Monday, July 7, 2008

The McCain Economic Plan - Love it or Hate it?

On Politico, in a 4/15/08 article titled "McCain unveils economic plan," by Johnathan Martin, http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0408/9633.html

McCain states, “In so many ways, we need to make a clean break from the worst excesses of both political parties,” McCain said. “For Republicans, it starts with reclaiming our good name as the party of spending restraint. Somewhere along the way, too many Republicans in Congress became indistinguishable from the big-spending Democrats they used to oppose. The only power of government that could stop them was the power of veto, and it was rarely used.”

Noble undertaking - I sincerely wish Senator McCain every success with this project!

What is McCain's position on the recession? Across America, families are facing economic challenges. Gas prices are rising, mortgages are threatened, and thousands have lost their jobs. Now is the time to act and John McCain has outlined several near-term, tangible plans to address some of the challenges confronting Americans today. On the site, McCain lists several steps he will take to relieve the increasing financial burden on American families.

What are McCain's plans to improve the economy and provide stability to the housing crisis? (Excerpts from his website follow).

Helping Americans Confront Higher Living Costs:

John McCain Will Help Americans Hurting From High Gasoline And Food Costs. Americans need relief right now from high gas prices. John McCain will act immediately to reduce the pain of high gas prices.

John McCain Believes we should institute a Summer Gas Tax Holiday. Hard-working American families are suffering from higher gasoline prices.

John McCain calls on Congress to suspend the 18.4 cent federal gas tax and 24.4 cent diesel tax from Memorial Day to Labor Day.

John McCain Will Stop Filling The Strategic Petroleum Reserve (SPR) To Reduce Demand. International demand for oil is bolstered by federal purchases for the SPR. There is no reason to fill it when oil is so expensive; the overall SPR is of adequate size, and when it places further upward pressure on prices.

John McCain Will End Policies That Contribute To Higher Transportation And Food Costs. Ethanol subsidies, tariff barriers and sugar quotas drive up food prices and hurt Americans. However, we cannot take the wrong direction and cut off trade for American goods.

Helping Americans With The Housing Crisis:

John McCain Is Proposing A New "HOME Plan" To Provide Robust, Timely And Targeted Help To Those Hurt By The Housing Crisis.

Under his HOME Plan, every deserving American family or homeowner will be afforded the opportunity to trade a burdensome mortgage for a manageable loan that reflects their home's market value.

Eligibility: Holders of a non-conventional mortgage taken after 2005 who live in their home (primary residence only); can prove creditworthiness at the time of the original loan; are either delinquent, in arrears on payments, facing a reset or otherwise demonstrate that they will be unable to continue to meet their mortgage obligations; and can meet the terms of a new 30-year fixed-rate mortgage on the existing home.

How It Works: An individual picks up a form at any Post Office and apply for a HOME loan. The FHA HOME Office certifies that the individual is qualified and contacts the individuals mortgage servicer. The mortgage servicer writes down and retires the existing loan, which is replaced by an FHA guaranteed HOME loan from a lender.

John McCain Calls For The Immediate Formation Of A Justice Department Mortgage Abuse Task Force. The Task Force will aggressively investigate potential criminal wrongdoing in the mortgage industry and bring to justice any who violated the law.

The DOJ Task Force will offer assistance to State Attorneys General who are investigating abusive lending practices.

Keeping The Credit Crunch From Hurting College Students:

John McCain Is Proposing A Student Loan Continuity Plan. Students face the possibility that the credit crunch will disrupt loans for the fall semester.

John McCain calls on the federal government and the 50 governors to anticipate loan problems and expand the lender-of-last resort capabilities for each state's guarantee agency.

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So, what do voters think of McCain's Economic Plan? On 6/13 John Lewis Muller posted the following response on a Boston.com Political Intelligence blog article. He opens his discussion on economic reform by referring to the three R's.

1. RETHINK: America must rethink the global views on what America is capable of in the current state of technology, engineering and the demands on such environments.

2. REFORM: America must rise to demands of a global economy, the need for higher quality and less restricted trade routes for Made in USA components that will exceed the current standards of currently produced items. The era of being able to purchase products that are currently Made by Slave and Child labor is done!

3. REINVENT: America and Americans must reinvent themselves to reach and maintain these standards and by sheer American ingenuity, control the world’s marketplace in the competitive manner as we have always been proud to rule.

Muller tells us the McCain solution can be quite simple and outlines a plan for implementing McCain's vision. The original article and posts can be found here: http://www.boston.com/news/politics/politicalintelligence/2007/12/mccain_its_abou.html
What suggestions do the Experts have in regards to the economy? http://articles.moneycentral.msn.com/Investing/StockInvestingTrading/McCainAndObamaOnTheEconomy_SeriesHome.aspx?GT1=33002

The Democrats called McCain's economic plan a P.R. stunt. For the D's perspective, click here:http://www.democrats.org/a/2007/04/mccains_retoole.php

MSNBC article: McCain Unveils his Economic Plan: http://firstread.msnbc.msn.com/archive/2008/04/15/893281.aspx

John McCain's website: http://www.johnmccain.com/Informing/Issues/4dbd2cc7-890e-47f1-882f-b8fc4cfecc78.htm

Tomorrow, we'll take a look at Obama's Economic Plan -

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