-McCain%27s-New-Economic-Plan
October 14th, 2008 at 6:18 pm
BaxterJ,
Yes. I am undecided, and for those of us who are, we’re going to have to make up our mind one way or the other (or the other) before Nov 4. I think it’s great that we finally have two clear economic plans to compare, going into the last debate tomorrow. I plan on looking at both carefully. I predict a lot of the undecideds will become decided after tomorrow, and a lot of that will have to do with their respective economic plans.
(By the way, that reminds me, I’m tired of commentators on TV and elsewhere saying how people who are undecided must not be paying attention since there is such a clear contrast. Pundits frequently forget that there are people who aren’t partisan, and I’m offended–ok, not really that offended–that they accuse me of not being informed).
October 14th, 2008 at 6:22 pm
BaxterJ,
Sorry I misread your comment. No, it probably won’t change hardly anyone’s mind (I won’t go so far as to say it won’t change even one). Certainly it will help some make up their minds though. With the current polls it looks like that won’t be enough even if McCain wins the undecides in a land-slide.