McCain: Running in the Past

With interest, which diminished as the evening dragged on, I watched John McCain give the "speech of his life" last night. If the "speech of his life" meant that he recalled the bitterness of losing the Vietnam war and not coming back with honor (today it would be considered honor), then it meant that John McCain didn't speak for me. It meant that he was determined to use any means necessary to go into war with anyone who trashed the "USA" (something the brownshirts in the audience reminded the viewers, in case they forgot where we lived). McCain is running in the past.


Nate Silver at 5:38 says that the crowd gave McCain most of their attention when he focused on the three P's: Palin, Petroleum, and POW. Well, that's what they wanted to hear. But what about the middle class viewer like me?

McCain opens the cracks the window with this comment:

These are tough times for many of you. You’re worried about keeping your job or finding a new one, and are struggling to put food on the table and stay in your home. All you ever asked of government is to stand on your side, not in your way. And that’s just what I intend to do: stand on your side and fight for your future.

OK, you mentioned he is concerned...a little. Yeah, like a little troll, as he concerned for this couple in Michigan:

I fight for Americans. I fight for you. I fight for Bill and Sue Nebe from Farmington Hills, Michigan, who lost their real estate investments in the bad housing market. Bill got a temporary job after he was out of work for seven months. Sue works three jobs to help pay the bills.

He says he will fight for us and is on our side. I couldn't locate what he would do as he blathered on for the next 30 minutes...And on, and on, and on....

In the late second quarter of the first half, he says without much appetite--meaning in 425 words--what he would do. Let's look at the only parts of what the Republicans would deem as substance of what to do for the middle class:

My tax cuts will create jobs. His [Obama] tax increases will eliminate them.

Tax cuts for whom?

Look at the Tax Policy Center's figures (as of June 2008, and reported on CNN's Money section of their website)--

McCain feed the portly wallets plan is an additional 10%, whereas at the bottom, it is less than 1%I purposely used a more conservative analysis to prove my point about the deficit: McCain's is around 4.5 Trillion that would be added; Obama's around 3.3 Trillion. One of McCain's surrogates promised a balanced budget by 2013.

Takeaway: 60 percent of taxpayers would get a tax cut three times as big from Obama as from McCain. That’s real money in the pockets of hardworking families.

Next "bone" he threw to us:

My health care plan will make it easier for more Americans to find and keep good health care insurance.

Let me get this straight. McCain has a healthcare plan in which there is $2500 tax credit for health insurance and $5000 for families, indexed for inflation--estimated at 2%, but not to actual premium projections. Average cost is already at 12,000 dollars. Aon Consulting estimates that the costs will jump 10.6% by 2010.Think Progress brings out this salient point:

As a result, McCain’s credit becomes a tax increase. For a couple earning $40,000 and paying $13,800 for insurance, “McCain’s new tax credit would cut their taxes by $50 in 2009, but because the credit quickly falls behind rising premiums that are the basis of the current tax break, the family would pay $1,169 more in taxes in 2013…[and] would pay $2,809 more in taxes by 2018.”

I saved this part of the second paragraph about health insurance on purpose:

His plan will force small businesses to cut jobs, reduce wages, and force families into a government run health care system where a bureaucrat stands between you and your doctor.

Well well. To paraphrase Michael Moore from LKL this evening, this is hostility towards the government. We the people formed this government. Aren't we the government? Therefore, McCain is attacking people for giving him health care that many of us want and only he gets? Put it another way: Is McCain telling us even though he knows what it is like to get health care in another country (meaning Vietnam and he was a POW, McSame's refrain when he refuses to speak on issues), that the health care he receives now is inferior? He's on a government run health care system (or at least insurance plan) and does it mean a bureaucrat stands between him and his doctor? I got a worse problem: I have health insurance, and I have a for-profit bureaucrat that stands between me and my doctor over prescriptions or finds ways not to cover extras that have to do with pre-existing conditions since their overhead is 30% compared to 2% for the government. I have insurance companies fighting who pays for someone who ran into the back of my car with me in it and caused a relapse of a whiplash as it is.

