Family Values

As John McCain seeks to succeed George W. Bush as president, the US economy is again front and center in the minds of voters as energy costs move up to rival healthcare as the number one expense for US families, surpassing the traditional leaders shelter and food.

For Dubya, who graduated from Yale with a “gentleman’s C,” and attended Harvard Business School after being rejected by the University of Texas, it’s always been enough to quote from the Regan bible of tax cuts and laissez-faire. The consequences for the national economy bear a striking similarity to Bush’s hapless performance as a private businessman, except that the nation has not been bailed out by wealthy friends of the Bush family.

So now the national debt, 5.7 trillion dollars when Bush took office, has reached 9.5 trillion dollars, or $31,000.00 per capita.

Senator John McCain told The Wall Street Journal “I’m going to be honest: I know a lot less about economics than I do about military and foreign policy issues. I still need to be educated.”

The Boston Globe’s Political Intelligence blog last Dec. 18 published this quote from McCain: “The issue of economics is not something I’ve understood as well as I should. … I’ve got Greenspan’s book.”

Two news items last month gave some substance to these statements: The McCain’s financial disclosure forms showed them to have over $100,000.00 in credit card debt, some on their joint card that carries a 25.99% interest rate,
and the L.A. Times reported that the McCain’s beachfront condo in La Jolla had been in tax default for four years.

Such cluelessness could explain how McCain could get mixed up with crooked Savings and Loan figure Charles Keating in the eighties, that and the fact that his wife and father-in-law were invested in a Keating venture to the tune of $359,000.00.

Most worrisome to me is the fact that McCain has turned to former Texas Senator Phil Gramm for financial advice. Some consider Gramm to be an eminent economist. I see an ethically challenged lobbyist who failed the 3rd, 7th, and 8th grades before getting his doctorate. He may be the single person most responsible for this year’s sub-prime mortgage meltdown, the cost of which cannot yet be calculated, but has seen one million American households foreclosed on so far.