John McCain on the Economy
July 8th, 2008 at 08:43am Mark Noonan
Once again showing why all conservatives should rally ’round McCain:
At its core, the economy isn’t the sum of an array of bewildering statistics. It’s about where Americans work, how they live, how they pay their bills today and save for tomorrow. It’s about small businesses opening their doors, hiring employees and growing. It’s about giving workers the education and training to find a good job and prosper in it. It’s about the aspirations of the American people to build a better life for their families; dreams that begin with a job.
So how are we going to create good jobs? Let’s start with small businesses, which create the majority of all jobs. A recent report says small businesses have created 233,000 jobs so far this year while other sectors are losing jobs. Small businesses are the job engine of America, and I will make it easier for them to grow and create more jobs. My opponent wants to make it harder by imposing a “pay or play” health mandate on small business. This adds $12,000 to the cost of employing anyone with a family. That means new jobs will not be created. It means existing employees will have their wages cut to pay for this mandate. My plan attacks the real problems of healthcare — cost, availability and portability.
Some economists don’t think much of my gas tax holiday. But the American people like it, and so do small business owners. Just ask Andrew Emmett who runs Air-Tite insulation in Michigan. He has had to stop hiring new workers because of the cost of fuel for his trucks.
We need to keep the IRS from taking more of your income and making life harder for small business. If you believe you should pay more taxes, I am the wrong candidate for you. Senator Obama is your man. The choice in this election is stark and simple. Senator Obama will raise your taxes. I won’t. I will cut them where I can. Jobs are the most important thing our economy creates. When you raise taxes in a bad economy you eliminate jobs. I’m not going to let that happen.
Senator Obama’s tax increases will hurt the economy even more, and destroy jobs across this country. If you are one of the 23 million small business owners in America who files as an individual rate payer, Senator Obama is going to raise your tax rates. If you have an investment for your child’s education or own a mutual fund or a stock in a retirement plan, he is going to raise your taxes. He will raise estate taxes to 45 percent. I propose to cut them to 15 percent. His plan will hurt the American worker and family. It will hurt the economy and cost us jobs. For those of you with children, I will double the child deduction from $3,500 to $7,000 for every dependent, in every family in America. At a time of increasing gas and food prices, American families need tax relief and I, not my opponent, will deliver it.
Obama’s entire economic plan is just warmed-over Carterism…as was said of the Bourbons of old, the liberal Democrats have learnt nothing and forgotten nothing. Obama’s blast-from-the-past concepts like a “windfall profits” tax shows that he hasn’t thought about economics, but has swallowed whole the liberal concept that the government knows best. McCain, however, is a longstanding Reaganite on the economy - the man who understands that as far as economic growth is concerned, the best thing the government can do is get the heck out of the way. You can’t manage an economy from the center because you can’t know what people want, nor what people are willing to do. Only the free interplay of the market can make such determinations - still imperfectly, but far more effectively than even the wisest and most knoweldgable government bureaucrat.
But McCain is also no booster of mere business for the sake of business - he seems to instinctively understand that the very large corporations can be just as ineffective as the very large government bureaucracies and this is why McCain’s emphasis is on the smaller corporations and family businesses. It is the man or woman who is building up something of their own who is doing the real work of America - not the man working on becoming CEO of a Fortune 500 company, no more than the empire-building bureaucrat is. Large corporations and large bureaucracies will remain, at least for a while; but the less said about them, the better - and lets certainly not go about encouraging them. Unleash the average American, and you’ll get prosperity. McCain is for such unleashing, while Obama is for fastening yet more chains about us…nice chains, to be sure; chains which are intended to help us, it goes without saying…but chains nonetheless, and chains which will ruin us and, for the 1,000th time, dash liberal hopes and dreams.
We’ve hit a rocky patch at the junction of stupid loans (made, it must be noted, mostly by larger corporations with the connivance of Big Government) and high oil prices. The economy is in fundamentally good shape, but in order to weather this storm and emerge stronger on the other side of it we’ll need a free marketing Reaganite like McCain, not a quasi-socialist Carterite like Obama.
