What amazes me most about Republican Solutions is that they claim to want lower government spending. I was listening to McCain this evening outline some of his programs for the United States. McCain was outlining his proposal to get rid of the tax on gasoline for a few months this summer. I could not help but think to myself, how is this going to help? It does nothing but shift the cost of fuel consumption from the consumer to the federal government. A price subsidy, like this is just giving the oil and gasoline companies more room to charge higher prices. This is an old Republican idea that has been raised and put down numerous times in the past because it impedes our ability to maintain our roadways which are already in a desperate state. This solution reminds me of the Medicare Prescription Drug Bill. But that bill codified the right of drug companies to charge whatever they wanted for the prescription medication and the government would pay it without complaint. This solution also reminds me of the Republican/McCain solution to the healthcare problem; give us a tax break so that we have more money to buy healthcare insurance. The solution again does nothing to restrain costs; it just adds more fuel to the fire. These solutions do nothing to control costs, and that is the basic problem. The one thing each of these solutions has is that it shifts the expense to the Federal government and does nothing to solve the underlying problems causing the crisis. And then one day, usually around election time, we find that deficits have soared. And the Republican solution is? You got, do the same thing over again. And the way to control runaway costs is to have market competition. This should be pretty obvious to anyone, particularly a Republican who is supposed to be for a minimalist Federal government and fiscal responsibility. But it appears the special interests that fund the Republican Party are going to push to their last breath to keep the nice cozy situation they have in Washington until there is a revolt, and everything becomes socialized.
To be fair to McCain, he did complement this tax cut with a freeze on current discretionary spending levels. However, as that doesn't really amount to much in the grander scheme of things, I completely agree with you. Our rampant government spending, overall spending and not just bits and pieces here and there, is what needs to be addressed.
why is it the right of american politics thinks its goverments only job to help buiness? What ever happened to helping PEOPLE?
Here's the real deal. The Republicans want stuff for whatever they need to be done but the Democrats won't vote for the whatever the Republicans want done UNLESS the Democrats put into the bill PORK for their own constituants to have! Please Register or Log in to view the hidden image!
That is true to Ashura, but the government is already spending more than it takes in. And cutting the revenue coming in has the same impact on the bottom line has a huge increase in spending....bigger deficits.
For the record, the Republicans are the biggest porkers in the history of the United States. And that is an undisputed fact. The Republicans, now that they have lost control of congress, are accusing the Democrats of being big porkers. But in reality, nothing can compare to the pork the Repbulicans have been dining on for the last 7 plus years. And pork overall is nothing compared to the big trillion dollar graft payments to the presription drug companies as a result of the Medicare Prescription Drug Bill, and the war in Iraq...all Republican gems. http://www.realclearpolitics.com/articles/2008/03/mccain_vs_the_addicts.html Here is an article for 2005 when the Republicans controlled both houses of Congress, the Supremes and the Presidency. It is so funny now how these Republicans are pointing the earmark finger at the Democrats. This Republican budget which was passed, also included the famous bridge to no where. Where a quarter of a billion dollars was budgeted to construct a bridge to an island with a total population of 50 people. The Bridge to no where was authored by a Republican congressman, approved by a Republican congress, and signed into law by a Republican president...along with the other pork. http://www.boston.com/news/globe/ed...ticles/2005/08/04/the_republican_pork_barrel/
Very true Ganymede. More specifically, they favor those putting dollars in their pockets and in the pockets of their friends and family which happens to be corporations and lobbyists.
McCain's economic solutions are just amazing! They are just a massive cost shift to the Federal government (as if the government did not have enough debt already) and do nothing to address the core problems.
Criticism of the gas tax suspension: "I was flabbergasted by John McCain’s proposal to suspend collection of the federal gas tax for this summer. Suspending this user tax would deprive the Highway Trust Fund of $8-10 billion in much-needed revenue to patch potholes, rebuild failing bridges, and keep the Interstates and other key arteries from further declines in their already pathetic levels of performance. And this comes at a time when the Trust Fund is already facing a 2009 shortfall of $2-3 billion (thanks to Congress legislating more highway spending than existing gas-tax revenues can support). Plus, since the gas tax is only about 5% of the cost of a gallon of gas, the savings to motorists would be trivial." http://www.reason.org/outofcontrol/archives/2008/04/mccains_gas_tax.html
Indeed it is flabbergasting Ashura, and this is supposed to be from the fiscally responsible folks...yea! I think these Republicans believe in the greater mushroom theory of running the country.