Wednesday, October 8, 2008

Swing And A Miss!

I'm a little behind on my political analyses because I promised Lydia I wouldn't post anything political for a while after she put up her post about her sisters' visit. Obviously the ban has been lifted and now I have some catching up to do. I won't be able to post all the things I wanted to concerning the Biden v. Palin debate (and I really had some zingers too) but I think anyone who saw it is quite aware of the fact that Biden won hands down. Yes, Palin exceeded expectations, but for her it was like the SATs: spell your name correctly and you get 200 points.

The other big news from recent weeks is the $700 billion bailout (sorry, emergency rescue plan) that finally passed the House. I think the drama that unfolded with McCain and the final plan is simply fascinating and I'm surprised that it's not getting more circulation as one of the more ridiculous political spectacles in recent history. The man literally drips with delusions of grandeur. Let's see if I can lay out the basic idea:

Step 1: Call the economy "fundamentally sound" while the rest of the country frets over the possibility (or perceived reality) of a recession.
Step 2: Clarify that by "economy" you meant American workers and by "sound", you meant "the best workers in the world". Essentially the only word you used and meant was "fundamentally"...
Step 3: Proclaim that America is an economic crisis (caused by your opponent) and suspend your campaign so you can fly back to Washington to coordinate the solution while vowing not to return until a plan is passed (Presidential debates be damned).
Step 4: Don't fly back to Washington. Instead, head on over to CBS to do an interview with Katie Couric (oh, and piss off David Letterman - he probably won't make too big of a deal of it). Also, don't actually stop your campaign from campaigning, just pull the ads and no one will be the wiser.
Step 5: In the absence of a passed bailout package, fly back to Washington for the Presidential debate proclaiming the crucial role you played in getting both parties to work in a bipartisan manner.
Step 6: Watch the plan crash and burn in a terrifying ball of hellfire.

As I said, the rescue bailout package finally passed through Congress and was signed into law by Dubya. Good news right? Apparently not for McCain. Here's the skinny.

John McCain is the champion of earmark reform, and rightfully so. He has admittedly done a lot to draw attention to and oppose the pork-barrel spending that too often gets slipped into important legislation. And he was no less committed to protecting the bailout package from the same wasteful, unnecessary spending...



And here are just a few of the earmarks that slipped past the watchful of Sen. McCain:
  • Sec.317: Seven-year cost recovery period for motorsports racing track facility
  • Sec.308: Increase in limit on cover over of rum excise tax to Puerto Rico and the Virgin Islands
  • Sec.503: Exemption from excise tax for certain wooden arrows designed for use by children (my personal favorite)
In total, there were an additional $150 billion worth of earmarks added to the $700 billion bailout plan. Hmm... It would appear the good senator from Arizona has gotten himself in a bit of a bind. When asked about what would appear to be a pretty severe discrepancy...


In case you didn't catch it, this was McCain's recommendation for the fate of bills laden with pork:

SCARBOROUGH: Why did these items have to be in this critical bill?

MCCAIN: Well that’s just the way the system is working in Washington and the reason why it’s got to be fixed, and it’s got to be changed. And no matter what the stakes are, you’ve got to stop this by starting to veto bills that come across the president’s desk. … It’s insanity and it’s obscenity, because it’s a waste of taxpayers’ dollars and it goes on, and until we stop it, until we get frankly a president who will say, I’m gonna veto these bills, I’m gonna make the people famous that put them on there, uh, famous.


I'm sorry - I just don't get how that jives, man.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

he's full of crap. seriously, i'm not sure who scares me more running the country. The self conscious socialist who will spend us to death or the clueless hypocrite who will spend us to death.