Statements such as these only strengthen my belief that this year's presidential race is the Democrat's to lose. Either Clinton or Obama should be able to vanquish someone with such woolly (flip-flopping) thinking.

There is a quote that has been attributed to various people, including Albert Einstein and Benjamin Franklin: "Insanity is doing the same thing over again and expecting different results".

It has been years since the tax cuts Mr. Bush wanted were put into effect, but we don't see any of the promised results. We don't have prosperity. Our economy is worse today that it has been in quite some time, and it continues to get worse with each passing day. John McCain says we need to make these tax cuts permanent. Is he insane?

how he proposes to pay for an Iraq war that will end up costing trillions(!)of dollars.

"Voodoo economics" lives!!

Economy booming:

1. Cut taxes

2. Cut social programs

3. Increase defense spending

Economy tanking:

1. Cut taxes

2. Cut social programs

3. Increase defense spending

It has been decades since the same kind of "supply side" tax cuts were put into effect by Reagan.

http://zfacts.com/p/318.html

It has not worked.

In fact, as a function of percent of Gross Domestic Product, all of the Gross Domestic Debt is due to the Republican administrations since 1981.

http://zfacts.com/p/480.html

Before the rightwingnut economists start to claim that Congress during Reagan's terms was at fault, realize that Reagan's budget proposals relied on 5% increases in GDP. That happens all the time.

As soon as we choose the Democratic presidential candidate (tomorrow?), if you believe the Democrat will beat John McCain, go long on US Dollars.

Just the idea that we will be leaving Iraq and the possiblity of resonable reality-based fical policy will start to bring the US Dollar up again. Then, if the new Democratic president actually follows through, we will have a medium to long term upswing.

If you are nor confident yet, wait a while, until we see how the general election starts to swing. If Democratic, buy! If McCain and eternal war + zero taxes, sell!

and claim political asylum in Canada!

haha

They care about THEIR economy.

Now Senator if you could contact my state, city and county and tell them to cut my taxes too, that would be great. Because I live in a RED RED state where the guldurn gubmint is eeevul..

Except that that pesky state, city and county keep jacking me for ever higher taxes. Which kind of sucks. My property assessment went up 75% this year even though we've experienced 8% compound growth for the last decade coupled with massive housing price inflation. Also my state gasoline tax is one of the highest in the nation and its pegged to the wholesale price, so every time the price goes up, the tax goes up too. Yeah and our sales tax is higher than NYC, And there's 15% adder on both the cable bill and the phone bill, and my water prices went up for the third time in a year. And I pay a sales tax, a road use tax and a property tax on every car. And it's against the law to sue your insurance company in this state. And groceries are taxed. And my city of 350,000 writes the same # of traffic tickets as the city of Houston, population 1.3 million so the police force is a huge profit center. And we're 45th in the nation in mental health care.

So yeah you cut them thar taxes, jus make sure you tell the corrupt fucking bastards down here to do the same.

Fuck consumer confidence. Right in its unfounded ear.

Foreclosures outnumber homes sold in some states.

Way to be brave.

Stop being confident, you taints! I bought a house I could afford, on a fixed interest rate, and people are talking about using my tax money to bail them and their banks out.

Why bail out college educated people who accepted terms they understood?

Why not bail out people with huge student loans instead? People take those out when they are 17 or 18, and before they have a college education. After all,some countries have free college education. What country gives you a free McMansions?

Trainman, you were close. The question is :

"Senator McCain, do you propose we pay for the Iraq war by raising taxes or passing the debt to our children and grandchildren ?"

People say they will move to Canada and they go all, "Yuk-yuk-yuk..." But Canada probably does not want them. Canada has its pick of all the best immigrants and refugees. You have to meet a number of requirements to get into Canada. You can increase your chances by learning French, having several million Canadian dollars, and playing hockey. But still, it's no sure thing.

I don't think it makes much sense to raise taxes when you're headed into a recession. There's a time for raising taxes but I find it hard to believe that that time is now.

Much of the current Iraq spending is not in the actual budget. It is in 'Emergency' spending packages, which are technically "off-budget" and which the current idiot/occupant can claim aren't part of the budget deficit, as far as I understand it (although they are part of the debt, since they have to borrow to finance it). However, I suspect McCain plans to keep financing most of the Iraq war the same way, unless he actually plans to do something like expand the armed forces to try and spell the troops. That would probably have to be done in the defense budget and, in fact, will probably have to be done anyway, even if whoever gets in miraculously pulls the troops out a few months after taking office because, as people have pointed out, the armed forces (at least the army and the marines) are broken - and it will take some time to fix them.

So, this is actually, oddly, strangly compatible with cutting taxes, if little of it is in the actual 'budget'. It makes me crazy as well. But, we are conducting a war "off the books" and leaving it to someone else to pay. I don't have any kids, but I'm only 43. I figure that unless I die of a heart attack or cancer or something, I just won't be able to retire.