Sunday, September 21, 2008

Obama's "New" Economic Plan

Barack Obama has been saying for the past two days that he has a plan to help America overcome the sudden financial crisis. He has given a couple speeches, made a video and sent an email out to supporters laying out this "new" plan.

Strangely enough, this new plan is the exact same stuff he has been pimping all along. This from his email to supporters:

Here are some key elements of Barack's plan:
A $1,000 emergency energy rebate to help families with high fuel costs right now while putting $50 billion into job creation to get our economy back on track.

Families making less than $250,000 a year will get a tax cut three times larger than under John McCain's plan and will face absolutely no tax increases.

While John McCain has voted against raising the minimum wage 19 times, Barack would raise the minimum wage and set it to rise automatically with inflation.


Invest $15 billion a year in green energy research to reduce our economy's dependence on foreign oil and create 5 million American jobs a year.


None of these are new proposals. None of these address the issues of mortgages, banks and investment companies going bankrupt, government bailouts, or anything else.

Barack Obama has criticized McCain's response to the economic crisis (McCain said he would fire SEC Chairman Chris Cox, said despite the crisis the fundamentals of the economy are strong, meaning a recovery is possible, and called for a separate division within the treasury department to oversee Wall Street). But Obama has put forward no ideas of his own.

In addition, McCain co-sponsored legislation in 2005 that would have regulated Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. Obama opposed the legislation. Interestingly enough, he is friends with former CEO's of Fannie Mae that made millions of dollars while allowing the companies to go under. Also, in his three years in the Senate, Obama has received more money from Fannie and Freddie than any other Senator except for Chris Dodd. No wonder Obama hasn't come up with a plan to specifically address the current problems.

Obama has not shown a bit of sense of how to fix the economy. He wants to raise taxes on individuals and small businesses that make more than $250,000. he wants to raise the payroll tax on people making more that $150,000. He wants to raise capital gains taxes, which will keep people from investing. His plans will slow the economy. And he has no plans for fixing the current crisis. Is this the person we want running the country?

1 comment:

Karen M. Peterson said...

Nothing about Obama is new. It never has been. He talks about change, but what he really wants is to change everything back to the way it was before Bush took office--you remember? Back when we were in a recession? He didn't even decide to try something new in a running mate. The last time a Democratic Presidential candidate ran with someone that was not in Congress was in 1972 when George McGovern ran with former Ambassador Sargent Shriver. And we know how that election turned out.