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Both McCain and Obama have been stuck speaking about economic issues for the past couple weeks amid rising gasoline prices and other economic worries. This brought me back to the early 90s when it was stated that ever election, regardless of other issues, is about the money in voters’ wallets.
The story from AOL News:
PEMBERTON, N.J. (AP) - Reports of rising inflation and weak gains in wages kept the paycheck struggles of Americans at the center of the presidential campaign Friday.
Republican John McCain sought to frame an economic policy that defends extending President Bush’s tax cuts but embraces quick measures that the president opposes.
Democrat Barack Obama, benefiting from public disapproval of Bush’s economic policies, has continued to link McCain to Bush.
The Labor Department reported Friday that consumer prices rose by 0.6 percent last month. It was the biggest one-month increase since last November, pushed up by surging gasoline costs. After adjusting for inflation, weekly earnings for nonsupervisors workers were down 1.2 percent in May, compared to a year ago, the department said in a separate report.
The economy is trumping Iraq as the top issue facing the country, a circumstance that places McCain at a distinct disadvantage. The public splits between him and Obama as to who could handle Iraq best, but Obama is viewed as the one best to handle the economy.
With the unemployment rate in May jumping to 5.5 percent, McCain said Friday he would support extending jobless assistance and said he was willing to discuss other short-term measures to boost the economy. He did not rule out another economic stimulus package this year.
“I support extension of unemployment benefits, I think we should do that now,” he told reporters following a town hall meeting in Pemberton, N.J. “I think we should explore a number of options.”
Bush and Republican congressional leaders have opposed the jobless benefits extension. Meanwhile, Obama has proposed a new $50 billion economic stimulus package.
But McCain also argued for continuing President Bush’s tax cuts, most of which are set to expire in 2010. Failure to extend them, he noted, would result in tax increases.
Obama has proposed tax cuts for low- and middle-income taxpayers, but would restore pre-Bush tax rates to the wealthiest Americans.
Here is video of Obama speaking about taxes:
McCain has also been talking economy this week and I’ll have more on that later with an update.
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Somehow I don’t think either of them will live up to their promises.
I have absolutely no faith that either of these candidates will be good for our economy.
Luckily I don’t believe that the president has nearly as much control over the economy as the press and their campaign promises would lead you to believe.
Vesper, I think you hit the nail on the head there. I don’t think either one of them know very much about what is good for the economy, but like you said, the President in and of himself doesn’t control or exert near the influence over the economy as most would have you believe.
I just wish either candidate would stick to something on economics.
Someone needs to pick up and repair California’s push to car manufacturers across the nation on 100% electric cars instead of wasting their time attacking the oil companies for the price gouging that they are doing. It’s simple economics, I thought. Decrease the demand on oil and the price goes down, simple as that.
Then they need to push a worthwhile telecommute bill giving companies worthwhile incentives to allow their employees to work from home. This will allow a very big section of the economy to work at home, thus reducing road repair bills, increasing economic activity in more rural areas since people that telecommute do not have to centralize their choice of living around the company, decreasing the gas bill for those that do have to go to work because they are not wasting their gas on stop and go traffic on the highway, and making everyone pretty damn happy.
What Obama is proposing is to punish those who earn more.
It is a huge mistake for the government to try and force things to be ‘fair’. That was the foundation of Communism.
Personal opinion here: Social Security is a bad idea. Period.
If you didn’t have social security what would all the little do?
I agree and neither of them have much clue about the economy. Both of them are misrepresenting the people by putting the fear of God into them by mentioning higher taxes. The economy is tits up, the housing market has gone pear-shaped and the war in Iraq is cost $Billions per month, someone somewhere is going to have to pay for that.
nz
Why is it my responsiblity to secure retirement for someone else? Having all these government entitlement programs to fall back on just make people more likely to be irresponsible and lazy.