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McCain adviser outlines econ fix

Posted: Tuesday, September 16, 2008 11:45 AM by Carrie Dann
Filed Under:

From NBC/NJ's Adam Aigner-Treworgy
After its candidate appeared on the network morning shows and called for a '9/11-style' commission to investigate problems in the financial markets, the McCain campaign's top economic advisor, Doug Holtz-Eakin, held an off-camera briefing with reporters to explain McCain's plan for repairing the market's problems.

"The story line that people want to write that somehow McCain himself or the McCain campaign doesn't understand what's going on in the economy is just wrong," Holtz-Eakin said. "We do. But you shouldn't run for president by denigrating everything in sight and trying to scare people."

Video: Sen. John McCain promises to "end unbridled greed" on Wall Street by streamlining existing regulatory bodies and enacting laws to reform the "wild speculation that has put our markets at risk."

Emphasizing that his candidate is running for president and not "chairman of the SEC," Holtz-Eakin said that the campaign will not be writing any legislation but rather laying out guidelines that legislation should adhere to.

"Now, there's no magic solution and I don't think it's at this moment imperative to write down exactly what the plan has to be" Holtz-Eakin said. "But there should be an understanding that when you walk out of the Congress with a piece of legislation in the next administration, those boxes are checked and those things are effectively accomplished."

According to the McCain campaign, those checkboxes include "an effective safety and soundness regulator for every financial institution," "better consumer protections," "improvements in corporate governance" and appropriate solutions to "system stability issues."

When asked what exactly makes McCain more qualified to address these problems than Obama, Holtz-Eakin pointed to McCain's chairmanship of the Senate Commerce Committee. (Cue the flap about Holtz-Eakin brandishing his Blackberry phone to illustrate McCain's record of technological innovation.)
 
Holtz-Eakin also defended McCain's comments from yesterday that the "fundamentals of our economy are strong," citing exports as a main source of the country's economic strength that provide "more stimulus than any government policy could."

McCain's "fundamentals" remark, which provided the fodder for a new Obama ad released today, illustrates McCain's ability to say "things that reflect an accurate assessment of the economy," Holtz-Eakin said.

"That's not out to lunch," he added. "That's calling things the way they are."

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Harding, Coolidge, & Hoover, remember them? After yesterday's collapse of Lehman & Merrill Lynch, welcome to another depression brought to you by the Republicans! The only way these idiots Republicans will get it is when it hits their wallets, then they might do the right thing and vote for the best candidate out there, which is Obama.  Forget recession we are in a depression and it will only get worse!


Laughing so hard that I am about to CRY!!!

Cry if McGoo is some how elected.

http://twocanpete.blogspot.com/
The 9/11 commission? Hello, where's bin-laden? Don't we want someone who can actually correct the situation?
So what this guy is saying is that McCain has no plan.
"But you shouldn't run for president by denigrating everything in sight and trying to scare people."  Wow.  Really?  Glad to see McCain is moving away from Republican campaign strategy circa 2004/06: "Vote for us or your family will die."
What color is the sky in the McCain Campaign's world?

"The fundamentals are strong."
"I don't think it's at this moment imperative to write down exactly what the plan has to be."

At some point, do you or do you not need to tell the voters what you plan to do and not hide from the truth that the economy is in the hopper?
Exports were only strong because the dollar was so weak...come on people...once the dollar started gaining strength even the exports started drying up -- why aren't they up on the figures. Ask Chris Matthews, he had the figures yesterday -- this is the power of the "internets"...ha!!!!!!
I bet by the end of the day, this guy is out of a job.  Not only did he say McCain invented the BlackBerry, he is pretty much saying that a McCain campaign won't be involved in trying to cure the economic issues.
Holtz-Eakin said. "We do. But you shouldn't run for president by denigrating everything in sight and trying to scare people."

AMEN!  I'm sick and tired of Obama preaching gloom and doom; that's not hope!  That's scare tactics; I thought that's what dems always blame repubs for.  If you don't believe in yourself and your ability, nothing will change for you.  Hope comes from within; it can't be handed to you by a bloviating, sleazy communist politican from Chicago.
WOW ANOTHER COMMISSION..... Thats what gets us in trouble.

Try voting for reform which you haven't done for years....
GOP always protect their Good Old Buddys... Oil, money ect

When was the last time McCain went back to Senate and voted on anything????????

Compare McCains recrd to Obamas you would be surprised who is still working while running for President... and its not McCain.....or Leiberman

admit you have voted against many bills that would have stopped alittle of this....

Oh thats right you are hiding from the fact the Republicans have been in office.... Democrats took over in 2007.. by the way its only 2008.
It will take us years to clean up 12 years of Republican mess.

THINK BEFORE YOU VOTE.. DO YOU WANT 4 MORE YEARS LIKE THE LAST???? BETTER CHECK ON YOUR 401k BEFORE YOU VOTE...

