He’s already noted he doesn’t know a lot about the economy, so maybe he should keep his mouth shut and not feed into the Fear Frenzy by saying we’re in a recession. Especially when he admits he has no idea what a recession is.
McCain says he believes U.S. is in a recession
Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) said Monday that he believes the country is in a recession, adding that “these are very, very tough times in America.â€
“Americans are hurting today,†McCain said at an Associated Press forum in Washington, D.C. “They’re hurting in the towns and cities across America. They’re sitting around the kitchen table, saying, ‘Are we going to be able to make our home loan mortgage payments? Are we going to be able to — do I have to try to get a second job? Can I keep my job? Why was I laid off?’â€
While McCain, the presumptive Republican presidential nominee, said he thinks the country is in a recession, he noted that he is more worried about helping people who are facing “enormous challenges,†rather than figuring out what the technical definition of a recession is.
Lovely. McCain may not understand that the economy relies on the frame of mind of the consumer. The more he runs around screaming about the sky supposedly falling (which it isn’t). the more you may retreat, actually assisting in a self-fulfilling prophesy.
Related Link:
The definition of “recession.”
A good post! I hope someone on McCain’s team fills him in about the real definition of a recession and the psychological effect of creating unjustified fears. At the same time, all of us need to be prepared just in case we eventually do get 2 quarters of declining GNP and the accompanying economic contraction (higher unemployment, lower revenues).
“They’re hurting in the towns and cities across America. They’re sitting around the kitchen table, saying, ‘Are we going to be able to make our home loan mortgage payments? Are we going to be able to — do I have to try to get a second job? Can I keep my job? Why was I laid off?’â€
McCain’s words. I just cannot pull the lever for this man. Sorry, RNC loyalists.
Better than the alternative you might say. That argument doesn’t hold water to me because I can fight against the alternative. I can voice my opposition to a President BO or Hillary each and every day. In turn, I am silenced into backing McCain and would have to remain silent for 4 years. McCain is the political equivalent of the fairness doctrine in silencing opposition to government on talk radio. Heck, he has Trent Lott’s endorsement to prove it. President McCain is the worst of all possible outcomes.
Gad, Tammy. It’s this sort of thing that reminds me just how tightly I’ll have to hold my nose when voting for McCain because the alternatives are infinitely worse. Exactly how does his position on the economy differ from those of Obama and Clinton?
By any rational measure, we are not in a recession, nor are we close to a recession. Unemployment continues to be as low or lower than it was during the Clinton years, and despite our fighting the war and the housing and Bear Stearns messes, the economy continues to grow at a good rate and shows no sign of doing anything else.
McCain is right: he doesn’t know much about the economy.
SIZE MATTERS!
A $9+ TRILLION national debt, big-deficit annual federal budgets, massive trade deficits, and the loss of most of our industrial capacity DO matter! And this is before the boomer demands for social security, Medicaid and Medicare increases (including W. drugs), and other entitlement programs kick in, all of which were topics of OMB Director David Walker’s tour last summer, warning that the spending is unsustainable and in a few decades we will be unable to pay even the interest on the national debt. That tour was cancelled for LACK OF INTEREST BY THE PUBLIC! Fred Thompsom campaigned here in Iowa raising the same issues, which we acknowledged, but the liberal establishment media LEMmings declared such topics too boring. I believe Fred quit because he thought that if no one else cares about this, why should he?
So at a time when we desperately need leaders, we get losers like Sidney McAmnesty, Hussein Obama, and Edmund-Hillary all proposing additional costly federal spending from wars to national health. McAmnesty is even pandering to the “global warming” fraud, proposing a $1.3 TRILLION “eco-tax” to stop the actions of the sun. All these costs and commitments are UNPRECEDENTED, and to say we are not in seriously bad financial shape is just false. Remember that the feds are not issuing Depression-repellant checks next month for no reason. Put it on the national credit card, Congress and Bush!