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McCain to Unveil Radical Economic Plan at Debate

by Scott Ott for ScrappleFace · 44 Comments

(2008-10-14) — Sen. John McCain, sagging in the polls due to recent mixed messages that failed to connect with undecided journalists, will allegedly use his final presidential debate with rival Barack Obama to unveil a new, and radical economic plan.

Outlines of the proposal leaked to the news media paint a picture of an imaginary economy driven by the so-called ‘profit motive’ and tempered by a ‘risk-reward’ scheme that “automatically benefits the bold-yet-prudent, and punishes the foolish and wasteful,” according to a draft document.

Immediately branded by Congressional Democrats and Republicans alike as “impractical and frankly just wacky,” the McCain plan calls for a near-total government withdrawal from the private business sector, “because elected officials and their appointed bureaucrats operate outside of the arena of risk-reward, therefore their intervention can serve only to foul the engine of prosperity — discouraging investment by the wise, while cushioning falls for fools.”

Mr. McCain reportedly theorizes that his concept would not only offer the best prospect of long-term growth and innovation, but also would provide the most effective motive for altruism because “the merchant or laborer who does good for others, does well for himself.”

“It’s my hunch,” Sen. McCain will reportedly say, “that if we would actually try this economic plan, not only would it offer more freedom for the individual, but Congress could reduce income and corporate tax rates and yet the Treasury would still realize higher, and steadily-growing, revenues.”

“As I envision it,” the Arizona Republican will say, “the whole system, anchored in a realistic understanding of human nature, would harness each person’s self-interest to generate results that tend to the common good, producing what some would call unintended benevolence, and conferring what would appear to be accidental dignity, to even the least educated among us who applies himself to industrious work.”

Sen. McCain’s plan reserves to government almost nothing but the role of “making laws that forbid dishonest or oppressive behavior, and then enforcing those laws without prejudice.”

Sen. Barack Obama, whose economic plan offers tax breaks to non-taxpayers and sharply higher taxes to those who generate profits, issued a terse response to the purported McCain proposal: “LOL”

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Tags: Business · Politics

44 responses so far ↓

  • 1 ACHefty // Oct 14, 2008 at 9:41 am

    Good luck getting him to actually implement this. God forbid anyone follow up with the actual principals set forth in modern times by Ronald Reagan.

    But seriously, why not give it a try? Personal responsibility to:

    A. Feed your own family.
    B. Pay your employees.
    C. Meet and exceed high standards toward your boss.
    D. Generously help those truly in need without the government or “community organizers” telling you how to do it.

    Fancy that!

  • 2 JamesonLewis3rd // Oct 14, 2008 at 9:43 am

    God Bless America

  • 3 boberinyetagain // Oct 14, 2008 at 9:48 am

    If he’d come out with this I’d likely vote for him. Good thing he won’t do it!

  • 4 Effeminem // Oct 14, 2008 at 9:58 am

    Kudos to Scott for being one of the few “conservatives” opposed to this massive government welfare scheme.

    Should we coin the dictum, “There are no capitalists in a bear market?”

  • 5 Fred Sinclair // Oct 14, 2008 at 10:44 am

    This has been credited to Bill Gates and a few others but Snopes says it’s the work of Charles J. Sykes. In any case, it sounds pretty good to me.

    This should be posted in all schools and work places

    **** ***** recently gave a speech at a High School about 11 things they did not and will not learn in school. He talks about how feel-good, politically correct teachings created a generation of kids with no concept of reality and how this concept set them up for failure in the real world.

    Rule 1: Life is not fair - get used to it!

    Rule 2 : The world won’t care about your self-esteem. The world will expect you to accomplish something BEFORE you feel good about yourself.

    Rule 3 : You will NOT make $60,000 a year right out of high school. You won’t be a vice-president with a car phone until you earn both.

    Rule 4 : If you think your teacher is tough, wait till you get a boss.

    Rule 5 : Flipping burgers is not beneath your dignity. Your Grandparents had a different word for burger flipping: they called it opportunity.
    Rule 6: If you mess up, it’s not your parents’ fault, so don’t whine about your mistakes, learn from them.

    Rule 7: Before you were born, your parents weren’t as boring as they are now. They got that way from paying your bills, cleaning your clothes and listening to you talk about how cool you thought you were. So before you save the rain forest from the parasites of your parent’s generation, try delousing the closet in your own room.
    Rule 8: Your school may have done away with winners and losers, but life HAS NOT. In some schools, they have abolished failing grades and they’ll give you as MANY TIMES as you want to get the right answer. This doesn’t bear the slightest resemblance to ANYTHING in real life.

