McCain lashes out at economists

June 13, 2008

I have to say, I’ve had quite enough economist-bashing for one campaign cycle.

A month ago, defending her silly gas-tax holiday proposal, Hillary Clinton said it didn’t matter than every professional economist in the country insisted the idea was ridiculous. “I’m not going to put my lot in with economists,” Clinton said, adding that economists are part of the “elite opinion” that is “always on the side of doing things that really disadvantage the vast majority of Americans.”

Clinton’s remarks were easy to overlook since everyone knew she didn’t mean a word of it, but John McCain is picking up where she left off.

At an event in New Hampshire, asked about his gas-tax holiday proposal, McCain lashed out, angrily saying, “If you want to call it a gimmick, fine. You know the economists? They’re the same ones that didn’t predict this housing crisis we’re in.”

First, I don’t know what McCain has against economists. He’s hired a whole team of them to try to rationalize his ridiculous economic policy.

Second, it’s not just economists who realize McCain’s gas-tax idea is absurd, it’s common sense. We have a fixed supply of gas, so even a little critical thinking shows that “the tax cut really goes to the oil companies.”

And third, blaming economists for failing to predict the housing crisis is especially inane, since the opposite is true.

Brad Johnson explained:

McCain is now resorting to false ad hominem attacks to defend his pandering proposal. In fact, numerous progressive economists who have been prominent critics of the gas tax holiday have also been warning for years about the housing bubble inflated by McCain’s favorite economist, Alan Greenspan.

Brad lists a series of prominent experts with PhDs in economics — Joseph Stiglitz, Paul Krugman, Dean Baker, and Duncan Black (Atrios) — all of whom have been right about housing and energy policy.

The problem isn’t the economists, it’s McCain’s reluctance to listen to anyone outside his bubble. Well, that and his own ignorance, despite three decades as a Washington insider.

I can’t help but notice that McCain has not yet even tried to defend the merit of his gas-tax holiday. Not even once. He’ll lash out angrily at critics, and question the utility of economists, but McCain can’t bring himself to say, “I think the gas-tax holiday would work and here’s why….”

What does that tell you about the merit of his ideas?

McAce gives me plenty of gas. I hope he doesn’t decide to tax it…

  • Right Stevio. And this whole using corn to make gasoline doesn’t impress me. I can’t grow my own food, but I can make my own gas.

  • McCan’t doesn’t know WHY something works, or doesn’t.

    He still can’t understand why cutting the top tax rate from 39.6% to 36% hasn’t made up for the lost revenue in that tax bracket over seven years.

    One might point out that if you drop the tax rate to zero, you will never make up the lost revenue, if you raise it to 100%, suddenly there won’t be any revenue, but the sweet spot between them increases revenue over time. Clinton raised the tax rate and revenue went up. Boy George II dropped it and the revenue went down.

    Can’t he see the sweet spot is above 36%? Nope, because he is John Sidney McCan’t.

  • The problem was never the economists. The problem has been the shills on TV. The Jimmie the Greek wannabes who yabber on about the economy like they know something. You know, the Money Honey, Kramer and Craplow, the Market anal-lists, the Hedge Fund Shills and the Real Estate “I see unicorns and leprecaans” Board all folks who make money regardless of whether or not they are right or wrong.

  • You know the economists? They’re the same ones that didn’t predict this housing crisis we’re in.

    And the military…they’re the same ones who didn’t predict the problems in Iraq.
    And the climatologists…they didn’t predict the hurricanes and tornados
    Or the economists who didn’t predict the weak dollar and high gas prices
    Or the accountants who didn’t predict the collapse of Enron and World Com
    Or the engineers who didn’t predict the collapse of the NO levees, Minn bridge, or WV and UT mines

    Or maybe it’s just time for McCain to find new experts and fewer lobbyists.

  • Economists = elite. Next it will be scientists. John McCain see results in picking the low-lying fruit (much like Hillary Clinton did). Intellectual means eleite to them.

