(More) McCain by the Numbers

The venerable bastion of free* market capitalism, the Investor’s Business Daily, has come to the defense of John McCain against those that would paint him as a big spending quasi-liberal (apparently, some people actually think of him this way). The following article makes the case that he isn’t (he really isn’t).

* “free” until risky speculation causes you to lose your ass… then the government can bail your corporation out, as long as you aren’t a single mother or disabled veteran.

The nonpartisan National Taxpayers Union has compared spending proposals of the various candidates and found that while McCain's proposals for new federal outlays come in at under $7 billion a year, Clinton's total exceeds $226 billion and Obama's tops $307 billion.
McCain's ideas include spending $5.4 billion over three years for elementary and high school scholarships for disadvantaged children, $280 million over five years to let families buy health insurance across state lines, and $5 million over five years for development of electric auto batteries.

Item 1: $5.4 billion for scholarships sounds great, given the way federal student loan programs have been fundamentally changed over the past few years—the decrease in interest subsidies for these programs has made interest rates skyrocket for federal loans. If I may inject some anecdotal evidence—my wife’s student loans from her undergrad in the late 90’s are locked in a 2%. The ones I took out for my doctoral degree over the past few years are at 6.8%.

Given the drastic change in affordability of credit for education, the $5.4 billion is welcome. But read the sentence again—“for elementary and high school scholarships for disadvantaged children”. I think this might denote scholarships for elementary and high school students to attend other elementary and high schools, which amounts to a federal voucher system couched in more palatable terms. Vouchers are wildly unpopular, and remain a part of the GOP platform that even many conservatives don’t support.

Item 2: McCain’s healthcare plan is… well, see my post from last week. Buying insurance across state lines is part and parcel of the idea that increased competition will somehow force the insurance cabal to lower prices. If you believe this one, we should talk about that $10 million in my Nigerian bank account again.

Item 3: McCain, savior of the environment, climate change warrior, and leader of energy policy reform: $5 million over five years for electric auto batteries. A whole $1 million a year. That’ll go far. To invoke my good friend Sator Arepo, “Wow. Just, wow.”

So the IBD goes on to rail against the massive spending proposals by Senator Clinton and Senator Obama, which apparently are considered egregious. These include:

$113 billion for Healthcare (Clinton)
$20 billion for education, including pre-K programs (Clinton)
$2.3 billion for welfare and foster-care proposals (Clinton)
$32 billion over 20 years to rebuild the Gulf Coast (Obama)
$15 billion in energy, environmental and agriculture programs (Obama)
$60 billion over 10 years for infrastructure reinvestment (Obama)

Addressing energy policy, food supply, health care, infrastructure, education, rebuilding the Gulf Coast... those sound like things the government should do. John McCain is basically espousing a carbon copy of the Bush-era domestic policy: destroy what you can and sit around with your thumb up your ass on the rest. No thanks, John.