    Rule 9: Life is not divided into semesters. You don’t get summers off and very few employers are interested in helping you FIND YOURSELF. Do that on your own time.

    Rule 10: Television is NOT real life. In real life people actually have to leave the coffee shop and go to jobs.

    Rule 11: Be nice to nerds. Chances are you’ll end up working for one.

  • 6 boberinyetagain // Oct 14, 2008 at 10:51 am

    rule 12: if you screw up big enough (really, really big) the government WILL bail you out…

  • 7 NeaL // Oct 14, 2008 at 11:10 am

    Is it just me, or does everyone else get a lot more out of Scott’s posts when we actually follow the links he contains within them?

  • 8 gafisher // Oct 14, 2008 at 11:22 am

    Sounds like a return to “Voodoo Economics,” and we all remember how THAT turned out.

  • 9 mig // Oct 14, 2008 at 11:28 am

    I can’t stand Howard Stern, but you have to listen to this.

    Stupid Scary

  • 10 mig // Oct 14, 2008 at 11:30 am

    ? Did the link not work?
    http://www.bpmdeejays.com/upload/hs_sal_in_Harlem_100108.mp3

  • 11 Maggie // Oct 14, 2008 at 11:45 am

    Good Morning All

    Mig re # 10
    Please send me an email with that link so I can send it on.Thanks.

  • 12 mig // Oct 14, 2008 at 11:46 am

    Replace capitalism with Islamic financial system: cleric

    Oct 12 11:19 AM US/Eastern

    Muslims should take advantage of the global financial crisis to build an economic system compatible with Islamic principles, influential Sunni cleric Sheikh Yusuf al-Qaradawi said on Sunday.
    “The collapse of the capitalist system based on usury and paper and not on goods traded on the market is proof that it is in crisis and shows that Islamic economic philosophy is holding up,” said the Egyptian-born, Qatar-based cleric.
    “The Western system has collapsed and we have a complete economic philosophy as well as spiritual strength,” he said at Sunday’s opening of a conference on Jerusalem.
    “All riches are ours… the Islamic nation has all or nearly all the oil and we have an economic philosophy that no one else has,” Qaradawi said.
    He urged Muslims to “profit from the crisis to bring about the triumph of the (Islamic) nation, which holds the spiritual and material resources for victory.”
    The sixth conference on Jerusalem is being attended by around 300 people representing political parties as well as Muslim and Christian NGOs, from various countries.
    It is staged by Al-Quds (Jerusalem) International Institution, which is dedicated to the conservation of the holy city and its sacred places.
    Participants include Khaled Meshaal, exiled head of the Palestinian Islamist movement Hamas, and Ali Akbar Velayati, a top adviser to Iranian spiritual leader Ali Khamenei.
    The three-day conference will look at ways of protecting Jerusalem and its holy sites, which participants believe are threatened by Israel.

  • 13 Maggie // Oct 14, 2008 at 11:47 am

    Btw…..no more feeding the gerbals…..new computer………

  • 14 wildhowd // Oct 14, 2008 at 11:56 am

    wow, sounds almost like free enterprise. How could that possibly ever work

  • 15 gafisher // Oct 14, 2008 at 12:18 pm

    mig Re your links in #9 & 10 — that’s downright frightening, but I suppose if dead people overwhelmingly vote Democrat, it can’t require a lot of thought.

  • 16 gafisher // Oct 14, 2008 at 12:28 pm

    One of my favorite pro-capitalism bumper stickers says:

    Ask not what your country can do for you,
    ask what you can do for
    YOURSELF
    .”

    I think Kennedy might actually have approved.

  • 17 boberinyetagain // Oct 14, 2008 at 12:44 pm

    And this was in “the good old days” when the economy was “booming”…

    The report found that 9.6 million working families were poor in 2006, up from 9.2 million in 2002, the report said. “One-third of all (U.S.) children reside in low-income working families,” said Roberts.

    By 2008 standards, the report defined working poor as a family of four living on less than $42,400 in the 48 contiguous states, or slightly more in Alaska and Hawaii.

  • 18 boberinyetagain // Oct 14, 2008 at 12:46 pm

    full article…

  • 19 Hawkeye // Oct 14, 2008 at 1:02 pm

    Bob #17,

    All the more reason we don’t need Obama’s Global Poverty Act. If we can’t eliminate poverty in this country, why do want somebody like BO giving away 0.7% of America’s GNP?

    wv = wealthy he — then let him give away his own money!

