Holtz-Eakin on McCain: MSNBC 10/24/08

Douglas Holtz-Eakin on John McCain
"MSNBC Live" 01:34pm
Commentary

TOPIC: economy, spending, taxes, battleground states

TRANSCRIPT:
ANDREA MITCHELL: What is the strategy in these closing 11 days to try to sell John McCain and his economic proposals to the voters?
DOUGLAS HOLTZ-EAKIN: obviously we feel quite strongly that he has the best economic proposals hes put out the right thing for seniors for savers, help them with their portfolios and to help the very unfortunate workers whove been laid off. And going forward, we really do have to take care of homeowners and hes been vocal about using the money dedicated to the bailout to help get people into mortgages they can afford and we gotta create jobs. John McCains out, hes campaigning in all the battleground states. Its a message thats getting great reception and it stands in stark contrast to some policies of Barack Obama that are actually quite dangerous
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MITCHELL: How do you rebut [the new Obama tax ad]?
HOLTZ-EAKIN: I think that ads amazing. Number one youre seeing evidence that Barack Obama cant seal the deal on his tax plan. I mean he is very gifted but people understand now that there are big contradictions. You cant have a record where you have always voted for higher taxes and then promise tax cuts. You cant promise trillions of dollars in new spending and promise tax cuts. And you cant claim somethings a tax cut when people arent paying taxes. I encourage people to go [to the Independent Tax Policy Center], theyll say John McCains plan is better for growth. What does this economy need? It needs to grow. Itd be great to get a 1000 dollar check in the mail but what are you gonna do after the first month? Americans need jobs, John McCain has a plan to create jobs. Barack Obama has a collection of policies that a dangerous for jobs, they are absolutely the wrong way to go
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historically [McCain] as tangled with the Bush administration many times and correctly, its just a little straight talk. Had we stuck to, for example, the kinds of spending agreements that occurred in the late 1990s with the then president Clinton and a republican congress, wed be spending nearly 200 bilion dollars less in annual discretionary spending right now. This is a record of overspending and its really ironic that Barack Obama, who claims to be running against George Bush, hes actually supposed to be running against John McCain, has adopted the same overspending proposals and they are bad for the economy and were seeing evidence of it right now.
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Theres no single must-win state, theres a lot of routes to 270. John McCain campaigned in Florida very successful, hes making great progress in Pennsylvania, Ohio, all the battle ground states and you know, were in Colorado. This is going to be a very close election.
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Sarah Palin was the best choice the ticket overall, shes brought tremendous energy


LABEL: DHE JM MSNBC 10-24-08 13.34 (EW#488) GRS

Category:

News & Politics

Tags:

• economy
• spending
• taxes
• battleground
• states