  • Why not open up the Strategic Oil Reserve, and give a Free Full Tank of Gas to all comers, while supplies last ? That wouldn’t cost a cent. I mean, all those million gallons of gas just sitting there in gigantic reservoirs.

  • McCain’s view of economists is like Bush’s view of anyone who wasn’t gung ho for the war in Iraq. When it turned out the anti-war folks were right, it didn’t matter. Only the warmongers who led us into this fiasco are “qualified” to handle it now.

    Any economist could have been predicting the housing crisis for years and it would have only been used by the administration as a reason to laugh at them or discredit them. In BushWorld and now McCainWorld, being right just doesn’t matter so much as sticking to being wrong – flogging a dead horse and riding a gigantic mistake into a dark tunnel called “victory”.

  • Arthur said: “Why not open up the Strategic Oil Reserve, and give a Free Full Tank of Gas to all comers, while supplies last ?”

    Because the Reserve is full of light sweet crude oil, not petrolium (or diesel).

    You can’t drive up to it and pump the stuff into your car (or truck). First you have to refine it. And because of NIMBY (not in my back yard) we don’t have excess refining capacity in this country.

  • The Republicans know that, out loud and in public, you can’t REALLY demean black people, or Latinos, or Jews. You can try to couch your demonization in terms like “exotic” but even then, you always risk a “macaca” moment.

    But it’s always…ALWAYS en vogue to demonize smart people. Oooooh, they think they’re so much better than us, with their fancy degrees, and their book-learnin’. You know that people that smart only ever use their smarts to keep honest hard-working folk like you and me down! So vote for me (insert the name of the Republican currently feeding you this line of bullshit) I’ll keep those Ivy League eggheads working FOR you, not AGAINST you!

    It all starts in school, where we look favorably on the athletic and the beautiful, but the intelligent and the inquisitive and the curious are nerds, weaklings to be exploited when their intelligence benefits us, and beaten when we’re bored. We give full college scholarships and sports cars to guys who can throw or hit or kick a friggin’ ball, while many of our future doctors and lawyers (and yes, economists) have to work two jobs or choose lesser schools and put them in a debt they might not ever erase for their chance to make something of themselves. WHY should the political arena be any different? Especially after 8 years of the horse shit Bush threw on us? “I trust the smart guys who agree with me! Those that don’t OBVIOUSLY don’t have your best interests in mind, like *I* do.”

    Here’s hoping that this time, we trust the smart guys a little more than we do the dolts who finished at the bottom of their classes, got by with their connections and can’t string together two sentences without sounding like Larry the Cable Guy.

  • “A month ago, defending her silly gas-tax holiday proposal, Hillary Clinton said it didn’t matter than every professional economist in the country insisted the idea was ridiculous. “I’m not going to put my lot in with economists,” Clinton said, adding that economists are part of the “elite opinion” that is “always on the side of doing things that really disadvantage the vast majority of Americans.”

    Clinton’s remarks were easy to overlook since everyone knew she didn’t mean a word of it”

    Excuse me? And since Hillary didn’t “mean a word of it,” THIS is supposed to be reassuring somehow? I know the primaries are over now, but I must say, this is simply only one reason I am SO glad Obama won the nomination. And I pray he’s not seriously considering her for VP. Sorry folks, but making excuses for someone while they are running by saying “they didn’t really mean it,” could just as easily be applied to McCain…by HIS supporters. Deep dishonesty and pandering sucks whenever anyone does it!

  • Brad lists a series of prominent experts with PhDs in economics — Joseph Stiglitz, Paul Krugman, Dean Baker, and Duncan Black (Atrios) — all of whom have been right about housing and energy policy.

    So some economists got the housing bubble right? BFD. They criticized Bush so they are obviously shrill partisan hacks, like those who warned against the war in Iraq. Only those who got it wrong should be taken seriously because by getting it wrong they showed that they were on the right side. Being on the right side is much more important than being right. Right?