Entry Filed under: Campaign 2008, Democrats, Economy, Republicans
38 Comments
1. A Small Victory » B&hellip | July 8th, 2008 at 10:27 am
[...] John McCain on the Economy … economy isn’t the sum of an array of bewildering statistics. It’s about where Americans work, how they live, how they pay their bills today and save for tomorrow. It’s about small businesses opening their doors, hiring employees … [...]
2. Magnum Serpentine | July 8th, 2008 at 10:29 am
All that team McBush offers is same old same McSame economic policies of the last 7 and a half years. The people have already stated they do not want a third term for george.
And allowing a stupid tax break for the rich to expire is not raising taxes.
“Bomb Bomb Bomb, Bomb Bomb Iran” McCain 2007
3. Cooldown | July 8th, 2008 at 10:57 am
Four more years! Four more years! Four more years! Four more years! Four more Years! Four more years!
At 27% favorable, we just humor the cons with post. The Reagan conservative movement hijacked by the religious whackoes and big business greed, whose message is bastardized by the likes of Limbaugh, Coulter, and Hannity for ratings points has come down to a death spiral. The final touches were the Bush years. To prove government doesn’t work they intentionally placed incompetent “Good Bushies” in charge of important departments and then when they inevitably failed said, “see government does not work.” Take a look around; Republican economic policies have caused the dollar to tank, huge government debt and now a recession with inflation.
I just don’t hear the American people saying keep the con’s trickle down economic plan going. I think they are crying, “enough already; you tried it and it didn’t work so well. Conservative economic policy made the rich richer and is wiping out the middle class.”
4. HeyHey | July 8th, 2008 at 11:03 am
“Last month, when economists, en masse, concluded that John McCain’s idea for a “gas-tax holiday” didn’t make a lick of sense, McCain told a group of voters that economists aren’t to be trusted.
This morning, McCain decided that he actually loves economists.
U.S. Senator John McCain’s presidential campaign today released a statement signed by over 300 professional economists in support of John McCain’s Jobs for America economic plan. The list includes Nobel Prize winners, business economists with experience in the private sector, policy economists with experience in government and academic economists from major universities and state and community colleges.
Considering the fact that McCain’s economic plan is rather ridiculous, I suppose it’s rather impressive that his campaign pulled together over 300 professional economists (I’m going to assume that’s accurate; I didn’t check the credentials of the names) to endorse this nonsense.
But as it turns out, there’s a catch. As Ben Smith reported, “The statement [signed by the economists] leaves out two big chunks of McCain’s economic argument: the gas tax holiday and his promise to balance the budget by the end of his first term — there’s literally nothing in the release that mentions the deficit or national debt.”
In other words, the economists didn’t endorse his economic plan; they endorsed his plan after taking out two of the more transparently stupid centerpiece ideas of the plan.
Doesn’t that tell us quite a bit? The McCain campaign couldn’t even get like-minded economist allies to endorse his economic plan without quietly allowing them to ignore two of the proposals McCain claims to take seriously?
For that matter, here’s another question. For the next four months, how many times will the McCain campaign and his media base argue, “This economic plan must be pretty good if it’s been endorsed by over 300 economists”? If anyone’s willing to set an over/under, bet on the over. Trust me.”
5. Retired Spook | July 8th, 2008 at 11:24 am
I have a good friend who owns a small manufacturing company that produces electronic components and employs about 35 people. His employees are hard-working and loyal and he treats them extremely well in terms of benefits and compensation while still maintaining a high degree of profitability. I don’t know for sure, but, based on comments he’s made, I’d be very surprised if he wasn’t in the target group for Obama’s tax increase. We were playing golf last week, and he said, if Obama is elected and does the things he’s promised in terms of taxes and health insurance, he will likely close his doors and retire. The extent to which that will happen in small businesses across the country is the elephant in the room that no one is thinking about, much less talking about. Because of our age, where we live and our relatively safe sources of income, my wife and I are pretty well insulated from the economic damage that a President Obama could do, but there are going to be a lot of idealistic young Leftists who are going to be out of a job and scratching their collective heads wondering what the hell happened.
