The rebuttal to every McCain criticism of Obama on the economy

McCain Camp Preemptive Memo to Obama’s Economic Tour

BARACK OBAMA’S HIGHER TAXES AGENDA
Obama Record Of Voting For Higher Taxes Equals Failed Judgment

ARLINGTON, VA — Today, with the start of Barack Obama’s “Change That Works For You” tour, McCain spokesman Tucker Bounds issued the following statement:

“While hardworking families are hurting and employers are vulnerable, Barack Obama has promised higher income taxes, Social Security taxes, capital gains taxes, dividend taxes, and tax hikes on job creating businesses. In fact, during just three years in the U.S. Senate, Barack Obama has already voted 94 times for higher taxes. Barack Obama doesn’t understand the American economy and that’s change we just can’t afford.”

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McCain: ‘The Issue Of Economics Is Not Something I’ve Understood As Well As I Should’

The New York Times’ Paul Krugman noted recently that, in a moment of candor, John McCain admitted economics isn’t his thing. “The issue of economics is not something I’ve understood as well as I should,” he said. But, “I’ve got Greenspan’s book,” he assured the audience.

If any needed evidence of McCain’s weakness on the economy was needed, simply witness how he has dealt with the need for economic stimulus. After last week’s debate in South Carolina, U.S. News wrote that the question of whether the economy needs a stimulus “vexed” the GOP front-runners, who “appeared unaware of the fiscal stimulus debate currently happening in Washington and being closely watched by Wall Street.”

At that debate, McCain said:


In the course of seven days, McCain appears to have reversed course, offering his own stimulus package:


Instead of offering direct middle-class relief for individuals, McCain is proposing cutting the corporate tax rate by 28.5 percent. Douglas Holtz-Eakin, McCain’s top economic adviser, said his approach is to simply let someone else deal with the problems affecting working Americans. “The best course of action is to let the Fed handle it.”

Join the Republican Party now and help elect John McCain and GOP candidates nationwide who support our principles of lower taxes, victory in the war against radical Islamic extremism, smaller government and individual freedom.

Thomas B. Edsall

GOP Insiders Worry About McCain's Chances

June 8, 2008 07:13 PM

For four months John McCain had a clear field while Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton were at each other's throats. Given the opportunity, the Arizona Senator failed to define the debate in favorable terms, spending much of the valuable primary months defending himself on charges that his campaign staff was top heavy with lobbyists.

Conversely, McCain has so far eluded the anti-Republican tidal wave that threatens to sweep away the party's candidates at every level, from county councils to the U.S. Senate. Amid the early wreckage -- GOP partisan identification in the tank, three defeats in rock-solid GOP House districts, and the National Republican Senatorial and Congressional Committees scratching for cash -- McCain stands competitive with Obama in national polls, running just 2.5 points behind.

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In fact, the survey data is not as favorable as Davis claims - Obama leads in all five of the most recent Pennsylvania polls by an average of 5.8 points, and he leads in Wisconsin by 2 points. Polling in the 19 states identified by RealClearPolitics as battlegrounds shows Obama in a better position than McCain, ahead in such Bush '04 states as Colorado and Iowa, and running very close in Virginia, New Mexico and Nevada.

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"I think we've got a world of problems," said one Republican strategist with extensive experience in presidential campaigns. He said this came home to him with a thud when he watched Obama and McCain give speeches last Tuesday, with the Democrat speaking before "20,000 screaming fans, while John McCain looked every bit of his 72 years" in a speech televised from New Orleans. This Republican cited the liberal blogger Atrios' description of McCain's speech with a green backdrop that made McCain "look like the cottage cheese in a lime Jell-O salad."

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June 09, 2008

From the prepared remarks

This is really pretty odd:

Newsweek asks McCain about a line in his speech text attacking the media's coverage of Hillary Clinton. He appears to tell them he didn't actually deliver it, because that's not his style. But, Jonathan Martin finds, he did. McCain's campaign then says his Newsweek quote is unclear. Newsweek says it's "verbatim."

Barack in Raleigh, NC: "It is time to try something new. It is time for change."

By Christopher Hass - Jun 9th, 2008 at 2:11 pm EDT



Barack just concluded an economic policy speech in Raleigh, North Carolina. The speech marks the kick-off of atwo week tour focusing on the current economic crisis and the need for new economic policy:



Also on hand for the speech were John and Elizabeth Edwards:



Read the full text of Barack's prepared remarks . . .


Remarks of Senator Barack Obama
Change That Works for You
Monday, June 9th, 2008
Raleigh, North Carolina
As prepared for delivery

Before we begin, I just want to take a minute to thank Senator Clinton for the kind and generous support she offered on Saturday. She ran an historic campaign that shattered barriers on behalf of my daughters and women everywhere who now know there are no limits to their dreams. And more, she inspired millions of women and men with her strength, her courage, and her unyielding commitment to the causes that brought us here today – the hopes and aspirations of working Americans.

