Republican Party’s Future
My Palin Derangement Syndrome post got a number of thoughtful responses, especially for a weekend post. My fellow Jacksonville State alumnus Stacy McCain, a Palin fan, thinks the internal debate on her role in last week's defeat and her future as a Republican Party standard bearer is one we should have. He objects strenuously, though, to the tone of some of ...Posted in Outside The Beltway | OTB on November 10, 2008 07:15
McCain More Trusted on Economy, Losing
A new Rasmussen poll finds that voters trust John McCain more than Barack Obama on taxes (47%to 45%) and on "economic issues" more generally (48% to 47%). These numbers are, of course, within the margin of error. They do, however, represent a reversal of a trend and may indicate that the "Joe the Plumber" and "spreading the wealth around" message ...Posted in Outside The Beltway | OTB on October 30, 2008 07:16
Obama’s Acceptance Speech: The More Things CHANGE, The More They Remain the Same
I wrote a quick post before bed last night giving my off-the-cuff reaction to Barack Obama's nomination acceptance speech, arguing that, despite all the talk of "change," it was basically a speech that Jimmy Carter, Walter Mondale, Michael Dukakis, Bill Clinton, Al Gore, or John Kerry could have given. The NYT has a six-page transcript of the speech as delivered. Let's ...Posted in Outside The Beltway | OTB on August 29, 2008 08:14
2008 Presidential Candidates’ Tax Plans
The Tax Policy Center, a joint effort by the Brookings Institute and the Urban Institute, has looked at both candidates tax proposals and...well it isn't pretty. Basically both candidates do not believe in fiscal responsibility, both are pandering, and neither of them are willing to make the hard decisions. Which is somewhat to be expected given that the ...Posted in Outside The Beltway | OTB on August 16, 2008 14:03
McCain Collects Social Security
AP's David Lieb has unearthed a major scandal: John McCain, who paid into the Social Security system for decades, is collecting benefits even though he thinks it's a bad system. Although Republican presidential candidate John McCain has called Social Security "a disgrace," he still cashes his own retirement check every month. "I'm receiving the benefits, the system is broken and, unfortunately, my ...Posted in Outside The Beltway | OTB on July 18, 2008 07:11
Why Rush Limbaugh is So Popular
Ezra Klein believes a recent NYT Magazine profile of Rush Limbaugh is a "puff piece." He lists, for example, Rush's "presidential platform" as published: 1. Open the continental shelf to drilling. Ditto the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge. 2. Establish a 17 percent flat tax. 3. Privatize Social Security. 4. Give parents school vouchers to break the monopoly of public education. 5. Revoke Jimmy Carter’s ...Posted in Outside The Beltway | OTB on July 8, 2008 09:03
McCain to Balance Budget - Here’s How
John McCain is promising to balance the budget in his first term: 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. [...] “In the long-term, the only way to keep the budget balanced is ...Posted in Outside The Beltway | OTB on July 7, 2008 08:00
Poison Pills, Presidents, and Policy
Paul Krugman misapplies the term "poison pill" to politics with rather amusing results. A poison pill, in corporate jargon, is a financial arrangement designed to protect current management by crippling the company if someone else takes over. As I read the nonpartisan Tax Policy Center’s analysis of the presidential candidates’ tax proposals, I realized that the tax cuts enacted by the ...Posted in Outside The Beltway | OTB on June 16, 2008 14:25
McCain and ‘Privatizing’ Social Security
Quite a few commenters are accusing John McCain of flip-flopping because he favored privatization of Social security in 2004 and now adamantly rejects the insinuation that he supports it now: This is a clumsy rhetorical game rather than a policy shift. Then and now, McCain's position is that Social Security would remain as a government program but that younger workers ...Posted in Outside The Beltway | OTB on June 14, 2008 09:17
McCain Tax Cuts Favor Taxpayers (aka, ‘Wealthy’)
Matt Yglesias heaps praise on the WSJ for summarizing a study by the liberal Tax Policy Center (a project of the Urban Institute and Brookings) that concludes: The two candidates' plans would have sharply different distributional effects. Senator McCain's tax cuts would primarily benefit those with very high incomes, almost all of whom would receive large tax cuts that would, ...Posted in Outside The Beltway | OTB on June 12, 2008 09:22