Actually, I hope I’m wrong. I hope, if Obama’s elected, he turns out to be the best President ever, but such a scenario flies in the face of everything I know about economics. All I can say to you Lefties is just be careful what you wish for.
6. '08ama | July 8th, 2008 at 12:54 pm
Spook:
Believe it or not, for every small business owner like your friend, there are 10 families struggling day-to-day out there. Families who do not experience a high degree of profitablity, who do not have relatively safe sources of income, cannot afford to play golf, and who are not well insulated from the disasterous McBush polcies of the last 7+ years.
There’s a whoooooole country outside the safe and cozzy gated communities you spend your time in. Honestly.
7. OhioOrrin | July 8th, 2008 at 1:24 pm
BALANCE THE FREAKIN BUDGET !
I’m almost at a point where I feel budgeting should administered by a PROFESSIONAL budget branch which stands on its own equal to the judicial, legislative, & executive branches subject to civil service.
further the citizens should directly enact, by a citizens convention, a constitutional admendment REQUIRING a balanced budget unless granted a temporary EMERGENCY budget in excess of revenues.
the GOP controlled congress, up to 06, taught me to no longer trust the GOP regarding fiscal discipline. and I cannot trust the Dems either.
lastly, it’s my understanding that a Fed gas tax hoilday will deplete the highway trust fund & jepordize THREE HUNDRED THOUSAND highway construction & renewal jobs.
maybe not too smart given our infrastructure.
8. Zach | July 8th, 2008 at 1:59 pm
“When you raise taxes in a bad economy you eliminate jobs.”
That alone is enough to close out Obama. To me, this one sentence crushes every one of Obama’s nice speeches about the economy..
Next.
9. Zach | July 8th, 2008 at 2:05 pm
“Believe it or not, for every small business owner like your friend, there are 10 families struggling day-to-day out there”
You dont get it do you?
How many of those “10 families” that you talk about rely on incomes from small buisness? 2? 3? more? Can you answer me that?
You’re really that capable of voting for a man that could jeopardize that many families jobs or health benefits?
“cannot afford to play golf”
WTF!!!
I didnt know golf was that expensive to play…
10. bull | July 8th, 2008 at 2:10 pm
“Believe it or not, for every small business owner like your friend, there are 10 families struggling day-to-day out there. Families who do not experience a high degree of profitablity, who do not have relatively safe sources of income, cannot afford to play golf, and who are not well insulated from the disasterous McBush polcies of the last 7+ years.”
and there wasn’t one person that was affected by the glorious clinton policies. everyone was riding around in limos, playing golf at country club courses, and had cash exploding from their wallets during the 90’s. as a matter of fact, their wasn’t even a poor, lower, or middle class. everyone was in the wealthy class…that is until george bush came along.
11. Zach | July 8th, 2008 at 2:12 pm
Actually thats funny, by 08ama’s logic we should forget about the 1 employer who employs 35 (thats THIRTY-FIVE!!!) people…We should worry about 10 families that are struggling..
I guess those 35 employees dont count as “families” in Barrack Obamas mind..
That about right 08ama? Is that why you’ll vote for him?
12. David B. Schmidt | July 8th, 2008 at 2:32 pm
John McCain is just continuing to refine his position on several issues. Obama doesn’t have a position of his own.
No one here has even attempted to defend Obama’s “positions” and reversals just attack McCain a near RINO. Basically, I understand it is difficult to defend a person who is positive he can dig his way out of a hole.
When a small company filing on Individual returns gets whacked with heavy taxes — you know, on the rich, it gets passed along. If the market can not bear the cost increase of the product–then savings are made internally. Benefits are revoked-employees laid off, etc. Welcome to the Obamanation plan.