  • Gas tax relief for the poor = temporary “holiday” so parents can buy the kids some school supplies.
    Bush’s “temporary” income tax relief for the rich needs to be made permanent to insure that schools remain underfunded and that debt gets passed on to the kids.
    What a hell of a deal! Who couldn’t see through that nonsense?
    Time for McCain to start aping Reagan: “Weeellll….There you go again!

  • McCain’s reluctance to listen to anyone outside his bubble.

    You mean—just like Bush?

  • Lance @ 11:

    That’s actually wrong. We do have excess refining capacity right now. A lot of it.

    Here’s the DOE-reported percentages of refining utilization from 1990 to 2007:

    http://tonto.eia.doe.gov/dnav/pet/hist/wpuleus34.htm

    In 1998, U.S. refineries ran all year long at 95-98 percent utilization. Last year, the high was 92%, most of the time in the high 80% range. This year so far, the utilization is down in the low 80’s.

    Meanwhile, gasoline production has steadily increased during that time:

    http://tonto.eia.doe.gov/dnav/pet/hist/wgfrpus24.htm

    Granted it’s harder to see from the table, so I grabbed their handy Excel file and make 52-week totals to see the yearly production.

    Both of these details contradict that NIMBY is the issue. Hope this helps…

  • Clinton’s remarks were easy to overlook since everyone knew she didn’t mean a word of it

    I’m all for letting bygones be bygones since the Democratic nomination process is over, but really, we shouldn’t offer retroactive immunity for totally crappy behavior. Faking a position to pander is hardly “eas[ier] to overlook” than actually believing in a position that is totally ridiculous. In fact, it could be argued that it’s worse since the panderer demonstrably knows better.

    We expect Democrats not to enable Republicans with lowest-common-denominator elitist-bashing, and it’s not in our interest to give one of our own a pass–even after the fact–when she or he heinously crosses that line.

  • Adding to Astrogeek’s point: The oil companies know that we have reached peak oil production, and that building additional refining capacity would be economically pointless, because by the time the plant is permitted and built the supply of oil will not be enough to keep the existing plants booked up. Oil refineries are designed to last several decades, and by that time we’re going to be burning something else in our cars.

    Read “Twilight in the Desert” if you don’t believe in peak oil.

  • What Maria said. We can let the creeps who advised Clinton get away with it, or we can build a better party. We can’t do both.

  • The Astrogeek said: “That’s actually wrong. We do have excess refining capacity right now. A lot of it.”

    Yah! Or course, with the next hurricane…

  • Congressional Republicans made it clear that they will not allow the oil companies to have their record breaking profits touched. Americans must learn to live with whatever the oil companies decide to charge. Here comes the great depression…again…and for the same reasons and causes and our millionaire senators and wannabe millionaires congressmen ,almost entirely republican, are marching straight for that cliff.

    Once again unregulated greed is the law and dems barely got an extension of unemployment benefits passed with an exact veto proof majority but the senate obstructionist republicans will block that as well. These people have been bought and no longer work for the good of the people. It’s time to nationalize our energy needs not privatize them for a few hundred extremely greedy people.

    How can anyone seriously want to keep these republicans in office when their mission is to make sure government can’t work and the law is for the wealthy only.

    btw…did you hear Reagan’s son calling for murdering those responsible for sending letters and cds to our soldiers in Afghanistan telling them that 9/11 was an inside job and they should question what they are actually fighting for…on national radio. Called for finding those responsible, lining them up and shooting them. Murder them wherever they are found(forget due process…”he did it..shoot him”…but that’s your father-in-law…”I know”). Needless to say the Reagan boy forgets someone trying to assassinate his dad but he certainly could not even entertain the idea that 9/11 was an inside job. These authoritarians get angry and the constitution goes right out the window along with the rule of law . Reagan boy has a national voice so will anything be done about him calling for murder?

