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Blog For Arizona
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Links for 2008-09-18 [del.icio.us]
Posted: 19 Sep 2008 12:00 AM CDT
http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/BlogForArizona/~3/396890147/mbryan
Talking Points Memo | Oy
Think Progress McCain Flip-Flops On AIG Bailout In 24 Hours
Arizona Capitol Times - Serving Arizona's Business, Government and Political
Community since 1946
TV News Report on ballot fraud by petition gatherers for Prop 104, chaired by
Maricopa CA Andy Thomas
What does Sarah Palin have to hide in her Yahoo e-mails? - Glenn Greenwald -
Salon.com
Stocks surge on report of entity for bad debt: Financial News - Yahoo! Finance
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McCain's record on privatization of Social Secuirty
Posted: 18 Sep 2008 09:58 PM CDT
http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/BlogForArizona/~3/396806630/the-mcbush-soci.html
Posted by AzBlueMeanie:
It has been a very bad week for many retirement funds and 401(k) accounts
invested in the stock market, with the melt down of the financial system. For
many people, their only retirement fund is the safety net of Social Security.
Just imagine what might have occurred had George W. Bush and John McCain
succeeded in privatizing the Social Security Trust Fund and invested it in the
stock market.
The AFL-CIO earlier this year compiled John McCain's record on privatization of
Social Security John McCain Revealed: Retirement Security:
McCain Voted for Bush’s 2006 Social Security Privatization Plan. In 2006,
McCain voted for the Social Security Reserve Fund. The proposal would shift
Social Security’s annual surpluses into a reserve account that would be
converted into risky private accounts. [SCR 83, Vote #68, 3/16/06; SCR 83, Vote
#68, 3/16/06]
In 2000 McCain Wanted to Divert Social Security Money to Private Accounts. The
Wall Street Journal reported that “[a] centerpiece of a McCain presidential bid
in 2000 was a plan to divert a portion of Social Security payroll taxes to fund
private accounts, much as President Bush proposed unsuccessfully.” The plan
would put workers’ retirement money into the risky market and reduce the amount
of Social Security payments they would receive from the government. The plan
would undermine the Social Security system. [Wall Street Journal, 3/3/08]
McCain STILL Proposes Privatizing Social Security—Despite What His Website
Says. McCain told the Wall Street Journal he still backs a system of private
retirement accounts that he supported in 2000 and President Bush pushed
unsuccessfully. The Journal reported he “disowned” details of a proposal on his
2008 campaign website that says he would “supplement” the existing Social
Security system with personally managed accounts. But when asked about the
position change he denied it and promised to change the website to reflect his
true position. “I’m totally in favor of personal savings accounts… As part of
Social Security reform, I believe that private savings accounts are a part of
it—along the lines that President Bush proposed,” McCain told the
Journal.[Wall Street Journal, 3/3/08; Campaign Website, accessed 3/3/08]
McCain Might Raise the Retirement Age and Reduce Cost-of-Living Adjustments.
“[T]he McCain campaign says the candidate intends to keep Social Security
solvent by reducing the growth in benefits over the coming decades to match
projected growth in payroll tax revenues. Among the options are extending the
retirement age to 68 and reducing cost-of-living adjustments, but the campaign
hasn’t made any final decisions. ‘You can’t keep promises made to retirees,’
said Mr. Holtz-Eakin, McCain’s chief economic aide.” [Wall Street Journal,
3/3/08]
McCain Supported Deep Cuts That Put Social Security Benefits at Risk. In 2005,
McCain supported a Social Security plan that would require deep benefit cuts or
a massive increase in debt. That same year, McCain voted against prioritizing
Social Security solvency over tax cuts for the wealthy. [SCR 18, Vote #49,
3/15/05; S. Amdt. 144 to SCR 18, Vote #47, 3/15/05]
McCain Voted to Use Social Security Money to Pay Off National Debt. In 2003,
McCain voted to use Social Security funds to pay off federal debt. [HJR 51,
Vote #201, 5/23/03]
McCain Voted Against Protecting Social Security Solvency with a Strategic
Reserve. In 2001, McCain opposed reducing tax cuts for the wealthy to create a
strategic reserve for Social Security. In the same year, McCain voted against a
proposal to create “lockboxes” to protect Social Security and Medicare. [H.R.
