John McCain Off The Cuff - A Spending Freeze

What's missing from your article MIC, is any consideration of NObama's response. He'd use a scalpel to somehow, magically nick off a $500 billion deficit but not at the expense of teaching kindergartners sex education at public schools and federal daycare. No, no, no, we can't under any circumstanses impair the holy work of tax-funded childhood indoctrination into the Leftist worldview.

The old stodgy Republican laid out a bold option for us to consider as a potential way to actually solve the problem and the "transformative" young Dimocrat played catch-up, as is his wont, with a variation of the shop worn for-the-children criticism sans an alternative. That ought to lead the so called thinking Progryssve to criticise Barry for ducking the question or at least asking specifically what he'd cut.  

NObama told you he has a scalpel but what he's saying is he's got a magic wand. The same magic wand he'll use to solve all problems. It's sad the people with boundless energy to criticise Conservatives can't seem to summon up the fortitude to question any of the Chosen One's utterances instead of rote acceptance as ritualized acts of faith.  The choice is clear. Believe in magic? Vote for NObama. Want necessarily imperfect real-world solutions? Vote McCain.         

The old stodgy Republican laid out a bold option for us to consider as a potential way to actually solve the problem

Yes, give tax breaks to Paulson and his banking buddies and let them trickle down over everybody else.....

But there's no doubt that we're not going to be able to do everything that I think needs to be done. There are some things that I think have to be done.

We have to have energy independence, so I've put forward a plan to make sure that, in 10 years' time, we have freed ourselves from dependence on Middle Eastern oil by increasing production at home, but most importantly by starting to invest in alternative energy, solar, wind, biodiesel, making sure that we're developing the fuel-efficient cars of the future right here in the United States, in Ohio and Michigan, instead of Japan and South Korea.

We have to fix our health care system, which is putting an enormous burden on families. Just -- a report just came out that the average deductible went up 30 percent on American families.

They are getting crushed, and many of them are going bankrupt as a consequence of health care. I'm meeting folks all over the country. We have to do that now, because it will actually make our businesses and our families better off.

The third thing we have to do is we've got to make sure that we're competing in education. We've got to invest in science and technology. China had a space launch and a space walk. We've got to make sure that our children are keeping pace in math and in science.

And one of the things I think we have to do is make sure that college is affordable for every young person in America.

And I also think that we're going to have to rebuild our infrastructure, which is falling behind, our roads, our bridges, but also broadband lines that reach into rural communities.

Also, making sure that we have a new electricity grid to get the alternative energy to population centers that are using them.

So there are some -- some things that we've got to do structurally to make sure that we can compete in this global economy. We can't shortchange those things. We've got to eliminate programs that don't work, and we've got to make sure that the programs that we do have are more efficient and cost less.

MIC,

NObama responds to a question about where he will make the spending cuts he admits he'll need to make with a laundry list of spending programs. He completely avoids the question, votes present, of where he'll make cuts. This is what passes for spot-on leadership? Avoid the tough decision of where to cut in favor of a list of mythical goodies, something for everyone a comedy tonight! Don't worry about paying for more government spending for health care, education, "energy independence", NObama has a magic wand. He'll do all these things and give you a tax cut, just don't ask too many questions, the One will not answer them anyway.       

But there's no doubt that we're not going to be able to do everything that I think needs to be done. There are some things that I think have to be done.

He then told you he will continue spending of energy independence, health care, education, and infrastructure.  This is not a "laundry list" of unnecessary programs, and you know it.  There can be no economy without these things, and they have been neglected for far too long.  Spending up front, for example, on energy independence, IS a way to pay off the $700 billion dollar bailout bill.  We import $700 billion worth of foreign oil each year right now.  Invest $100 billion over the next 10 years to eliminate that from the budget once and for all, and you have you answer right there.

It is short-sighted and narrow-minded to think that $700 billion is going to be hacked off the budget up front, and that it could only be done through spending cuts.  But that's John McCain's one-dimensional and calcified thinking on the matter:

MCCAIN: Look, we, no matter what, we've got to cut spending. We have -- as I said, we've let government get completely out of control.

Senator Obama has the most liberal voting record in the United States Senate. It's hard to reach across the aisle from that far to the left.

The point -- the point is -- the point is, we need to examine every agency of government.

First of all, by the way, I'd eliminate ethanol subsidies. I oppose ethanol subsidies.

I think that we have to return -- particularly in defense spending, which is the largest part of our appropriations -- we have to do away with cost-plus contracts. We now have defense systems that the costs are completely out of control.

We tried to build a little ship called the Littoral Combat Ship that was supposed to cost $140 million, ended up costing $400 million, and we still haven't done it.

So we need to have fixed-cost contracts. We need very badly to understand that defense spending is very important and vital, particularly in the new challenges we face in the world, but we have to get a lot of the cost overruns under control.

I know how to do that.

Quintessential McCain.  First, blame someone, even if in fact you were part of the problem.  Second, scare people with the liberal.  Third, when presented a bill at the restaurant, start looking for loose change in your pocket and call yourself frugal.

Except for inefficient defense spending, McCain just rattled off several programs where some odd millions of dollars could be saved . . . to pay for a $700 billion bill.  A moment later, as I have already quoted, he drags out his ad hoc "spending freeze" idea (probably because even he must have realized that his answer up to that point was ridiculous).  What does he exempt from the "spending freeze"?  Defense spending.

This is no different than on the campaign trail, or on his website, where McCain addresses our nearly $10 trillion national debt with the two-prong approach of tax cuts for all and eliminating $18 billion in earmarks.  Never mind that a large percentage of earmark spending is not wasteful, and if not allowed to ride on unrelated bills will inevitably find its way into the budget in a more direct form.  So eliminating earmarks will not save us even the $18 billion per year, but only the true pork spending, which is probably on the order of a few billion.  That's not budget plan, my friends.  That's a con job.