  • Slappy –

    I agree with your point, but it made me think of an article I read in Newsweek praising “Nerd Girls”

    http://www.newsweek.com/id/140457

    Of course the article emphasizes “they’re hot too!”, but maybe it’s a step in the right direction.

    An interesting point about Obama, he makes no apologies for being smart. The days of belittling the experts from the White House are about to end.

  • Gas tax holiday??? How about oil companies not allowed to make a profit for 6mos or even 3mos. How about speculators not allowed to speculate on commodities or oil which is driving the price at the pump even higher. Combined that would give us gas prices of about $.97/gal for 6mos.

    Hell we might like it so much we might make it permanent instead of those tax breaks for the wealthy.

    Hell, we might just like it so much that we go on and just nationalize the oil industries.

    I’m more for doing what will help save our nation than what will ensure record breaking profiteering for a few hundred greedy people. These people already have enough money to ensure generational wealth for centuries. The times are calling for a whole new way of thinking if we are to ensure the continuation of our democracy rather than fall to the enslavement of a corporatocracy.

  • Why is Hillary’s gas tax proposal described as silly while McCain’s is absurd? There is a gender bias in your adjectives. And how do you know that she did not mean a word of her proposal? Other than continue to attack her, why say this?

  • Why is Hillary’s gas tax proposal described as silly while McCain’s is absurd? Is it possible that there is a gender bias in your adjectives: girls are silly; boys are goofy? And how do you know that she did not mean a word of her proposal? Other than continue to attack her, why say this?

  • McFrances McLeonard: Why is Hillary’s gas tax proposal described as silly while McCain’s is absurd?

    Silly because Hillary’s stupid plan didn’t gut the Highway-fix-the-pothole fund.
    Absurd because McCain’s stupid plan would gut the Highway-fix-the-pothole fund.

    Why the gradation? Because a govt. study has shown that not fixing the pot holes ends up costing motorist more money in automobile repairs! I think that finding justifies silly plan as distinguished from absurd plan.

    As for you finding gender bias in every sentence:
    May I suggest you stick that McAttitude up your McUnisexual ass?
    I am getting sick of that McShit…

  • As an econ major I refuse to support anyone who lashes out at my profession of choice

  • I can understand that our privileged elite blogger class has never had to clip a coupon to same a dime at the supermarket, it’s sad that you attack those who do and those who would help save some of the working class as few bucks at the expense of the wildly profitable oil companies. But then, what else can one expect from The One who hires an economist who has nothing but praise for Wal-Mart and their exploitation of workers.

    It must be nice to be ensconced among the world’s economically superior beings.

  • To ROTFLMLiberalAO : This is the first time that I have posted to Carpetbagger Report. My comment as many as least 50% of the 18 million Hillary supporters find it hard–even impossible–to make common cause with people like you. And,by the bye: do you you refer to guys and their suggestions as silly, or do you dismiss them as absurd–my point being that silly is a term usually related to girls, not being significant enough to imply guys.

  • Parts of two sentences have disappeared from my post #31. First: “My comment was directed to Steve Benin.” (Sorry for the misspelling.) Second: something to the effect the sentiment expressed by the poster #30 revealed why as many as 50% of the Hillary supporters find it hard to make common cause with such people. The precise wording escapes me now. If it even mattered.

  • Why is Hillary’s gas tax proposal described as silly while McCain’s is absurd? Is it possible that there is a gender bias in your adjectives: girls are silly; boys are goofy? — Frances Leonard, @27

    Pardon me, but you’re being… um… absurd. And did you misspell Benen’s name because it’s something that girls (girls? You’re calling Hillary a “girl”??? Shame on you; she’s a grown woman) do or because it’s OK to disrespect him because he’s a mere man? Do I see a gender bias in that misspelling?

    If I were you, I’d save that shoulder chip and burn it in a fireplace once the weather has cooled off a bit

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