I need to make up some t-shirts before the election: “Bring back the misery index–Vote Obama 08″
13. Across Country » Bl&hellip | July 8th, 2008 at 2:48 pm
[...] John McCain on the Economy I’m not going to let that happen. Senator Obama’s tax increases will hurt the economy even more, and destroy jobs across this country. [...]
14. Ricorun | July 8th, 2008 at 2:49 pm
Zach: “When you raise taxes in a bad economy you eliminate jobs.”
I’d say it depends on which ones and what you do with them. I do agree with your second point, tho — that you can’t burden small business owners, because that will kill jobs. Personally, I’d like to see more money invested in “new energy”, although not quite the way McCain seems to mean it. I honestly don’t think investing heavily in nuclear plants are the most cost-effective way to go these days. It seems to me it’s better to invest in wind, solar, geothermal, batteries, and energy efficiency. Those things (well, most of them) are already cheaper than nuclear, their costs are trending down rather than up, there is a massive amount of private capital chomping at the bit, and they are very likely to create more jobs in the long run. I’m fine with domestic drilling, too. Our dependence on oil isn’t going to disappear overnight.
I like McCain’s approach to health care, which is basically to eliminate employers from the equation and to make it more a direct transaction between individuals and insurance/health providers. But I don’t think he goes quite far enough.
I’m also in favor of reducing corporate taxes. But I would couple it with increasing capital gains taxes (or at least eliminating the distinction between them and regular income). It’s true that the US has some of the highest corporate tax rates in the world. But it’s also true that we have one of the lowest personal tax burdens of any developed nation in the world.
That should be enough to piss off just about everyone, lol! But you see I have this weird notion of “efficiency”. Efficiency in tax structures, efficiency in government structures, efficiency in regulatory structures, even market efficiency (which is not the same as “unfettered”). Needless to say, I have a hard time trying to fit my views in one or another ideological viewpoint. I like to call myself a “libertarian populist”, which is kinda true, but also a delightful contradiction in terms.
15. Retired Spook | July 8th, 2008 at 3:01 pm
“Bring back the misery index–Vote Obama 08″
I love it, David. Most of the Lefties here are too young to remember the Misery Index and stagflation; two terms that originated during the Carter Administration. Other less-than-desirable things Jimmah will be remembered for are “wear a sweater”, gas lines, high inflation, high unemployment, the Iranian hostage crisis and the ultimate in symbolic diplomacy: boycotting the Moscow Olympics as a means of protesting the Soviets’ invasion of Afghanistan — yeah that really taught ‘em a lesson. You want to repeat all that? VOTE OBAMA.
Zach, thanks for responding on my behalf. We had a bad thunderstorm go through here, and our power was off for a couple hours. The reason the story about my friend didn’t resonate with any of the Libs here is that most Liberals think the main purpose of business is to provide jobs for people who haven’t got the ambition or intelligence to start their own. I’m afraid they’ll have to find out the hard way that nothing could be further from the truth.
16. Rana Quijotesca | July 8th, 2008 at 3:26 pm
-From Obama’s website
So… he has tax breaks to compensate small business owners for the increase in taxes on the higher income earners. He also has plans for subsidizing R&D and increasing the proliferation of technology across the US.
Obama seems to be embracing a new set of economic theories, called Behavioral Economics, which holds that the role of government, roughly, is to use incentives in order to steer economic actors, who aren’t always rational, towards more beneficial decisions while still preserving their right to choose other alternatives; it also focuses on the proliferation of information on markets, helping people make more informed economic decisions (like not taking shitty loans, for example). If you think that it’s socialism, then you don’t know socialism, you don’t know economics, or you are willfully misleading someone (either yourself or others).
McCain, on the other hand, seems to cling to right-wing distortions of supply-side theory (like saying that that tax cuts always lead to higher revenues ). This is not quite good, and it was that type of thinking that got us in to our current predicament.
