John Grider
Here.
It's late, and I'm tired, so I'll just present some John McCain "greatest hits" from this last, abysmally bad week of gaffes and missteps.
John McCain Doesn't Understand Economics
(1) Ezra Klein demonstrates how John McCain's belief that "when you raise people's taxes, revenue goes down," is not only stupid in the general 'supply-side economics is stupid' sense, but stupid even from the perspective of supply-siders. Klein calls it "economic Scientology." I like that.
(2) Hilzoy--over at Obsidian Wings--chimes in. She points out that this fits in with what seems to be John McCain's only guiding principle when it comes to economics--government spending is bad. Senator McCain's belief in this principle is so strong that, somehow, magically, cutting taxes and government spending (though he hasn't made clear just what he'll be cutting) will balance the budget. It might be good to note that "the budget" doesn't include--for example--the billions of dollars he wants to spend on the military (and the billions of dollars he wants to spend toward the white man's burden).
Here's a particularly delicious morsel from Hilzoy:
He has a few ideas lodged in his head, without anything like the background he'd need in order to question or assess them, and without any discernible interest in learning more. He doesn't keep basic, basic facts straight, or know really elementary aspects of his own policies.
Both of these posts are worth a read. They do a very good job of explaining just how fact-free McCain's economic policy is. (I would have said extreme, but even extreme supply-side policies have--as Klein puts it--are "wrong with a long and distinguished tradition behind it.")
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