That aside, McPain's tax credits wouldn't even scratch the surface for my regular check-ups. As Elizabeth Edwards points out rightly, even McCain's plan would exclude him from his own plan (but then he wouldn't try to cover himself under his own plan either.

Takeway: Even though he has it, McCain doesn't want to give working families government insurance that is much cheaper than what most of us pay. Obama's plan would cover those with government-sponsored insurance who needed it.

The next bag of wings and chicken legs:

Keeping taxes low helps small businesses grow and create new jobs. Cutting the second highest business tax rate in the world will help American companies compete and keep jobs from moving overseas. Doubling the child tax exemption from $3500 to $7000 will improve the lives of millions of American families. Reducing government spending and getting rid of failed programs will let you keep more of your own money to save, spend and invest as you see fit. Opening new markets and preparing workers to compete in the world economy is essential to our future prosperity.

I know some of you have been left behind in the changing economy and it often seems your government hasn’t even noticed. Government assistance for unemployed workers was designed for the economy of the 1950s. That’s going to change on my watch. My opponent promises to bring back old jobs by wishing away the global economy. We’re going to help workers who’ve lost a job that won’t come back, find a new one that won’t go away.

We will prepare them for the jobs of today. We will use our community colleges to help train people for new opportunities in their communities. For workers in industries that have been hard hit, we'll help make up part of the difference in wages between their old job and a temporary, lower paid one while they receive retraining that will help them find secure new employment at a decent wage.

We've had tax cuts for years, and today it was reported that unemployment has jumped from 9.0% to 10.7% this year. (Bruce McF has the details at EENR of what this means) Senator McCain is confusing me or himself. Presuming it is not the latter, and using Bill and Sue Nebe as an example, McCain is essentially offering them job training for the real estate investments in the housing market, even though Sue is already working 3 jobs. I don't know what Sue is doing, but I bet she doesn't have health care. If she is working three jobs, when would she have time to go to school and retrain? Bill is working a temporary job--not certain what he's doing either, but for some reason, John McCain is fighting for them.

Now, let's look at real situation. Gloria Craven appeared last week at the DNC Convention in Denver. Joe and Gloria Craven lost their jobs at a textile plant in North Carolina. He had put in nearly 30 years, and had many months of vacation pay coming to them when they got laid off and the company has fought the unions' claims off in court. Joe had health problems and can't work much and his health bills have eaten up most of what savings they have. Gloria has gone back to school, but wonders if she can finish school. They were good Republicans until 2006.

I'm dubious as to where McCain's plan would fit in. I got the impression McCain's plan would replace unemployment insurance as unemployment insurance would pay more. Then there is COBRA. I didn't see that John McCain's plan would pick up the differential cost between COBRA payments and what they were paying for health insurance.

Takeaway: John McCain wants everyone to work at Wal-Mart without health and no unemployment insurance. Obama would also have re-training, but he would also favor employee free choice act, whereby corporations would dispense with secret ballots in voting for organizing employees. Obama would also employ someone who has experience in working with unions, not against them, as head of the the Labor Relations Board.

Education is the civil rights issue of this century. Equal access to public education has been gained. But what is the value of access to a failing school? We need to shake up failed school bureaucracies with competition, empower parents with choice, remove barriers to qualified instructors, attract and reward good teachers, and help bad teachers find another line of work.

When a public school fails to meet its obligations to students, parents deserve a choice in the education of their children. And I intend to give it to them. Some may choose a better public school. Some may choose a private one. Many will choose a charter school. But they will have that choice and their children will have that opportunity.

The two paragraphs contradict one another. I hope that gets explained sometime, but I suspect it means that parents may use taxpayer dollars to send their kids to church schools. Church schools are good in many instances, but does that mean I can opt out of the tax system to pay for kids (which I don't have) to attend church schools if I don't agree with that policy? Public education is supposed to be a public good, I thought. Does that also mean that we don't need school libraries either?

Takeaway: John McCain doesn't believe in the separation of church and state, and puts corporate profits in accessing taxpayer dollars for a major public good--education for everyone.

