It is rapidly becoming obvious to me that the man doesn't really grasp many of his stated policy positions. For example, there's this on Social Security (from an interview with John Roberts):
ROBERTS: Senator, I'm sure you're also hearing from them about social security. Because part of this plan, if you're going to balance the budget, is to reform social security. You've talked about the idea of private accounts, as President Bush tried to get through and couldn't. What else would you do to reform social security?
MCCAIN: I would sit down with Democrats and Republicans the way Ronald Reagan and Tip O'Neill did in 1983. And they said, okay, we've got everything on the table here, let's come to an agreement. The approval rating of congress right now is 12% last time I saw. I know how to work across the aisle, I've done it with Democrats and I've done it for many, many years. We'll sit down across the table with the backing of the American people.
ROBERTS: Do you have any idea --
MCCAIN: On the privatization of accounts, which you just mentioned, I would like to respond to that. I want young workers to be able to, if they choose, to take part of their own money, which is their taxes, and put it in an account which has their name on it. Now, that's a voluntary thing, it's for younger people, it would not affect any present-day retiree or the system as necessary. So let's describe it for what it is. They pay their taxes and right now their taxes are going to pay the retirement of president-day retirees. That's why it's broken, that's why we can fix it. We can do it together, Republicans and Democrats alike.
Social Security is a good place to start because the whole issue is a giant bamboozle. There is nothing wrong with Social Security and if you'd like to be super cautious some tinkering around the edges will set the fund up in perpetuity. Please remember that, when you hear about private accounts and Social Security, think "They want to give away all my money." Because that's what they want to do. But that's not what I came here to talk about (and for background on the Social Security bamboozle, read this).
Anyway, back to the McCain quote above. Either young workers are going to have their taxes raised ("take part of their own money, which is their taxes") or they are going to divert some of their Social Security contribution away from Social Security which would leave it with a huge funding hole - either taxes would have to be raised on everyone else, or the Social Security benefit would have to be cut (or, I guess, the US could borrow the money to make up the gap but since McCain's agreed to balance the budget by 2013 that option goes out the window because the borrowing would be pretty huge). He doesn't seem to grasp this.
And he is not just mis-speaking here. He has said repeatedly that Social Security needs to be privatized (although he takes pains not to call it privatization) but never says how he'd do it, or what he'd do to close the funding gap. Here he is at a town hall yesterday:
"I'd like to start out by giving you a little straight talk. Under the present set-up, because we've mortgaged our children's futures, you will not have Social Security benefits that present-day retirees have unless we fix it. And Americans have got to understand that.
Americans have got to understand that we are paying present-day retirees with the taxes paid by young workers in America today. And that's a disgrace. It's an absolute disgrace, and it's got to be fixed.
Now, how do you fix it? Now, how do you fix it? You fix it by reaching across the aisle, and you say to the Democrats, "Sit down with me at the table. Sit down with me, the way Ronald Reagan and Tip O'Neill did the last time that Social Security was in deep trouble, and that was way back in 1983."" (From CQTranscriptions, "SEN. JOHN MCCAIN HOLDS A QUESTION-AND-ANSWER AT A TOWNHALL MEETING", July 7, 2008. Accessed via Lexis/Nexis.)(Via Obsidian Wings)
The current system is a disgrace. He can't be more clear about his intentions, and he can't be any more wrong on the substance. As an aside, he WON'T have the "backing of the American people" here - they HATE the idea of Social Security privatization, so much so that they couldn't even be scared into it a couple of years ago.
And it happens again and again. He is very sloppy in his thinking and that makes it very dangerous for all of us. Look at his economic plan (curiously number free), his belief that cutting taxes raises revenues (it doesn't), that cutting capital gains taxes increases revenues (it doesn't in anything other than the short run), his failure to fully understand what a cap and trade system is (and how it is useless if the number of permits isn't actually CAPPED). And that's just his economics, off the top of my head. And he is supposedly the experienced one who has had time in government to think all of this through. He hasn't.
Remember the last time we elected someone to the White House who was not particularly "intellectually curious"? We are suffering through that decision right now and we cannot make that mistake again. Have a rudimentary knowledge (at best) of your positions or, worse, only being familiar with the talking points used to sell those positions is a recipe for disaster because it opens the office up to manipulation. If nobody thinks the President cares about, or comprehends, what is being proposed people will take liberties.
He is a very dangerous candidate for the country.
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