Left Limit, Right Limit: An Approach to Understanding Political Issues Part VI John McCain’s Fund Raising Literature

This week’s Ezine will be an analysis of John McCain and the claims in his fund raising letters.

Senator McCain uses a great deal of the standard Republican talking points. To refresh you from my Ezine #21, If Democrats win, then McCain says—

 Your taxes will be raised by allowing the Bush Tax Cuts to expire.
 Our troops will be recklessly pulled out of Iraq and hand our enemies (Al Qaeda) a victory they have neither won nor deserve.
 Government spending will skyrocket to implement government run health care (socialized medicine) and resurrect failed welfare programs.
 Liberal judges will be appointed who will legislate from the bench.

Today I’ll focus on the first and third points.

Socialism, Marxism, and Communism are all terms that I see and hear being applied inaccurately to the concept of universal health care. (In fact, you may want to go to my Blog and re-visit Weekly Ezine #7. That Ezine focuses on factual descriptions of a lot of the “-ism’s”.) Nevertheless, my advice to Democrats for setting a left limit is this. Universal Health Care should be about adjusting the relationship between health care providers (doctors, nurses, hospitals, clinics, etc.), health care insurers and the individuals who use their services. Universal Health Care should not be about Government ownership or employment of health care providers (with the exception of already existing government owned entities such as military and VA facilities). Democrats would be well served to set clear boundaries in this regard and adhere to it should they win in November. I suggest all concerned read chapter 22 of David Cay Johnston’s Free Lunch. (There’s a quick link to the book on Amazon from my Blog.)

As to the tax cuts, let me say again what I have said before. The Bush tax cuts do not represent a true tax cut. Your taxes have not been cut, they have been postponed and the bill is hiding in plain sight because politicians don’t want to talk about it, much less confront it. That’s what this new documentary film, I.O.U.S.A., is about. (More on that in a minute.)  A true tax cut would be when the government, through cost savings and cutting of levels of service, lowers its cost of operations and then passes the savings on to you, the tax-payer. You did not get that with the Bush Administration.

What you got was even higher spending levels than the previous Democratic administration financed by borrowing. The national debt today is over $9.6 Trillion and climbing. That is money borrowed in your name as a taxpayer by your elected representatives. You owe this money, like it or not. The fact we owe this much money and are showing little signs of getting serious about debt reduction is one of the reasons the price of crude oil has risen so fast.

But we’ve been fighting a war; that costs a lot, you say. Absolutely and we have fought this war at retail cost instead of wholesale cost with no-bid contracts and mercenaries instead of expanding the Army and Marines.

So when John McCain and other Republicans say they support making the Bush tax cuts permanent, aren’t they really saying let’s keep on doing things like we’re doing them and get closer to national bankruptcy? To McCain and the Republicans, I offer a right limit stake. Getting out of debt, whether you’re an individual, a household, a business or a government, means raising more revenue devoted to debt reduction and at the same time cutting expenses. Raising more revenue means raising taxes. Admit it. The fact you won’t admit it makes you untrustworthy. And I have a hell of a time getting myself to vote for someone I don’t trust.

And yes, I recognize that Democrats may be more upfront about the fact they will raise taxes and who they will raise them on. Still, Democrats need to be clear about the realities of the funds expected to be raised and what they will be applied to. Continued discussion on The Center Strikes Back is welcome.

Premiere of I.O.U.S.A.

Tonight was the premier for the documentary I.O.U.S.A. The premier was followed by a panel discussion with Warren Buffett, Pete Peterson and Dave Walker. The event originated in Omaha and was simulcast in over 400 theaters nation wide. I was in the live audience and will have a report on my Blog later.

On the radio Sunday, August 24, 2008

Just a reminder that I will be on the radio with Gary Wood at 7:00 p.m. EDT this coming Sunday. Gary is the co-Founder of www.HearMyThunder.org as well as the host of his Internet radio show through Blog Talk Radio called the March of Liberty Show.  Here's the link to the actual show site or you can access it at HMT.  http://www.blogtalkradio.com/March-of-Liberty