Matthew Yglesias » Don’t Know Much About the Budget

Oct 24th, 2008 at 8:03 am

Don’t Know Much About the Budget

John McCain likes to run around the country touting his neo-Hooverite spending freeze, but it seems that almost every time he’s challenged on a specific program, he decides to exempt that one. Now we can add NASA to the list. Ali Frick rounds up all the various exemptions and reminds us that we’ve seen this before when he decided to back off promises to eliminate aid to Israel and cut military housing programs under the aegis of earmark reduction.

Comments
30

Filed under: Budget, mccain,

30 Responses to “Don’t Know Much About the Budget”

El Cid Says:
October 24th, 2008 at 8:11 am
No, you misunderstand — McCain is just opposed to people writing on their ears.
ssa Says:
October 24th, 2008 at 8:35 am
Mac is finding out it’s awful hard to run a government (or win an election) without those “evil” earmarks. What adds jobs and boosts local economies? Local and state are crunched for cash, so it’s the Fed that must step in and help The People.

http://www.sunstateactivist.org/ssablog/
SLC Says:
October 24th, 2008 at 8:42 am
I’m sure that Mr. Yglesias will want to comment on his favorite columnists’ missive in todays” Washington Post. An excerp:

Who do you want answering that phone at 3 a.m.? A man who’s been cramming on these issues for the past year, who’s never had to make an executive decision affecting so much as a city, let alone the world? A foreign policy novice instinctively inclined to the flabbiest, most vaporous multilateralism (e.g., the Berlin Wall came down because of “a world that stands as one”), and who refers to the most deliberate act of war since Pearl Harbor as “the tragedy of 9/11,” a term more appropriate for a bus accident?

Or do you want a man who is the most prepared, most knowledgeable, most serious foreign policy thinker in the United States Senate? A man who not only has the best instincts but has the honor and the courage to, yes, put country first, as when he carried the lonely fight for the surge that turned Iraq from catastrophic defeat into achievable strategic victory?

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/10/23/AR2008102302867.html?hpid%3Dopinionsbox1&sub=AR
steve duncan Says:
October 24th, 2008 at 8:49 am
By Jill Zuckman | Chicago Tribune staff reporter

“October 24, 2008: In her speech Friday, Palin will lay out the campaign’s plans to fully fund the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act, boost funding for special-needs children from birth to age 3 and allow parents to choose whether federal money for their child is used in a public, private, religious or secular school without navigating a cumbersome administrative process.

The McCain campaign plans to phase in that money with an extra $3 billion a year over five years. McCain has called for a domestic discretionary spending freeze, but programs for disabled people would be exempt.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Disability budget requests will be exempt from a budget freeze. You’ll also be able to choose to give your federal tax dollars directly to the church of your choosing without “navigating a cumbersome administrative process”. Next? You’ll get to choose to have your federal income tax witholding sent directly to the church of your choosing? Maybe divert a portion of your Social Security witholding to the United Presbyterian Church 401K Invest in a Christian America Fund?
kid bitzer Says:
October 24th, 2008 at 9:01 am
slc–

is any comment needed beyond bursting into raucous laughter?

i am certainly delighted that krauthammer realizes he’s going down with the ship.

but he’s not fooling anyone: he’s only doing this after scrambling around frantically for a few weeks to see if anyone would make room for him in a life-boat.

he’s the rat even the other rats are abandoning.
Njorl Says:
October 24th, 2008 at 9:12 am
Or do you want a man who is the most prepared, most knowledgeable, most serious foreign policy thinker in the United States Senate?

McCain isn’t even among the top few of Republican foreign policy thinkers in the Senate.
SLC Says:
October 24th, 2008 at 9:20 am
Re Njorl

Dr. Krauthammer rates expertise in foreign policy on a scale such that the most knowledgeable such person is the one most likely to advocate bomb, bomb, bomb, bomb, bomb Iran.
duBois Says:
October 24th, 2008 at 10:24 am
Refresh my memory. What executive decisions has McCain made? And what privileges “executive decisions” anyway? Lincoln had never made an executive decision. Teddy Roosevelt had never made one. Wendell Wilkie had never held a single office or run anything: he was a lawyer. Nixon had never made an executive decision. Nor had Bob Dole.

Palin, otoh, has made executive decisions, and they’ve been terrible.
David B. Says:
October 24th, 2008 at 11:01 am
McCain isn’t even among the top few of Republican foreign policy thinkers in the Senate.

You mean: McCain isn’t even among the top few of Republican foreign policy thinkers in the Senate from Arizona.
tomemos Says:
October 24th, 2008 at 12:05 pm
Yeah, when I read that “no executive decisions” line (not yet knowing it was Krauthammer), I assumed it was setting up a twist. Like, “Do you want to elect someone who’s never been in charge of anything…or do you want to elect Barack Obama?” McCain’s never even been in charge of a classroom or a law review.
James F. Elliott Says:
October 24th, 2008 at 12:06 pm
Can someone explain to me how McCain can even have a spending freeze and a health plan predicated on tax credits? Credits are a frigging expenditure.
James F. Elliott Says:
October 24th, 2008 at 12:08 pm
Steve Duncan, can we get a link to that article on McCain-Palin and IDEA ‘04?
Ken Houghton Says:
October 24th, 2008 at 12:25 pm
You guys don’t get it. The excess funds going into SocSec are “an earmark”—officially since 1983, required to be reported on the budget in that way since 1993 per the Greenspan Commission.

McCain’s “getting rid of earmarks” is just code for “the SocSec Trust Fund is MINE, MINE, MINE.”
ed Says:
October 24th, 2008 at 2:22 pm
I don’t like this either, but it’s just politics. Like the way Obama is for ethanol subsidies when he’s in Iowa.
cialis Says:
March 1st, 2009 at 5:52 pm
cialis
Very interesting site. Hope it will always be alive!
levitra Says:
March 2nd, 2009 at 4:38 am
levitraVery interesting site. Hope it will always be alive!
zyban Says:
March 12th, 2009 at 11:00 pm
Great site. Good info
xanax Says:
March 14th, 2009 at 5:04 am
I want to say – thank you for this!
xanax
tramadol Says:
March 17th, 2009 at 2:21 am
Excellent site. It was pleasant to me.
tramadol
tramadol Says:
March 22nd, 2009 at 5:58 am
tramadol
I want to say – thank you for this!
brand viagra Says:
April 2nd, 2009 at 5:00 am
It is the coolest site,keep so!
buy cheap viagra
viagra brand Says:
April 3rd, 2009 at 4:02 am
Incredible site!
cheap brand pfizer viagra
cheap viagra Says:
April 9th, 2009 at 5:02 am
I rarely comment on blogs but yours I had to stop and say Great Blog!! viagra

Matt Yglesias

Don’t Know Much About the Budget

30 Responses to “Don’t Know Much About the Budget”

Blogroll