At least Mark is only referring to Obama as a “Quasi Socialist” instead of just a socialist… If he follows this trend, he just might start telling the truth…
17. Rana Quijotesca | July 8th, 2008 at 3:56 pm
Spook-
You know that we have stagflation (defined as rising unemployment and rising inflation) now, under Bush, right?
18. FmrMarine | July 8th, 2008 at 4:10 pm
rq
>>>At least Mark is only referring to Obama as a “Quasi Socialist” instead of just a socialist…>>
Actually BO is a marxist.
19. FmrMarine | July 8th, 2008 at 4:16 pm
08
>>>there are 10 families struggling day-to-day out there. Families who do not experience a high degree of profitablity, who do not have relatively safe sources of income, cannot afford to play golf, and who are not well insulated from the disasterous McBush>>>
SORRY that doesnt fly.
Work 2 jobs and weekends, go back to school, get in an apprenticeship.
I have done all the above, I came from a very lacking(monetary) family.
I am the top level tech. in a fortune 5 corp.
and own two businesses.
I also have three sons two very successful one…works for me, has nothing and when I die wont have much…….HIS fault not mine.
You cant paly, os sit on your duff crying about life passing you by…IT WILL!
so the next time you see a gated community, or us playing golf…remember WE-WORKED for it.
20. FmrMarine | July 8th, 2008 at 4:21 pm
rq
>>>You know that we have stagflation (defined as rising unemployment and rising inflation) now, under Bush, right?>>>
UMMMM actually it ALL began right AFTER the RATS took both houses over in 06.
Not long for gas to go to $4.00 a gallon
the housing market to collapse,
jobs to fall, unemployment to rise
and a congressional approval rating lower than whale s#!t !
THANKS - piglowsey and reidtard!
21. Dasein Libsbane | July 8th, 2008 at 4:26 pm
Frog,
Rising inflation? And Rising unemployment?
That’s an unusual assessment coming from a Keynesian. You will recall that it was the Keynesian’s inability to control or even identify stagflation that led directly to Supply-side Economics. You’ll also recall that stagflation was exacerbated by the tight money policies which included restrictive lending interest that netted negative investment.
With inflation nominal and steady and unemployment @ just over 5% (once considered full employment) I’m curious how you can label this “stagflation.” Using your over-simplified definition, we experienced “stagflation” at least six times in the 1990’s, eight in the 1980’s and twice since 2000. is there a credible economist that agrees with you?
Maybe you forgot the wiord “dramatic” in your defination; as in “dramatic rise.”
22. Dasein Libsbane | July 8th, 2008 at 4:29 pm
Maybe you forgot the word “dramatic” in your definition; as in “dramatic rise.”
Accursed spellcheck!
And now, back to work …
23. FmrMarine | July 8th, 2008 at 4:54 pm
deslesbian;
>>>That’s an unusual assessment coming from a Keynesian>>>
and that SWILL from a UK citizen! NOT an American.
24. Rana Quijotesca | July 8th, 2008 at 5:25 pm
fmr Marine-
Actually, our economic woes stem from the housing bubble that formed in the early 2000s because of sub-prime loans, artificially low interest rates following 9/11, and stupid people in securities markets. Essentially, interest rates went up, people defaulted on payments, people who used securitized loans as collateral for investments had to sell off their investments when their loan securities were devalued, and consumer confidence went through the floor. All because of a trend that started during a Republican Presidency, a Republican Congress, and partially because of a Republican Appointee.
Libsbane-
First of all, the Inflation data you showed was from 2007, if you look at the monthly data from this year, particularly the early months, using the method of calculating inflation used in the 1970s (adjusting inflation to remove fuel and food is retarded anyways), then the inflation rate was around 10% for a little while. Also, as you’ll notice from the unemployment data, the unemployment rate has increased more than .5% so far this year. You’ll also notice that there has been a downward trend in the employment figures. Might not be that “dramatic,” but it deserves a second look.