  • 20 JamesonLewis3rd // Oct 14, 2008 at 1:31 pm

    Spreading The Wealth Around.

    Look out.

    Real Estate is next.

  • 21 Fred Sinclair // Oct 14, 2008 at 1:39 pm

    SARAH PALIN IS ON THE PHONE FOR TEN MINUTES ON RUSH LIMBAUGH RIGHT NOW 13:32 - 13:42.

  • 22 boberinyetagain // Oct 14, 2008 at 2:08 pm

    Hawkeye, you know my response by now…we should try…but I was not aware of the position you attribute to Mr. Obama…I believe it, I was just unaware.
    Go Ralph!

  • 23 NeaL // Oct 14, 2008 at 2:30 pm

    Re Fred Sinclair #21: Darn, I missed it. I do hope that someone was able to record it and will post it, somewhere!

  • 24 gafisher // Oct 14, 2008 at 2:44 pm

    Re#17: “By 2008 standards, the report defined working poor as a family of four living on less than $42,400 …

    I can introduce you to many families of four or more who believe they are living well on quite a bit less than that sum. Admittedly, they would like to be doing better, but they don’t consider themselves “poor” and not only refuse welfare but give generously to others.

  • 25 boberinyetagain // Oct 14, 2008 at 2:56 pm

    gafisher, they take home $615.00 (more or less) a week and give generously to others? Do they live with their parents?

  • 26 boberinyetagain // Oct 14, 2008 at 3:23 pm

    Medical care for a “typical” insured family of four in the U.S. will cost about $13,382 this year, a 9.6% increase from 2005, according to the second annual Milliman Medical Index, CQ HealthBeat reports. The study, conducted by Milliman, estimates that a typical family of four will be responsible for about 38% of total annual medical costs, including $2,210 in out-of-pocket spending and $2,810 in payroll deductions.

    rent, $1000
    food, $400
    untilities. $200
    tithing, $200
    transportation, $200
    healthcare, $400
    total, $2,400
    No clothes, no “fun” budgeted, figures used pretty generous…on the low side

  • 27 gafisher // Oct 14, 2008 at 3:23 pm

    Bober, I’m referring to families generally consisting of two parents and two or more children, renting or (actually) paying off a mortgage, contributing to their churches, assisting neighbors, and in many cases involved in charitable efforts of various sorts.

  • 28 MajorDomo // Oct 14, 2008 at 3:27 pm

    Obummer told a plumber that he would “spread the wealth around”. He, unfortunately, meant that he would spread the plumber’s wealth around.

    Where have I heard this plan before? Oh, yeah, V. I. Lenin.

  • 29 MajorDomo // Oct 14, 2008 at 3:35 pm

    My experience has been that the more medical costs you pay from your own pocket, the less your medical expenses are.

  • 30 gafisher // Oct 14, 2008 at 3:37 pm

    Bober Re#26, I can believe that of an “average” family — one family with a million-dollar catastrophic medical event could bring the average up like a rocket for the rest of a random sample — but “typical?” — I doubt it. As for the rest; well, I suppose it depends on how and where one lives, but (assuming those are monthly figures) many people spend much less.

    wv - stage broken - try walking.

  • 31 gafisher // Oct 14, 2008 at 3:42 pm

    MD Re#28: “He, unfortunately, meant that he would spread the plumber’s wealth around.

    And regardless of what he meant, what Obama does spread around is what the plumber likes least to encounter in his work.

  • 32 Darthmeister // Oct 14, 2008 at 7:35 pm

    I bet the plumber raises his prices, right? So who ends up paying for every Democratic tax hike … you and me, the consumer.

    It’s a bald-face lie for Oblahblah to claim he won’t be “raising taxes” on the middle-class when the middle-class bears the brunt of every tax hike on Big Business … or the “rich” who run Big Business. The cost of every tax hike is borne by the lowly taxpayer at the register. That’s the real world and liberals can’t deal with it so they have to lie … that is, “speaking truth to their morons.”

    How Democrats cheat … let me count the ways:

    1) By using absentee voter ballots.

    2) Republican poll observers are turned away and then the Democrats running the polling place can then jimmy the results by voting for those who didn’t show up to vote! That’s why fraudulent voter registration is so effective, it gives Democrats a higher “voting population” in their voting district which means more votes for the Democrat pollsters to use for their candidate choices! Pretty slick, eh?