THEY ARE NOW SAYING THEY WANT TO FIX WHAT THEY BROKE. NO WAY NO HOW NO MCCAIN NO PALIN
And si why, in 26 years, did he not propose some of these safety and soundness regulations?  
I heard McCain say this morning that some of the regulation agencies are out of date since they came to being in the 1930s.  So which is it?  Regulation or not?  And if it is out dated regulation that must go, GIVE ME AN EXAMPLE, so I can judge for myself.

Thanks but no thanks to more of the same!!!!!!!!!!!
oh goody...a 9/11 style commission to look at why the economy is in shambles.  I wonder if they'll take 6 years to complete both phases like the 9/11 commission did. Will they be bogged down by a Bush 44 administration pushing them to cast the elsewhere to keep the heat off of them.  We've been there done that and this is the best the McSame campaign has to offer.  
No way. No how. No McCain! No Palin!
What doesn't make any sense is why their are no congressional investigations into this mess! Not one hearing is scheduled by the Democratic screamers who are in charge of both the House and the Senate on the banking problems. They have hearings for the baseball steroids issue, they have hearings with oil executives, they have hearings for what goes on cereal boxes, they have celebrities testify for environmental causes, they have army generals talk about Iraq.

But for the banking mess, the biggest mess to hit the country in decades. Na-da. None. Nothing.

So why do you think that is? If this was mostly a problem caused by Republicans, you know the Democrats would have a parade of banking execs on stage front and center. So why are the Democrats protecting their banking friends?
McCain is trying to come up with solutions. Obama is running around screaming "The Sky Is Falling!!".
In other words they don't have a clue...let me help

Stop rewarding the bad behavior on wall and main street with my money...I'm tired of paying for companies and individuals who are miserable failures getting a helping hand....they deserve the back of our hand
Actually, a commission looking into wall street abuses is not a bad idea, but they also have to look into the government mandates that foster those abuses.  

No one is going to take a big risk unless it offers the chance of a big reward.  When the CLINTON administration mandated that mortgages be written for those with poor credit in urban areas, those writing the mortgages were going to spread the risk the best way they knew how-by offering mortgages to those with better credit.  How?  By offering low interest rate loans with no money down.  Thus was born the real estate bubble.

Investors bought houses for the purpose of flipping them, and the real estate ponzi scheme grew for more than ten years before the bubble finally burst-leaving those who got in last holding the bag, as usual.  This should surprise no one.

The main fix for the crash in '29 was to regulate buying stocks on margin.  Since then, vey little has been done.  The tech bubble burst, and nothing was done to address the problem.  Now, the real estate bubble has burst, and the main culprit seems to be the government's policy of dictating where mortgages should be written, and to whom.

The solution seems obvious.
The McBush/Palin campaign should take their own words to heart: "you shouldn't run for president by denigrating everything in sight and trying to scare people." So stop lying in your ads, on the stump, and in interviews. Stop focusing on lipstick and pigs. Stop the phoney outrage. Start paying attention the the "facts on the ground" here in the US. Trickle down economics isn't working, and you've got to try something else.
With all of the financial turmoil that is exploding throughout the USA, once again John McCain is spouting his old tired responses with no definitive direction. He even looks tired and befuddled. The country seems to be enamored with Sarah Palin and all of her statements that are untrue and just smack of sarcasm.

Come on MIDDLE AMERICA WAKE UP start paying attention to the real issues and listen to what is happening all around you. We need Obama / Biden in the Oval Office now.
I don't expect McCain to be the absolute economic expert, but I do expect him to be able to explain his comment about "fundamentally strong" with something other than praising America's workers.  Holtz-Eakin offered exports, but I'm not voting for Holtz-Eakin, or for McCain!
Are they serious??? An economic commission?? Like the 9/11 Commission they IGNORED? The republicans have had control for the last 8 years and have managed to screw middle-class Americans out of their life savings, their jobs, their homes and they think they deserve another shot at fixing the crisis McBush republicans created!!! McBush republicans don't listen to anyone who uses reason and logic to solve problems and they certainly don't listen to the American people!