And that my friends (to use a favorite phrase of the Rethugs), is all he had to offer the middle class.

I did like the last part of his speech (even though the word fight is mentioned 42 times in 51 minutes):

Fight for justice and opportunity for all.

Stand up to defend our country from its enemies.

Stand up for each other; for beautiful, blessed, bountiful America.

Stand up, stand up, stand up and fight. Nothing is inevitable here. We’re Americans, and we never give up. We never quit.

I do believe in justice and opportunity for all. That's why I voted for John Edwards.

I do think we need to defend ourselves (especially at home and not having troops fighting in a place where we aren't needed anymore).

And yes, I've been standing up for 4 years against Bush and his ilk. And I will keep fighting to get my country back on the right road.

But the most telling part and the theme of John McCain running in the past:
We never hide from history. We make history.

Seems appropriate to end with Genesis' "Land of Confusion"--which came out in 1986, but timeless.



No my friends--he and his ilk live in the past of Ronald Reagan. Nothing about issues. Lakoff is right.

JRE "teaches for a day" in NH

He visits a business education class, and they discuss about deficit reduction, how to grow the middle class, etc.

Too bad he didn't get the AFT endorsement, but I do know he is strongly for improving public education, and an excellent product of public schools in America.

H/t to Hissyspit at the DU for this video.

John Edwards: It Takes More than Just a President

From the Harkin Steak Fry. I filled out one of those coins of ideas for change. I want Universal Health care, but all of the folks in the video express the other ideas of change that I want as well.

One of them was about education. As a matter of fact, JRE came out with an education plan yesterday.

Here's an excerpt:

Edwards' plan for education reform will address the failures of the current system through focusing on the following principles:

Preparing Every Child to Succeed: As president, Edwards will launch a national "Great Promise" partnership to give a quality early childhood education to every four-year-old in the country � starting with poor children in neighborhoods with struggling schools. To reach even younger children, Edwards will create a national "Smart Start" program that will improve child care and invest in child health.

An Excellent Teacher in Every Classroom: Teachers, not tests, are the single most important factor in successful schools. As president, Edwards will increase pay for teachers in successful high-poverty schools by up to $15,000 a year. He will also create a National Teacher University � a West Point for teachers � to recruit 1,000 top college students a year, train them to be excellent teachers, and encourage them to teach where they are needed the most. His plan also will give extra support to teachers in the first years of their careers, reduce classroom sizes, and train more excellent principals.

Making Every School an Outstanding School: No Child Left Behind used cheap standardized tests to measure our children's learning, failed to accurately identify struggling schools, and mandated unproven cookie-cutter solutions for our schools' problems. Edwards will totally overhaul it so it meets its goals of helping all children learn through accurately identifying and improving struggling schools. Based on North Carolina's successful education reforms, Edwards proposed a School Success Fund to allow teams of experienced educators to spend a year at struggling schools helping launch reforms. Edwards will also launch a "Great Schools" initiative to build or expand 1,000 successful schools.

For more specifics, go here.

The one specific I like is this one:

Support High School Service Programs

The energy and enthusiasm of high school students who want to make their community and their country a better place to live. One type of service program, service-learning, has been shown to have positive impacts on students' civic engagement, college enrollment, career development, and personal relationships. Nearly half of school-age children lack the activities and role models that are opportunities to make a difference through helping others. Edwards will create a Community Corps service programs for high school students. It will provide resources to high schools that choose to make community service a graduation requirement, helping them make service opportunities higher in quality and integrate them into the curriculum. [NYLC, 2006; America's Promise Alliance, undated]

Benny's idea: Or, another idea--have them work 10 hours a week for wages to show they can gain work skills and fiscal responsibility as they go to college or attend a trade school. This fits in with College for Everyone.

Let's Change America. Tomorrow begins today.

