McCainomics: The Right Reacts

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The largest "program" of the Bush administration has been its war on terror, including Iraq, funded almost entirely on new borrowing added to the national debt. The war would long be over if Americans had been asked to pay for it in real time. They weren't asked, because they wouldn't have paid for it. So politicians, then led by your supposedly "conservative" Republicansencumbered both you and your currency to it just do it anyway--like on MasterCard or something..
Meanwhile, Social Security, that bad, bad, bad "entitlement" thing has been cheerfully funded for decades by everyone---including EXTRA paid in these last 25 years since the Reagan/O'Neill tax increase "fix" in the 1980's----to where it has more than a $2 trillion surplus that is still growing. And LOOK at what both McCain and the above poster says YOU need to have cut. Disingenuousness on steroids.

Daniel David of NM 5:27PM April 29, 2008

Let's talk economics instead of politics. Social welfare programs are economically inefficient. The only way to really make them financially sound is for a government to have a high tax rate across the board - not just on one socioeconomic class. A great example of a feasible way for a government to provide such programs is the Netherlands - they are able to provide wonderful social programs, paid for by a universally high rate of taxation.
Let's be honest, though - this is not a feasible solution for the United States. Americans by and large are unwilling to part with the high percentage of taxes required to fund the programs that they insist they are owed by the government. The real problem here is the sense of entitlement that American's have come to embrace. Our national debt is so high because we as citizens vote for programs and policies which we will not support with our tax dollars. Instead, those who wish to benefit from those programs and policies believe that someone else should pay for it, i.e. those who benefit from the Bush tax cuts.
What we're seeing, then, is a fundamental shift in the values of our society - and not for the better. What was once the "Land of Opportunity," i.e. the land where hard work and financial responsibility paid off, has become the "Land of What's in it for Me." We may not yet know the details of McCain's policy - which may or may not be the solution - but what he has described so far is much more on point than anything we've seen from either Obama or Hillary. Instead of looking to create additional, and much more expensive programs (like universal healthcare), he is being realistic about the fact that we may have to eliminate programs for which Americans are unwilling to pay.

TDM of PA 2:52PM April 29, 2008

Your Ph.D. moniker may impress some, but not me. If you're so darn smart, why don't you add all the "earmarks" of the last seven years together and compare the total against the increase to the national debt of the last seven years. Go ahead. I dare you. The "earmarks" argument is WORTHLESS, because most of them are for things that citizens want and need. Nearly any infrastructure project in any congressional district is an "earmark" and you're not going to get rid of them by changing the way they are authorized and enacted.
Perhaps I just "don't know what I'm taling about" as you say, but you do. And YOU ARE CLEARLY LYING.

Daniel David of NM 12:37PM April 29, 2008

"Daniel David" clearly has no idea what he's talking about. Go troll another website and leve US News to handle the facts. McCain doesn't have to target "ALL" of his spending cuts at social programs; it's called getting rid of PORK BARREL spending at pet projects, like Obama's $740,000,000-worth of earmarks since 2005.

Mike Bradley, Ph. D. of NH 8:07PM April 28, 2008

Somebody (like say U.S. News and World Report, for instance) probably knows or can find out how much revenue the government has forgone specifically due to the Bush tax cuts of 2001 and 2003, and how that relates to the approximately $4,000,000,000,000 (trillions with a "T") of increase to the national debt thusfar during the Bush Administration. The reality, I think, of the tax cuts is that all the money for the cuts was BORROWED from your kids.
As for McCain's proposed spending cuts, they will ALL come from social and consumer protection programs and NONE from military spending. Unless you do not elect McCain.

Daniel David of NM 5:08PM April 28, 2008