Who Is John McCain

John McCain has been asking the question, "Who is Barack Obama?" implying that he is a terrorist, a Muslim, a fil in theblank with whatever terrible fear you have...
Maybe the question should be, who is John McCain?

Tim Dickinson has written a short bio piece about McCain in Rollingstone that should be read.

fiscal conservatives

candidates on the economy

both candidates have responded to the economic mess with ads.

First Obama's



now McCain's



Here is a reader's response to both ads from Andrew Sullivan's blog.

Let me get this straight ... Obama's ad is two minutes in which he outlines, in broad strokes, his economic plan and points us to a site where we can read the plan in full. McCain's ad is 30 seconds of tough rhetoric without a word that says what he would do except "reform Wall Street" because he's "taken on tougher guys than this before".

And it's Obama's plan that's all talk?

Seems like Andrew's reader got it right. McCain is just macho posturing while at least Obama is giving broad strokes of what he would propose we do.

two of a kind

I love paradoxes. Indeed, I think paradox is at the core of any Christian theology worth doing.

As I look at John McCain, I feel a paradox. As the funny video below says, he really promises to be just like George Bush. That represents my greatest hope - because if people actually know and believe that he doesn't have a snowball's chance in hell of being elected and my greatest fear - because if people don't see that he could be elected and we'd have 4 more years of the same. I don't think the world can take that.

In the meantime, have a smile courtesy of MoveOn...

McCain on health care reform

Let me first off say that I believe a McCain presidency would be almost as big a mistake as the Bush presidencies were/are. Occasionally I'll post reasons why.

The first has to do with health care. On his web site's health care page, McCain says, among other things that he would

Reform the tax code to eliminate the bias toward employer-sponsored health insurance, and provide all individuals with a $2,500 tax credit ($5,000 for families) to increase incentives for insurance coverage. Individuals owning innovative multi-year policies that cost less than the full credit can deposit remainder in expanded health savings accounts.

Let's unpack that for a minute. "Eliminate the bias toward employer sponsored health insurance..." What is the bias in the tax code? Employers can deduct the cost of provided insurance from their corporate income. If employers could not deduct these costs, does anyone really believe they would continue to provide it? Think how that would increase their already unsustainable costs. For example, if an employer was paying $10,000 a year for insurance for an employee and they suddenly could not deduct those costs, their real costs for that same benefit could jump as much as 35% to $13500. Bye bye health coverage as a benefit.

So what is McCain's solution then? a $2500 tax credit or $5000 for a family per year. Now, I don't know what insurance costs are where you live but my employer pays a lot more than $5K for my family's insurance. If I could purchase insurance in my area - which I can't because of controlled health issues - it would probably be at least $25K a year and possibly more. That means $20K+ out of my pocket. Of course, we cannot afford that so my controlled medical condition would no longer be controlled and well... you get the picture. And for those folk who are currently uninsured, the tax credit is not enough to enable them to purchase insurance either so it helps nobody.

So what solution does McCain's plan offer to the health care crisis? Even fewer people with adequate health insurance.

Is that the kind of health care reform you want? If it is, vote for John McCain.

The Fall of the Soviet Union and Iraq

What do these two subjects have to do with one another? Let's first talk briefly about the Soviet Union. It fell not because of the strength of America but because of the weakness of its own economy which was overburdened by a military budget that bled everything else dry. Military spending is not productive spending. It doesn't provide infrastructure or goods to the public. Instead it is just a little better than throwing the money away. It is the epitome of the disposable product. So all of this wasteful spending as they tried to keep up with us in an arms race while sustaining a war in Afghanistan was more than they could afford. When their economy collapsed, as was inevitable because of the percentage of non-productive sending, the nation crumbled.

Last Thursday Joseph Stigletz, a Nobel Prize winning economist, and Robert Hormatz, vice chairman of Goldman-Sachs International, testified before the Joint Economic Committee of congress. Stigletz said that he believes the overall cost of the Iraq war will be around 3 trillion dollars with the direct cost to US taxpayers being at least $2 trillion.

Both men testified about the opportunities to make this country better that are rendered impossible because of this war. Stigletz said that for a fraction of the cost, Social Security and Medicare could have been kept easily solvent for at least 50 more years. Each day's spending could put 58,000 children in Head Start, make college affordable for 160,000 students, pay the annual salaries of 11,000 border patrol agents or 14,000 police officers. And that is one day's costs. Watch this little film from the American Friends Service Committee to see more of what could be done with just 1 day's expenditure for this war.

Stigletz also noted that 40% of the vets from the first Gulf War are eligible for disability benefits which will go on for decades. Imagine, he asked, what the numbers will be for this war which will involve 2 million troops and go on for at least the 5 years we already have under our belt? Imagine with me the social costs when the safety net for them fails as it did for the Viet Nam vets - remember how many of them ended up homeless on the streets? How many of these young men and women will end up discarded? And what will happen to their families?

And finally they testified that because of tax cuts during war and what was an already growing deficit, this war is financed almost entirely by deficit spending. Bush has worked to try to hide the costs of the war by bypassing the normal budget process and using emergency appropriations for the funds. The costs will be hanging around our necks like an albatross for decades to come.

And John McCain says we should expect to stay there another 100 year!

Let me make a prediction. If we do, we will fall just like the Soviet Union did and for essentially the same reasons. It will have nothing to do with the strength of our ideals or the beautiful vision upon which this nation was founded. It will be because of a poorly planned and completely unnecessary war that strangled our economy.

A vote for McCain will virtually insure that end. Actually, I think a vote for Hillary will too. It is only Obama who is talking about seeing security in a new way - of building coalitions and negotiating before dropping bombs.