Also, I don’t know why you keep calling me a Keynesian. I consider myself much more of a Behavioralist than a Keynesian. Granted, Keynes did have some good ideas about government spending increasing Aggregate Demand and stimulating the economy (something that Bush noted when he pushed the 2003 tax cuts, btw), modern Keynesians don’t really offer anything that I find particularly helpful. Supply-Siders (like, I assume, you are) nowadays typically just misuse the theories of good Economists like Laffer in order to push political candidates and mis-guided policy proposals (like in the fact check article I linked earlier). I personally like Behavioral Economics because it doesn’t focus on just one side of the LX diagram (Keynsians like the Demand side; supply siders… you get the point); it instead focuses on the interplay between buyers and sellers and anomalies in economic behavior (like the Sunk-Cost paradox). It also emphasizes the importance of information asymmetries.
Stop assuming I’m Keynesian…
25. Rana Quijotesca | July 8th, 2008 at 5:26 pm
Marine-
I’m also not British… I’m from a Red State you moron…
26. FmrMarine | July 8th, 2008 at 6:03 pm
rq
WHERE did I say anything to YOU about not being an American? A$$ #@!E
27. Ricorun | July 8th, 2008 at 8:22 pm
FmrMarine: WHERE did I say anything to YOU about not being an American? A$$ #@!E
I take it you were referring to “deslesbian” then. If so, boy are you lost. Perhaps it’s time for you to invoke Spook’s Rule of Deep Holes: stop digging.
The worst part about it is that I was going to taunt Dasein by asking him who (besides Ronald Reagan) is widely credited for establishing the money policies that ended stagflation — and who that person supports now. But you’ve taken all the fun out of it, darn it!
Then again, maybe you’d like to answer the question.
28. js | July 8th, 2008 at 10:37 pm
4. HeyHey | July 8th, 2008 at 11:03 am
“Last month, when economists, en masse, concluded that John McCain’s idea for a “gas-tax holiday” didn’t make a lick of sense
—————-
tell that to the thousands of independent truckers that are paying over $5 a gallon for diesel fuel so you and your “economists en masse” (more like idiots on a DNC stick) can buy grocieries and act like horses arses….
29. js | July 8th, 2008 at 10:40 pm
any moron who thinks inflation is dropping is doing drugs…the dollar is falling like a rock…eveything is going up…except wages…
30. Mark Noonan | July 9th, 2008 at 2:07 am
Rana,
And that would be a disaster - the government cannot figure out what incentives should be offered…you can’t figure it out from the center. Its not a hard task, its an impossible task…better just to keep taxes low, regulation minimal (side note - one of the major effects of highly regulating an activity? Small players are forced out and big players get bigger…in other words, all those “Big” this or that the left hates were by and large created in response to increasing government regulation) and allow people to figure out on their own what they want to do…
31. TampaBayRayz-4-evah-don't-mess | July 9th, 2008 at 2:22 am
Mark: Neither Obama nor McCain have been addressing the core problems — the US debt, the US deficit, the weakness of the the US dollar, and the intense pressure in the commoditities markets. Until either does, the US is in a slow trip to the drain.
32. Jeremiah | July 9th, 2008 at 2:28 am
Energy independence = Market booster.
McCain is your man!
Go McCain!
33. Mark Noonan | July 9th, 2008 at 2:28 am
Tampa - they are all inter-related and the best way to cut the Gordian knot here is to deflate the commodities market and just the perception that we’re shifting away from oil while increasing domestic oil output will tip the overheated oil market into a long overdue crash, which will increase the value of the US dollar, which will ease the deficit, which will ease the debt…our problem is stupid loans (which can’t be cured, but only dealt with over time) and high oil prices.
34. Rana Quijotesca | July 9th, 2008 at 1:58 pm
Incentives would be a disaster?