John Edwards Announces Rural Recovery Agenda

RESTORING HOPE TO RURAL AMERICA
EDWARDS OUTLINES PROPOSED RURAL RECOVERY ACT

Too often, the problems of rural America are forgotten by politicians living and working in far-off capital cities. Many rural areas are struggling: rural families earn 27 percent less than other families and 244 of the poorest 250 counties are rural. Rural manufacturing has been hit particularly hard by international trade, the offshoring of jobs, and automation. Struggling family farms are another challenge for small towns. As young people move away to find opportunity, rural communities are turning into ghost towns. One in four non-metro counties lost population in the 1990s. [Carsey Institute, 2006; Davis, 2003; USDA, 2002]

As a native of a small rural town, John Edwards knows that America cannot turn its back on rural areas. Small towns and rural areas are the keepers of American values like family, work, community, and freedom. America depends on rural communities for a strong manufacturing base, reliable and affordable food, and increasingly for clean energy as well. To make sure they share in our prosperity, we must fight corporate greed and turn the tables on runaway economic disparity. Today, Edwards outlined initiatives to restore economic fairness and create new jobs and businesses in rural America, help struggling counties and towns, and protect the rural people and their way of life.

RESTORING ECONOMIC FAIRNESS TO RURAL AMERICA:

- Investing Seed Money for Rural Recovery: Helping innovative small businesses is a promising approach to economic development, but only 1 percent of state economic development funds now support entrepreneurs. Edwards will create the Rural Economic Advancement Challenge (REACH) Fund to bring capital and management expertise to small town America. The REACH Fund will connect investors with rural entrepreneurs, organize businesses into networks to help them succeed together, and ensure that rural areas have access to the investment capital they need. [RUPRI, 2007]

- Creating the New Energy Economy in Rural America: Renewable sources of energy -- including ethanol, biodiesel, wind, and solar -- can make the U.S. independent of foreign oil, cut global warming pollution, and create new industries and hundreds of thousands of jobs in rural America. Edwards will establish the New Energy Economy Fund to jumpstart renewable energies. He will create new markets for ethanol by requiring all new cars to run on both gasoline and E85 ethanol, requiring 25 percent of chain gas stations to carry E85, supporting E20 and E30 fuels, and working with U.S. automakers to make efficient and alternative-fuel cars. He will support locally owned biorefineries with start-up capital. He will also require 25 percent of electricity to be generated from renewable sources
by 2025.

- Creating Fairness for Family Farmers: Edwards recognizes that the rules are stacked against family farmers. He supports the strict enforcement of laws against anticompetitive mergers, unfair pricing, and country-of-origin laws. He will enact a strong national ban on packer ownership to stop the spread of large corporate hog interests and create a national moratorium on the construction and expansion of hog farm lagoons. To help family farmers he will also limit farm subsidies to $250,000 per person, close loopholes in payment limits, and expand conservation programs.

- Investing in Rural Broadband: Once a world leader in broadband access, the U.S. is now 21st in the world, trailing Estonia. Rural households are only about half as likely to have a broadband connection even though digital inclusion is one of the quickest and surest ways to attract businesses. Edwards will establish a national broadband map to identify gaps in availability, price, and speed and require telephone and cable companies not to discriminate against rural communities in building their broadband networks. [ITU, 2006; CWA, 2006; Pew, 2006]

- Prohibiting Banks from Discriminating against Rural America: Rural communities have fewer bank branches, fewer per-capita small business loans and more high-cost mortgages. Deregulation has led to bank consolidation while small towns rely on community banks to support local businesses. Edwards will strengthen the Community Reinvestment Act to prevent banks from discriminating against rural areas and increase investment in rural small businesses. He will also establish a strong national law against predatory mortgages common in many rural areas. [NCRC, 2007; Carsey Institute, 2006; Federal Reserve Board of St. Louis, 2004; SBA, 2004; Independent Community Bankers Association, 2006.]