1836, Senate RPC, Vote #145, 5/22/01; S. Amdt. 29, Vote #22, 3/13/01]
McCain Voted to Replace Social Security with Risk-Based Investments. In 1998,
McCain voted twice to replace Social Security’s guaranteed benefits with income
from risk-based private investments. [SCR 86, Vote #56, 4/1/98; SCR 86, Vote
#77, 4/1/98]
In June of this year, McCain asserted in a town hall that "I'm not for, quote,
privatizing Social Security. I have never been. I never will be." McCain
denies his record of supporting Social Security privatization (his record says
otherwise).
Yet in July of this year, the Los Angeles Times reported McCain takes a Social
Security risk - Los Angeles Times that:
McCain's remarks on Social Security came during a week that showcased his ideas
for the economy. When asked by a young woman at a Denver town hall meeting last
Monday how to make Social Security viable for her generation, he said she could
not rely on the system "unless we fix it."
"We are paying present-day retirees with the taxes paid by young workers in
America today," he said. "And that's a disgrace. It's an absolute disgrace, and
it's got to be fixed."
His comments seemed to suggest that McCain favored a new funding mechanism for
Social Security benefits, such as private accounts. Later, on CNN, McCain
seemed to fully embrace the idea of private accounts. "I want young workers to
be able to, if they choose, to take part of their own money, which is their
taxes, and put it in an account which has their name on it," he said.
Participation would be a "voluntary thing," he said, and "would not affect any
present-day retirees or the system as necessary."
As late as September 7, 2008, the Wall Street Journal reported McCain, Obama
Split Over Social Security that McCain "remains open to personal accounts, also
called private accounts, for younger people. Under this system, pushed hard by
President Bush in 2005, workers could divert some of the taxes that normally
would go to pay Social Security benefits into personal accounts invested in
stocks and/or bonds. In trade, their guaranteed checks from the government
would go down, increasing both the possibility of risk and reward for
participants, depending on how the investments fare.
"There may be a role for private investment accounts for younger workers as
long as they are not a substitute for insuring the solvency of the system and
does not affect the system,'' Sen. McCain said.
Sen. McCain has vacillated when describing his position. At times he has
declared forthright that he will not raise taxes, period. Other times he has
said that everything would be on the table in a bipartisan negotiation.
* * *
Sen. Obama has been much more forthright about how he would bring the program
into balance. He says he'll raise taxes of those earning over $250,000 a year.
It's not clear whether that would be enough to close the entire gap.
"I'll work with members of Congress from both parties to ask people making more
than $250,000 a year to contribute a little bit more to keep the system sound,"
Sen. Obama said. "It's a change that would start a decade or more from now, and
it won't burden middle-class families. In fact, 99% of Americans will see
absolutely no change in their taxes -- 99%." McCain, Obama Split Over Social
Security
Watch the Obama campaign's latest ad on Social Security airing in the
battleground states:
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John McCain, suddenly a Socialist!
Posted: 18 Sep 2008 02:22 PM CDT
http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/BlogForArizona/~3/396316521/john-mccain-sud.html
Posted by AzBlueMeanie:
Movement conservatism, which came to power with the Reagan Revolution, is a
political ideology that for the past 28 years has preached blind faith in free
market capitalism. Less government and less regulation would unleash business
innovation and the creation of new businesses and jobs. To accomplish this, we
were told that we had to enrich the super-wealthy investor class who would
wisely invest their riches to create this new era of economic prosperity, which
would trickle down to the rest of us. The guiding principle of this movement
was "greed is good," as Gordon Gekko (Michael Douglas) told us in the movie
Wall Street:
John McCain, as he regularly reminds voters, was "a foot soldier in the Reagan
Revolution." His 26 years in Congress have been defined by his steadfast
opposition to government regulation and oversight of the "free market." McCain
began his career in Washington by intervening with government regulators on
behalf of his friend and campaign contributor, Charles Keating, during the
Savings & Loan scandal. Thanks to McCain's involvement on behalf of Keating's
Lincoln Savings & Loan, U.S. taxpayers ended up footing the bill for a cool
$2.6 billion.
