That Wacky, Wacky John McCain Posted by Michael Cohen

During the 2008 Presidential campaign I used to joke that John McCain apparently does not understand the first thing about economics. At the time, I wondered if perhaps it was just political posturing, but if his statement today about the stimulus package is any indication . . . it was not an act.

"The American people are figuring it out," Mr. McCain said. "This is not a stimulus bill; it is a spending bill."

It would be difficult to express in the confines of a DA blog post why this is pretty much the dumbest thing to come out of a politician's mouth in quite some time. I would imagine I could find a college freshman taking a macroeconomic class who understands better than the Republican nominee for President in 2008 why a spending bill IS a stimulus package.

But I will turn instead to the man who defeated Mr. McCain in November to explain it:

Responding to the Republican criticism that it was a big spending bill, the president said: "What do you think a stimulus is? That's the whole point."

Exactly.

Comments

[barb wills]

I have to live in Az and know more about McCain's lack of "knowledge" on more issues than just economic. When will the Repubs get over their Regan lovefest and realize that this is a different economic mess -thanks to 6yrs of Republican "rule" and that just tax cuts are not enough to "stimulate" the economy. His commenst make for a good sound bite on Fix noise, but his sweeping comments take me back to when the economy started to break down during the campaign when McCain thought the fundamentals of the economy were sound ----- and he has a better plan????? Of course - what do expect from someone who doesn't know how many houses he owns? But what do I know - I only took 5 econ courses in college.
A wise man said " it is always better to do something rather then nothing"

[Jeff]

Just because it is a stimulus bill, doesn't mean it is the right stimulus bill - or even close.

McCain was absolutely correct when he pointed out that we (the American people) understand that spending is stimulus, it's just that this bill is NOT THE RIGHT KIND OF STIMULUS.

Why must you take things out of context to obfuscate poor policy? The Democrats have been waiting to spend on these issues for years, and now they see their chance. That's what this is about. Stop the fear-mongering, and stop claiming that the type of spending that is in this bill is going to help the economy.

And most of all, stop taking things out of context and destroying straw men, while trying to make yourself look more intelligent than you are.

I am an Independent, and I frankly don't think either side of the aisle is right on this one, but at least the Republicans want to spend less, and target it more. That is a good thing.