    3) Buy Democrat votes with cigarettes, cash and liquor. Happened in Wisconsin in 2000 and in East St. Louis 2004

    4) You get Democratic Mayors to engage in voter fraud
    Note: News agencies will rarely give the party affiliation of said scumbags when they are Democrat. The mayor is a Democrat.

    5) It helps when the candidate at the top of your ticket chums it up with voter fraud organizations like ACORN

    6) Get your Democratic State Attorney to stop efforts to stop voter fraud by claiming it “disenfranchises minority voters”. Well yeah, it would disenfranchise minority voters who seem perfectly willing to cheat!

    So, would it be fair to say that Obama and Democrats seem perfectly willing to look the other way while Democratic voter fraud occurs in all 50 57 states?

  • 33 Darthmeister // Oct 14, 2008 at 7:36 pm

    … I guess I have to vote twice.

  • 34 camojack // Oct 14, 2008 at 7:40 pm

    NeaL // Oct 14, 2008 at 11:10 am
    Is it just me, or does everyone else get a lot more out of Scott’s posts when we actually follow the links he contains within them?

    No, it isn’t just you. It’s a HUGE part of the point… ;-)

  • 35 Darthmeister // Oct 14, 2008 at 7:47 pm

    Gee, making under $42 K a year defines a family as “poor”? I didn’t know we were poor!

    BTW, we’re going to get hit with a big medical bill starting tomorrow. Thank goodness we made the sacrifices over the last twenty-five years which required us to take money out of our hard-earned take home pay and responsibly - as a “poor” family mind you - insure ourselves. It sure would have been nice to have that cottage on the lake or that new $24,000 car.

    As it is, we’re still going to have to swing a $3,000 deductible. But now Oblahblah and the rest of the Donks in Congress want me to also pay for part of my former neighbor’s medical and health insurance despite the fact he’s blown most of his earnings up his nose or betting on pit bull fights … I kid you not! I’m speaking literally here.

    Sooooo, how’s that “fair”? Privatized universal healthcare yes, nationalized or socialized medicine, NO!

  • 36 Fred Sinclair // Oct 14, 2008 at 7:59 pm

    gafisher & MD -Much of (perhaps 99.999%) of my financial comfort and ease I trace to two decisions I made in 1974 when I decided to go “debt free”; by 1976 I was indeed “debt free”, the other decision was a strict “pay cash or do without” lifestyle. (I learned that there are a lot of things I could do without).

    At 70, I’m in a wheelchair in a fine, fully furnished apartment. I get a SS check of $1,031. each month = $12,372. yearly. I want for nothing. I have Medicare A & B plus Medicaid. My rent, phone, elect. & gas accounts for about half of it and with no debt of any kind I have the other half for food, clothes (from the thrift store), etc.

    I thank God, daily that I live in America (If you’re going to be poor, this is the place!)

    Phil. 4:11 Not that I speak in respect of want: for I have learned, in whatsoever state I am, therewith to be content.
    Phil. 4:12 I know both how to be abased, and I know how to abound: every where and in all things I am instructed both to be full and to be hungry, both to abound and to suffer need.
    Phil. 4:13 I can do all things through Christ which strengtheneth me.

    I praise God that He has blessed me so richly - not just financially but even greater blessings with a Church full of brothers and sisters who visit regularly through the week, a computer with an address book full of dozens wonderful friends I’ve made bwo ScrappleFace. Scott Ott is truly a gift from God to all of us who post here.

    Neal #23 - I have the conversation in today’s podcasts (I subscribe to Rush’s “24/7″) I don’t know if i-tunes can be forwarded - If they can, I don’t know how.

  • 37 mindknumbed kid // Oct 14, 2008 at 8:15 pm

    I have a relative (actually had, since she passed away years ago), born during the roaring 20’s. She was an unwanted child, her parents were not secretive about it, and told her point blank on many occasions. That was back before there was legal and readily available abortion on demand, but given her parent’s verbalizing the fact that they never wanted her and were not happy that she was there, I would say that if it had been available she would have been aborted.
    Now suppose that there is another person out there who fits into the exact same scenario, and that ended up alive against the wishes of the parents, for whatever the reason. And say that it is common knowledge to everybody in their community that the person would have been aborted, but ended up being born and a member of the human race.
    And let’s suppose that in the course of that person’s life someone in a fit of anger or whatever, kills that “unwanted” person.
    During the trial all of this information comes out and the defense attorney decides to plead his client innocent and his defense is that the person that had been killed, was not wanted and if circumstances would have permitted, they would have been aborted. Therefore that person had no right to life.
    Do you think there is any chance that the murderer would beat the rap using that strategy?