McCain's closest friend and adviser, the man he describes as his "economic
guru," Phil Gramm, was the principal architect of Republican deregulation
efforts during the 1990s. "Gramm left the Senate in 2002 but now has emerged as
what Fortune magazine calls “McCain’s econ brain,” not only filling the Arizona
senator’s acknowledged void on economic expertise (“I don’t know as much about
the economy as I should”) but recognized as one of McCain’s closest friends in
politics. The two men talk daily." McCain Defends 'Enron Loophole'
Foreclosure Phil Gramm, with the Gramm-Leach-Bliley Act, repealed the
cross-ownership provisions of the Glass-Steagall Act, the depression era law
which established firewalls between banking, investment and insurance to
protect investors against the excesses of capitalism that led to the Great
Depression. Gramm also slipped in a 262-page measure called the Commodity
Futures Modernization Act into an omnibus spending bill that Congress voted for
without debate, or even reading the bill.
This act was largely responsible for the creation of "exotic" financing and
investment "opportunities" over the past decade which were, in reality, high
risk investments (games of chance) that turned Wall Street into Casino Royale.
Gramm created an unregulated "shadow banking system" where investors could
gamble free of government regulation and oversight. The sub-prime mortgage
meltdown is Gramm's legacy.
The "alphabet soup" regulatory agencies which still existed were starved of
funding and staff by Congress, and were headed by conservative appointees
ideologically opposed to government regulation and oversight. The oversight
committees in Congress, like the Commerce Committee which John McCain chaired
for the better part of a decade, failed to conduct any meaningful oversight or
to propose any meaningful regulatory reforms.
In early 1995, after Republicans had taken control of Congress, McCain promoted
a moratorium on federal regulations of all kinds. He was quoted as saying that
excessive regulations were "destroying the American family, the American dream"
and voters "want these regulations stopped." (The moratorium measure failed).
"I’m always for less regulation," he told The Wall Street Journal last March,
"but I am aware of the view that there is a need for government oversight” in
situations like the sub-prime lending crisis. But he emphasized that "I am
fundamentally a deregulator."
Later that month, McCain gave a speech on the housing crisis in which he called
for less regulation, saying, "Our financial market approach should include
encouraging increased capital in financial institutions by removing regulatory,
accounting and tax impediments to raising capital."
At the Republican National Convention just a few weeks ago, McCain's friend
Fred Thompson, and his veep nominee, Sarah Palin, sung his praises for being a
"deregulator." John McCain: The Deregulator
But this week with the collapse of Wall Street financial giants, John McCain is
suddenly singing a different tune. Now he tells us that he wants to "reform"
Wall Street, and impose tough new regulations to "end greed." McCain even
promises to regulate what companies pay their CEO and other officers in
compensation. And he now supports a federal government bailout of these failed
financial institutions.
A day after flatly rejecting the idea of a taxpayer bailout for American
International Group Inc. (AIG), John McCain said Wednesday the government had
been "forced" into proposing an $85 billion loan to the nation's largest
insurer. "These actions stem from failed regulation, reckless management and a
casino culture on Wall Street that has crippled one of the most important
companies in America." McCain shifts gears on bailout: It protects ordinary
Americans The "casino culture" that he and Phil Gramm and countless other
Republican conservatives have nurtured and breathed life into for the past 28
years.
