McCain adviser outlines econ fix
Posted: Tuesday, September 16, 2008 11:45 AM by Carrie Dann
Filed Under:
Economy
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."