John McCain and Our National Debt

09 April 2008

From The New York Times:

WESTPORT, Conn. – When Senator John McCain was asked here this afternoon how he plans to balance the budget, he said that he hoped to do so by stimulating economic growth – and approvingly cited the example of President Ronald Reagan.

There was one thing he did not mention during his response: the deficit nearly tripled during the Reagan presidency, partly due to tax cuts and increases in military spending.

One of the things that worries me most about the prospect of a McCain Presidency is his attitude towards the national debt. We're currently more than $9 trillion in debt. That is a huge number. Yet McCain's economic advisers admit that his plan "will make deficits expand," and he himself seems pretty clueless on the matter. This is the last thing we need right now. This is faith-based economics. It is simply anti-tax ideology, and it ignores the fact that we will still have to pay all that debt off in taxes, coupled with massive interest, in the future.

This isn't the first time he's proved himself to be clueless, either. Back in January, he ignorantly claimed that “Every time in history we have raised taxes it has cut revenues." That is 100% incorrect. It should be disturbing to everyone that McCain thinks the government can bring in more money by slashing taxes - something that even his advisers admit will result in bigger deficits.

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