- Fighting for Economic Fairness: Child poverty rates in rural areas are higher than urban rates for every racial and ethnic group. The highest child poverty rates are in the most isolated rural areas. To eliminate adult and childhood poverty nationwide within 30 years, Edwards will raise the minimum wage, cut taxes for low-wage workers, help workers save and invest, and expand affordable housing near good jobs and schools. [Carsey Institute, 2006]

HELPING RURAL TOWNS AND COUNTIES:

- Guaranteeing Rural America the Funding It Needs and Is Entitled to: More than half of the U.S. Department of Agriculture's $70 billion in rural development funds has actually gone to metropolitan regions, suburbs of midsize cities, and resort towns like Martha's Vineyard and Nantucket. Edwards will rewrite these funding rules and get resources to the intended isolated and disadvantaged areas. Because many small towns lack the grant-writing capabilities of larger towns, Edwards will direct federal agencies to offer a simplified, one-page grant application for small grants to rural towns and counties, based on the successful COPS program. [Washington Post, 4/6/2007]

- Strengthening Rural Schools: Rural schools enroll 40 percent of American children - including most children in Iowa, New Hampshire, and North Carolina - but receive only 22 percent of federal education funding. Small rural schools often struggle to provide a complete curriculum and attract and retain excellent teachers. [NEA, 2007]

- Investing in Teachers: Research has found that teachers are the most important part of any school, and rural schools have particular difficulty recruiting and retaining teachers. They often lose teachers to wealthier districts. Edwards will improve pay for teachers in rural and other hard-to-staff schools, including rural schools, to help attract quality new and experienced teachers. He will also offer college scholarships for students who commit to teach in underserved rural schools after graduation. [Rural School and Community Trust, 2006 and 2007]

- Creating Digital Learning Opportunities: Distance learning through the Internet can bring the content of the world's best universities, libraries, and museums to rural and remote areas. Software programs incorporating virtual reality, digital modeling, and intelligent one-on-one tutoring systems are proven to dramatically accelerate learning. Edwards will invest in cutting-edge research to integrate these new teaching tools and test them in rural America. [Digital Promise, 2003]

- Improving Rural Health Care: Over the past 25 years, 470 rural hospitals have closed. Rural counties have only one-fourth as many doctors and one-sixth as many specialists per capita and face critical gaps in trauma care. The Edwards plan for universal health care will cover the 9 million rural Americans that lack insurance and establish a nationwide network of safety net clinics and public hospitals. He will rewrite the unfair Medicare and Medicaid funding formulas that punish rural states and communities. He will also support investments in telemedicine to instantaneously connect distant specialists and advanced equipment with local doctors and patients, allowing better monitoring, chronic disease management, and emergency response. Health care is also an important source of
economic development, creating jobs directly and attracting businesses and retirees. One study estimated that each doctor was worth more than eight jobs. [Winbush and Crichlow, 2005; Carsey, 2006; USDA, 1999; Wakefield, 2000; KFF, 2003]

PROTECTING THE RURAL WAY OF LIFE:

- Ridding Rural America of Methamphetamines: Many areas of rural America are facing the devastating effects of meth abuse. It can be easily, quickly, and cheaply produced and is highly addictive. Edwards will invest in enforcing drug laws in rural areas, help states make meth ingredients more difficult to get, and expand programs that successfully treat addicts such as the Residential Substance Abuse Treatment program for prisoners.

- Protecting Lawful Gun Ownership: In small towns across America, hunting and gun ownership is a way of life. John Edwards believes that law-abiding citizens have the right to defend their families and respects the long American tradition of hunting. We can protect Second Amendment gun rights while also stopping criminals from using guns. Edwards will protect the right of law-abiding citizens to participate in gun shows, an important source of economic activity in many communities, while ensuring all that all weapons sold there are subject to an instant check. He will also crack down on gun crimes.

- Expanding Access to Clean Water: Every household deserve clean, drinkable water and sanitation services, but more than 1.7 million Americans lack basic plumbing facilities. Rural households are four times more likely to lack proper plumbing than urban homes. Inadequate water and sanitation damage public health and impede economic development. Edwards will help local areas improve their infrastructure and tackle local pollution problems. He will also establish tough clean air and water requirements for concentrated animal feeding operations. [RCAP, undated]

As one Kossack said last week, when does John Edwards not lead?

This is our country.