Better tell that to the drafters of the GI Bill, the recipients of tax credits for education and business, recipients for homestead exemptions on property taxes, recipients of subsidies for the energy industry, recipients of agriculture subsidies, recipients of tax deductions on mortgages…
Once again, you just knee-jerk object to something without reasoning or evidence.
35. Rana Quijotesca | July 9th, 2008 at 2:00 pm
Tampa Bay-
Actually, Obama plans to push for the reinstitution of PAYGO, the primary mechanism behind the balanced budget/surpluses of the ’90s. Really, if you support fiscal responsibility, you should really like that–I wonder why McCain doesn’t like PAYGO…
36. HelloItsMe | July 10th, 2008 at 12:58 pm
“UMMMM actually it ALL began right AFTER the RATS took both houses over in 06.
Not long for gas to go to $4.00 a gallon
the housing market to collapse,
jobs to fall, unemployment to rise
and a congressional approval rating lower than whale s#!t !”
We know fmrmarine, everything that is wrong in the country is Congress’ fault. You obviously have no idea how long things take in Washington. I get it though. If Dem Congress did something as soon as they got in, we wouldn’t be in this mess. How is the President’s approval rating going these day? Go change your diaper…
37. HeyHey | July 11th, 2008 at 10:34 am
McCain rhetoric, meet reality.
” …Obama has proposed rolling back the Bush tax cuts only on “people who are making 250,000 dollars a year or more,” and according to the nonpartisan Tax Policy Center’s table of 2007 tax returns that reported small-business income, only 481,000 of those returns are in the top two income-tax brackets — which include all filers with taxable incomes of more than $250,000 — not 21.6 million.”
Jay Newton-Small fleshed this out in even more detail.
“Okay, let’s assume there are now 23 million small businesses in the U.S. today (the latest stats I could find were 21.5 million “schedule C” class businesses in 2005). There’s no way that all 23 million of those are netting more than $250,000. In fact, 94.5% of all “flow-through” entities (self-employed folks, which generally tend to be small businesses, though Tiger Woods also falls into this category) had receipts under $100,000 in 2007.”
Fiorina was building on a Bush argument from 2004. Bush loved to cite on the stump the plight of the 4.1 million “subchapter S” companies – another catagory of small businesses that have less than 100 shareholders and pay individual income taxes. As my former Bloomberg colleague Ryan Donmoyer — the best tax reporter in town — pointed out, the argument was a bit ridiculous because less than 5% of small businesses who file under sub-chapter S made more than $200,000, Kerry’s threshold in 2004. Putting aside the dubiousness of relying on a stale Bush argument for his tax cuts, even with the sub-chapter S filers added in the total number of small businesses effected by a tax hike on those who net more than $250,000 a year remains a few hundred thousand – nowhere near the 23 million Fiorina claimed.
OK, so McCain, his aides, and his surrogates have been clearly getting this wrong. Either they’re repeating bogus talking points without knowing what they’re talking about, or they’re deliberately lying. Which one is it? Apparently, it’s the latter.
We know this because Time asked Fiorina to explain how she arrived at the 23 million figure. The McCain advisor/surrogate responded:
“My point is this: when Barack Obama says that the Bush tax cuts only helped the wealthy it is factually untrue. It is factually true that 23 million small businesses file as individuals. It is factually true that small businesses create 70% of the jobs in this country. So I honestly won’t even attempt to explain Barack Obama’s economic plan. You ought to ask them that, though.”
So, confronted with reality, the McCain campaign digs in to lie some more. Or, as Newton-Small concluded, “This statement, while factually true, is terribly misleading since only a small percentage of the 23 million small businesses would actually see tax increases and the Obama campaign argues that under his administration small businesses would benefit from his universal healthcare plan, offsetting any tax increases the top tier earners might see. So, when running HP did 23 million = a few hundred thousand? No wonder she got fired.”
38. Holiday Retirement Corp&hellip | August 22nd, 2008 at 4:04 am
Holiday Retirement Corp
Your blog makes very interesting reading. I’m sure others will think so too I look forward to reading their comments.