Friday, April 25, 2008

Two on McCainomics

John McCain sure sounds like a tax rate-cutting fiscal conservative. His tax proposals, detailed in this speech last week, seem to extend the Reagan-Bush legacy of lower marginal rates across the board, and special emphasis on supply-side incentives (see various tax breaks below). But this article contrasts McCain the candidate with McCain the Senator.

Elsewhere, the New York Times profiles McCain's chief economic adviser, Douglas Holtz-Eakins. The article argues McCain's policy proposals focus mainly on the revenue side, without addressing spending:
The problem is that the campaign has been far, far more detailed about its tax cuts, which would worsen the deficit, than its spending cuts, which would reduce it. Mr. McCain has proposed the elimination of the alternative minimum tax (at a cost of $60 billion a year), new child tax deductions ($65 billion), a corporate tax cut ($100 billion) and faster write-offs for corporate investments in new equipment ($50 billion to $75 billion).
But in academia, Mr. Holtz-Eakin is known for empirical work that questions the productivity of government expenditures. Here is an ungated example.

6 Comments:

At 4/25/2008 11:56 AM, Anonymous Anonymous said...

I really hate it how people take what candidates say about the economy so seriously during the campaign season. None of what they say is realistic!

Obama and Clinton say they will renegotiate NAFTA. There is NO CHANCE that they will do this.

McCain says he will cut taxes. Everyone loves that idea so its a good thing to say. But if you say you are going to cut spending, people start asking, "Well, on what?" And if it effects them then they get pissed off and cause trouble. As a politician, you try to make as many people happy as possible during a campaign and cause as few as possible to get upset.

 
At 4/25/2008 1:04 PM, Blogger KauaiMark said...

Yep...what "mach.." said.

 
At 4/25/2008 2:13 PM, Blogger OBloodyHell said...

What, you mean Bill Clinton wasn't a fiscal conservative in the 90s?

Nawwww! He said so in his speeches in 1992!

:oP

 
At 4/25/2008 3:10 PM, Blogger randian said...

The article uncritically repeats the standard leftist meme that tax cuts reduce government revenue. That makes it suspect in my book.

 
At 4/25/2008 4:43 PM, Blogger Jack Miller said...

My fear is that McCain will go along with another corporate boondoggle, the cap and trade plan. McCain seems to appreciate that the subsidies for ethanol are causing starvation without helping the fuel situation. His long list of tax cuts, including the amt and the corporate tax implies that he will have to raise taxes elsewhere (cutting out earmarks is a great idea but nothing compared to the cut in the AMT). If we really must offset the tax cuts, they should be offset with a straight forward carbon tax. If we are serious about conservation of energy, lets act serious.

 
At 5/16/2008 2:46 PM, Anonymous Anonymous said...

"standard leftist meme that tax cuts reduce government revenue" - where's the proof that they do not reduce government revenue. Even the Treasury Dept and CBO know that tax cuts do not pay for themselves:

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/10/16/AR2006101601121_pf.html

McCain's proposals are silly considering the hole were already in - as are Obama and Clintons.

 

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