Our party and our country are stronger because of the work she has done throughout her life, and I look forward to working with her in these coming months and years to lay out the case for change and set a new course for this country.

I’ve often said that this election represents a defining moment in our history. On major issues like the war in Iraq or the warming of our planet, the decisions we make in November and over the next few years will shape a generation, if not a century.

That is especially true when it comes to our economy.

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But when it comes to the economy, John McCain and I have a fundamentally different vision of where to take the country. Because for all his talk of independence, the centerpiece of his economic plan amounts to a full-throated endorsement of George Bush’s policies. He says we’ve made “great progress” in our economy these past eight years. He calls himself a fiscal conservative and on the campaign trail he’s passionate critic of government spending, and yet he has no problem spending hundreds of billions of dollars on tax breaks for big corporations and a permanent occupation of Iraq – policies that have left our children with a mountain of debt.

George Bush’s policies have taken us from a projected $5.6 trillion dollar surplus at the end of the Clinton Administration to massive deficits and nearly four trillion dollars in new debt today. We were promised a fiscal conservative. Instead, we got the most fiscally irresponsible administration in history. And now John McCain wants to give us another. Well we’ve been there once, and we’re not going back. It’s time to move this country forward.

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This is the choice you will face in November. You can vote for John McCain, and see a continuation of Bush economic policies – more tax cuts to the wealthy, more corporate tax breaks, more mountains of debt, and little to no relief for families struggling with the rising costs of everything from health care to a college education.

But I don’t think that is the future we want. The Americans I’ve met over the last sixteen months in town halls and living rooms; on farms and front porches – they may come from different places and have different backgrounds, but they hold common hopes and dream the same simple dreams. They know government can’t solve all their problems, and they don’t expect it to. They believe in personal responsibility, and hard work, and self-reliance. They don’t like seeing their tax dollars wasted.

But we also believe in an America where unrivaled prosperity brings boundless opportunity – a place where jobs are there for the willing; where hard work is rewarded with a decent living; where no matter how much you start with or where you come from or who your parents are, you can make it if you try.

We believe in the country that gave my grandfather and a generation of heroes the chance to go to college on the GI Bill when they came home from World War II – a GI Bill that helped create the largest middle-class in history.

We believe in the country that made it possible for my mother – a single parent who didn’t have much – to send my sister and me to the best schools in the country with the help of scholarships.

We believe in the country that allowed my father-in-law – a city worker at a water filtration plant on the South Side of Chicago – to provide for his wife and two children on a single salary. He was diagnosed with multiple sclerosis at age thirty, but that didn’t stop him from going to work every day – often with the help of a walker – so that could send my wife and her brother to one of the best colleges in the nation.

His job didn’t just give him a paycheck; it gave him a sense of dignity and self-worth. His country didn’t just reward wealth, but the work and the workers who created it. And that is the America we believe in.

That is the choice we face right now – a choice between more of the same policies that have widened inequality, added to our debt, and shaken the foundation of our economy, or change that will restore balance to our economy; that will invest in the ingenuity and innovation of our people; that will fuel a bottom-up prosperity to keep America strong and competitive in the 21st century.

It is not left or right – liberal or conservative – to say that we have tried it their way for eight long years. And it has failed. It is time to try something new. It is time for change.

The challenges we face are great, and we may not meet them in one term or with one President. But history tells us we have met greater challenges before. And the seriousness of this moment tells us we can’t afford not to try.

So as we set out on this journey, let us also forge a new path – a path that leads to unrivaled prosperity; to boundless opportunity; to the America we believe in and a dream that will always endure. Thank you, and may God Bless America.

Obama Says He's Partnering With Elizabeth Edwards On Health Care

By Greg Sargent - June 9, 2008, 1:42PM

Obama's speech in Raleigh launching his economy tour is underway, and towards the end, during a discussion of health care, he drops a surprise aside that wasn't in the speech's prepared remarks:


More on this when we can establish the details.

Late Update: The key political context here, of course, is that back in April, Elizabeth revealed that Obama's health care plan wasn't her favorite. Enlisting her as a public voice on health care could obviously help with the Obama camp's outreach to women and help win over skeptics in general.

Late Late Update: For an idea of just how effective Elizabeth Edwards might be as a surrogate on health care for Obama and against McCain, take a look at this take-down by Elizabeth of McCain's plan.

GOP Official: If We Only Lose Eight Senate Seats, We Win

By Eric Kleefeld - June 9, 2008, 2:12PM

In a further sign that Republican hopes are fading badly, the head of the Senate GOP's campaign committee has set a new goal for the party this Fall: Not to lose too many Senate seats.

NRSC chair John Ensign has moved the goal posts, saying that the GOP will have succeeded if they don't lose more than eight seats.

Ensign pointed out that if the Dems win nine seats they'll get to the filibuster-proof magic number of 60 -- at which point, Ensign warned, "they will be able to do pretty much whatever they want."

So if the Dems can't get to a 60-seat super-majority, the GOP will have won. Talk about lowering the bar.