John McCain, if he is to be believed, just rejected the fundamental principle
of movement conservatism and the Reagan Revolution - free markets unregulated
by the government. Republicans, including John McCain, have defamed Democrats
over the years as being "Socialists" for supporting government regulation and
oversight of the market. But now that his super-wealthy investor class buddies
on Wall Street are in deep trouble, McCain is suddenly a Socialist!
For years now, we have had to listen to bankers attacking Washington for
imposing regulations that inhibit the free markets from making even more money.
And all the while, they took exorbitant salaries, justifying them on the
grounds of their huge contribution to capitalism.
How bitterly ironic it is, then, to see these one-time freemarketeers becoming
socialists overnight.
The schoolyard bullies of Wall Street have gone running to the state for help,
pleading to be saved from destruction.
George W. Bush came into office promising to be the next Ronald Reagan, getting
government out of people's lives. In the final months of his presidency, he has
implemented the largest nationalization program in 75 years. ANALYSIS:
Free-market capitalism lies shredded
John McCain's overnight conversion to regulatory reform is not to be believed.
This dishonest and dishonorable man will say anything, and lie like a rug to
fool just enough Americans to get elected. It explains his weak call for a
"commission" to study what went wrong and how to fix it. This is what
politicians always do when they don't have any answers and they want to delay
taking any action in the hope that the problem may resolve itself and fade from
the public eye so that they do not have to actually do anything. John McCain,
if elected, will stay true to form after 26 years in Washington as a
"deregulator." And he will appoint his best friend, "Foreclosure" Phil Gramm,
the man who created this mess, to serve in his cabinet. The nightmare will
continue.
Senator Barack Obama was appropriately dismissive of McCain's feigned
conversion to regulatory reform. "Yesterday, John McCain actually said that if
he's president he'll take on — and I quote — 'the old boys network in
Washington.' I'm not making this up... This is somebody who's been in Congress
for 26 years, who put seven of the most powerful Washington lobbyists in charge
of his campaign. And now he tells us that he's the one who's going to take on
the old boys network. The old boys network. In the McCain campaign that's
called a staff meeting." Obama is going on offense with McCain
"Senator McCain bragged about how as chairman of the Commerce Committee in the
Senate, he had oversight of every part of the economy. Well, all I can say to
Sen. McCain is, 'Nice job. Nice job.'" Obama is going on offense with McCain
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Frameshop: How to Understand Conservative Psychology
Posted: 18 Sep 2008 09:46 AM CDT
http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/BlogForArizona/~3/396269007/frameshop-how-t.html
The key to persuading anyone is not always just to have a better argument, or
even have the facts on your side. Sometimes the key to persuasion is to
understand how those you seek to influence think. We liberals often have
difficulty understanding why conservatives act and believe as they do when the
"truth" is so manifestly clear to us. I often hear (heck, I often say), "how
could they be so stupid?" Well, they are no stupid than average person (who,
admittedly, can sometimes be amazingly stupid), but they are operating on a
different moral framework.
There has been popular awareness and appreciation for the mental differences
between liberals and conservatives for several years now, but much of that
difference is explained in terms of rigidity vs. flexibility, change vs.
inertia, and, frankly, smart and adaptable vs. dumb and plodding. The
explanation of the mental differences between liberals and conservatives is
often frankly denigrating to conservatives.
But Jonathan Haidt, who studies the neuro-biological basis for morality, has an
explanation for the mental differences that is actually more powerful,
explanatory, and nuanced. He suggests a mental moral equalizer with five
sliders: harm, fairness, in-group, authority, and purity. In liberals, the
first two are high and the last three fairly low. In conservatives, all five
are about equal, with all being somewhat lower than liberals' harm and fairness
settings. In this view, conservatives are actually better-rounded and more
attuned to the full spectrum of human morality. I predict that this view of the
moral mind will catch on among conservatives, and thus will become a very
useful way of communicating with, understanding, and influencing conservatives.
Watch Haidt's exploration of the idea at TED:
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