It's time to turn the page on the McBush republicans who have built their house on sand. Vote for the candidates, Obama/Biden, and rebuild this country on solid ground.
Please explain why any logical human would trust John McCain to right our economic ship.  McCain’s early years in the Senate were marred by the Keating Five Scandal, named after savings and loan executive Charles Keating, whose financial shenanigans helped bring down the savings and loan industry back in the late 1980s and early 1990s.   McCain put himself, and his Senate office, in the middle of the government’s investigation of Keating’s savings and loan; it just so happened that Keating was a major McCain campaign contributor, and had business dealings with Cindy McCain’s family.  McCain arranged a meeting with himself, Keating and the head of the regulatory agency investigating Keating, which McCain considered a "constituent service" for his constituent Keating. As a result of weak and stymied government regulation of the S&L industry, the US taxpayers paid for a bailout exceeding 100 billion dollars.  There were five US Senators linked to Keating; McCain was one of them.  He was cleared of any criminal conduct, but found to have exercised poor judgment.  The S & L debacle of was the result of gazillionaires gambling with insured money knowing that the house (i.e. taxpayers) would bail them out, while Republican appointed regulators of the "government is the problem" mold hesitated to rein them in.   This happened during the 80s, and the bottom fell out in the late 80s early 90s.   McCain was a bit spooked by all of this, and then altered his path to support tighter ethics, and did some work in this regard (McCain Feingold).  However, his economic judgment is no better today.
      The co-chair of the McCain campaign is also his primary and most senior economic adviser, registered lobbyist and retired Texas senator Phil Gramm.  Gramm made news by his recent take on the current economic woes of our country, when he stated that Americans were a “nation of whiners.”  Gramm, of course, is the former Texas senator responsible for the repeal of long standing banking regulations that allowed much of the subprime and “predatory” mortgage lending and trading of the last several years, that have led directly to much of today’s economic turmoil in the housing market.  He is the vice chairman of the investment banking division of a foreign owned bank, UBS.  Federal reporting shows that Graham has been paid, by UBS, to lobby Congress about the U.S. mortgage crisis at the same time he was advising McCain about his economic policy. The current crisis, just like the S & L debacle of 20 years ago, is the result of gazillionaires gambling with insured money knowing that the house (i.e. taxpayers) would bail them out, while Republican appointed regulators of the "government is the problem" mold hesitated to rein them in.    
Phil Gramm is not just a casual acquaintance of McCain – he is the co-chair of McCain’s campaign.  He is now known as "Foreclosure Phil."   McCain was a chair of Gramm’s presidential campaign back in 1996.
We all know what he meant and it is sad that you do not push him on it as he has said this many times before.  You allow him to correct himself and take baracks words and use them as his own.  Barack mentioned that we need to investigate, but he does not get the same slack from you the press.  And as far as the polls at what point are you guys going to add in the black registered voters and college kids, new voters.  I read that more of the polling is pulling more on teh Republican side so that is throwing off everything.  When will media play fair.  Our voice is not heard in this.  The ground game for Baracj is fierce and should be added into these polls.  You guys scare people into voting Mccain and help him devide this country at a time when we need solutions.
Maybe Phil Gramm can head his commission
So, McCain needed someone else to explain his economic policy?  That doesn't sound good.
"We do. But you shouldn't run for president by denigrating everything in sight and trying to scare people." IS HE SERIOUS??? REALLY???  You can't run a campaign on denigration and fear?  Wow!  Let's see Community Organizers Are Evil and Let's Keep Running The Tape of People Leaping Out of the Twin Towers.  That'll get 'em. Give me a break!!!
Give me a break. This people are just too clueless!!!!!
"But you shouldn't run for president by denigrating everything in sight and trying to scare people"

OK, so I'll just ignore the Republican convention.
'Cold men... cunning men'
“These Republican gluttons of privilege are cold men. They are cunning men…. They want a return of the Wall Street economic dictatorship,” he told a crowd in Iowa. At a stop in Utah he attacked “bloodsuckers who have offices on Wall Street.” (Harry S. Truman. 1948 campaign).  

Amazing how things haven't changed in 60 years.

"Blah blah... blah blah blah... blah blah blah... blah"

That's all I hear when these people talk. "People" are not the "fundamentals" of an economy. The employment rate, inflation, the housing market, gas prices (which DIRECTLY effect prices of all other things), market stability, and product production and exportation(which Holtz-Eakin is obviously uneducated about the fact that we import FAR more than we export, which SUCKS for any economy) ARE the fundamentals of the economy!!! All of which are at dangerous levels at the moment, which apparently McOblivious is unaware of.
What's the plan then? Is this the same person that is trying to blackmail the American people into voting for him? Is the McCain Campaign High?
Just say NO.
No Way, No HOw, NO McCAIN/NO PALIN
Yep McCain dosn't have any plan. That is unless you consider Graham a plan. Perhaps he will invent something else like the blackberry and all will be well. I am beginning to think I am like Alice and have fallen down the rabbit hole. Whenever I look for guidence I see the media running around trying to look intelligent while they contribute to the tea party. Someone take on The mcCain campaign for their lies and fraud, their attempts to not allow those of us with foreclousers to vote, their push polls, their phoney absentee requests .... Unless the media starts to call a lie a lie, unless they investigate and report fraud, unless they stop thinking about lack of access and actually report we will all find ourselves following the rabbit. Why has it taken women on a daytime talk show to actually start bringing the media around?
Where is Obamas great speech on the economy and where is his detailed plan to fix the mess.Does he even have one? I would like to see at least an outline of the canidates plans for change and all i get is a bunch of no nonsense tv adds that don't add up to much for me.I as a Democrate will have to go with McCain


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