    If you say no, then why is it OK to refuse medical care to a baby that survives a botched abortion?

  • 38 Amused Cynic » Blog Archive » Sometimes you just gotta laugh… // Oct 14, 2008 at 8:17 pm

    [...] from around the web. First, my fellow Pennsylvania “bitter clinger” Scott Ott unveils McCain’s radical new economic plan… “As I envision it,” the Arizona Republican will say, “the whole system, anchored in a [...]

  • 39 mindknumbed kid // Oct 14, 2008 at 8:27 pm

    re#10 - What further proof do you need to know that the majority of democrat voters are completely ignorant about every issue, and are not qualified to vote. And these are the people that get sucked in by voter registration drives and motor voter laws, many wouldn’t make it to the polls to vote if no one showed up to take them to vote. Only thing they “know” is “D” = good, “R” = bad and therefore the “D” people never have to deliver anything for them and they become stuck right where the “D” people want them, ignorant and dependent. They are only resorting to all of the fraud to win until they succeed in getting everyone equally ignorant and dependent upon them. Oh my, they must be so proud of their constituency!

  • 40 mindknumbed kid // Oct 14, 2008 at 8:48 pm

    Question relating to the plumber that Obama spoke to about “those that are behind him” … What if many of the people that are “behind him” used to ones that were “ahead of him” before all of his hard work, risk taking, and financial investment began to pay off for him?
    By God’s grace I am working to become debt free as Fred has done in his life. I have worked two jobs most of my life, or worked one where I put in the hours for two. I have given up meals at times to keep the bills paid and a roof over my children’s heads. I was unable to secure employment that provided medical benefits for a number of years. We have made financial sacrifices that crippled us to care for family members when the need arose. I have been on food stamps and we still qualified when I decided that one way or another I was going to take care of things myself instead of relying on government. The longest period of time I have been without a job in my adult life is 4 days (probably because God knows any longer and I’d lose my mind). I do not want to write this to say in any way that I am a great individual for anything that I have done. I just wish more of my fellow citizens would put forth some sort of effort to take care of their needs and sacrifice if need be to be more self reliant.

  • 41 Darthmeister // Oct 14, 2008 at 9:47 pm

    It’s about time! From the video vaults of CNN:

    Obama and ACORN are connected … but they’re not “working together” any more. Buwhahahahaha!

    The Ayers/Obama connection … more than what Oblahblah originally admitted to.

    Obama Lies in His Ads … despite his claim he wants to “change America”. How do you “change America” by going right back to the liberal dirty tricks playbook?

    Barack Obama: An Accomplished liar. Oh what a tangled web we weave …

  • 42 mindknumbed kid // Oct 14, 2008 at 10:29 pm

    My wife is so good. This morning my daughter was supposed to have her wisdom teeth removed @9 AM. My wife had arranged to have the day off for the event and about 8:50 they arrived at the office where the oral surgeon was waiting. He has his practice up in Sheridan, and comes to Gillette once a week to work here.
    Somehow when our dentist did the referral none of the information about drug allergies sent and the surgeon was using either Torodol or Demorol (sp) for anesthesia. My daughter is allergic to both meds, so he said he could not do the job. They met me for breakfast @ about 9:12 AM and my wife had found an oral surgeon (acquantences of ours) in Rapid City who had an opening this morning @11. It is a two hour drive to Rapid and the Suburban needed gasoline, plus the office was on the very south edge of town…
    I told her to forget it, there was no way she could be close to being on time. But she knew that it was “now or never”, no other openings would work out for at least a couple weeks, and she made the appointment. She really knows how to get things done, and amazes me often.

  • 43 MajorDomo // Oct 14, 2008 at 10:36 pm

    Fred 36: Unfortunately, not everyone has the Comforter that you and I do. I’m a few years older than you, and I was raised on the “other side of the tracks” where both my parents worked as did everyone else; and we all lived in company houses and the groceries came from the company store. In summer months I ate my lunch there and put it on Dad’s tab. Yet I never heard a single one complain about their circumstances! We would have never known we were poor if it hadn’t been for some bureaucrat telling us. Looking back on it, I don’t think I would have wanted things to be different, even if I had known what I know now.

  • 44 JamesonLewis3rd // Oct 15, 2008 at 5:31 am

    Spreading The Wealth Around.

    How does that NOT sound like the Russia or China of a century ago?

    Please Note: Robin Hood is a Fictional Career Criminal.

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