Happy Leap Year Day!

Don't know what happened to yesterday's blog.  It was here yesterday and is gone today.  Must be the leap year.  At any rate, I wrote a bit about the research I'd done on John McCain to date.  I'm starting with him and then moving on to the Dems since my brother, Dale, asked me my opinions...and I realized I didn't know enough to respond.

Yesterday's research centered on McCain's biographical information.  His history as a war veteran, politician and family man are well known.  I was interested to learn that he had an affair with wife #2 while married to wife #1.  (Apparently, it wasn't his first extra-marital foray, either.)

He's admitted to the affair and accepted full responsibility for the break-up of the marriage...so I guess that partly negates his questionable judgement and lack of integrity at the time.  He and his current wife, Cindy, have been married about 8 months longer than Dan and I.  So that longevity says something too.  All of which leads me to a neutral rating for McCain on the whole (relatively minor) divorce issue.

Today's research was on McCain's position on taxes.  He seems to be typically Republican in his approach.  Specifically, he wants to cut taxes on the middle class by eliminating the Alternative Minimum Tax. (And replacing it with nothing.)  He wants to keep the Bush "Tax Relief for the Wealthy" plan in place (meaning he wants to keep the lower capital gains and dividends taxes in place, along with other Bush cuts).  And he's for lowering business tax rates by 10% across the board.

The one proposal he had that made sense to me was a tax credit for businesses who invest an equivalent of 10% of their wage budget in Research and Development.  I'd support that instead of the across the board cut in a heartbeat.

So how's he going to afford these cuts given that we're in a huge deficit and spending away like mad on a war he'd like to stay in? 

He's playing on his reputation as a reformer to say that he'd balance the budget by reforming government.  More on that next McCain instalment.  There's digging to be done to see if that's air or has some potential to offset the cuts he's selling.

So far on taxes?  I'd give him a -1 on a scale of -5 to +5.  He seems happy to cut taxes (and retain tax cuts skewed toward the wealthy) at a time where more tax cuts just increases the bleeding.

 


Comments

Sally

Sat, 01 Mar 2008 10:33:25

My opinion on cheating husbands is well known to you. I will only add the well read quote that the man who marrries his mistress leaves the position open. If he will cheat on his wife, then where does he draw the line?

 

Laura

Wed, 05 Mar 2008 21:00:01

Hey Sally,

You make a good point. He sounds sincere when he accepts responsibility, but it is one of those things that makes you go, "Hmmm..."

 

Dale

Sun, 09 Mar 2008 17:38:46

I'm not sure keeping taxes low for big business is bad. If we don't tax them out of the country then maybe some of the jobs will stay and the tax base will stay higher. This of course needs to be coupeled with a reduction in spending on unnecessary things. Yes we overspend on the military. But don't we overspend on helping the countries that openly hate us. Don't we overspend asking our farmers not to grow a crop instead of asking them to find better ways to use the crops, or just let the free market work. We let our legieslators from both parties pork barrell us to death. Just maybe we need new unexperienced blood in he white house. However, then we all need to hold that person and ourselves accountable
by supporting him in some unpopular ideas.
sorry for the rambling, but I may be changing my mind onwho is the right candidate. I just hope that Hilary isn't in the equation. The one thing to remember is that they are all "politicians" which in my book still equates them to liars and thieves. It sure be nice to find one that can comprimise with integrity

 

Laura

Mon, 10 Mar 2008 15:04:11

Hi Dale!

It's been so long since I did my tax research (back when I was writing for a newspaper) that I have to do more thorough research once again...but...

Given all the loopholes, we have one of the lowest effective corporate tax rates of any country, last I checked. Yet our corporations are among the richest in the world.

I think outsourcing is driven more by personnel costs than taxes, so I don't think the jobs are affected as much by the tax picture. I'll do some more research and have a more definitive reason for my opinion over the next week or so.

And yes, we do pay farmers to not farm. We help a lot of countries, but not so much as you'd think in terms of per capita expenditures.

I think the real issue is pork barrell projects, lack of accountability and ingenuity in government offices, and spending too much money on contractors in the war effort...those areas would all reduce the deficit if we reigned them in.

 



Leave a Reply