Topic: Economics
Barr vs. McCain (III): Socialism John McCain, Sarah Palin, and Samuel J. Wurzelbacher all say that Barack Obama is a socialist. Then, Bob Barr wonders, what are George Bush and John McCain?by George Dance
(libertarian)
Monday, November 3, 2008
In the dying days of the 2008 election, the drowning campaign of John McCain and Sarah Palin is grabbing out and holding on desperately to the one issue that offers them some hope of terra firma: the fear that Barack Obama is a socialist. So finds Jamaican journalist Vernon Davidson (in Ohio covering the campaign), who reports from Palin’s campaign in the November 1 Jamaica Observer:
Sarah Palin yesterday continued the Republican Party's attack on Barack Obama, accusing the Democratic Party's presidential candidate of harbouring a socialist agenda and a commitment to big government....
Like the other candidates in this election, Palin basically repeated the speech she has been making on the hustings for the past two weeks, attacking Obama's tax plan and calling into question his ability to serve as chief executive....
She repeated the McCain campaign mantra that it was Joe the Plumber (Samuel Joseph Wurzelbacher of suburban Toledo, Ohio who isn't really a plumber) who, by asking Obama a question on the campaign trail, finally got Obama "to state in plain language what his intentions are in all of this".
According to Palin, Joe the Plumber said Obama's answer to his question on taxation sounded like socialism. (1)
Associated Press found McCain doing the same: "In the final weeks, his campaign cast Obama as a socialist and McCain kept talking about "Joe the Plumber," an unlicensed plumber who had challenged Obama about his tax proposals." (2)
Even Wurzelbacher was hitting the campaign trail. After one false start, on November 2 he and McCain began stumping together in Ohio. (3)
There is some evidence that all of this is having some effect. Last month, Obama (campaigning in NC) was confronted by a woman patron screaming at him in a restaurant: "Socialist! Socialist! Socialist! Get out of here!". (Another diner did yell back, "At least he’s not a war-monger!") (4)
Newspapers across America are daily (depending on affiliation) either warning about "Barack Obama’s socialist agenda," or crying, "Enough with the Socialism smear." (5, 6)
As reported (deadpan) by Associated Press on October 31, "Joe the Plumber has hired a publicity team[:] The Press Office in Nashville, where clients include rockers Grand Funk Railroad and Eddie Money." (7)
More importantly, Obama has found it necessary to respond, if only with sarcasm. "'I don't know what's next," Obama, the presidential candidate, said at an outdoor rally in North Carolina. "By the end of the week, [McCain will] be accusing me of being a secret communist because I shared my toys in kindergarten. I shared my peanut butter and jelly sandwich." (8)
Even Gloria LaRiva, candidate of the tiny Party of Socialism and Liberation, has cashed in on the publicitiy, telling the San Francisco Chronicle that in her opinion Obama is "no socialist. Not even close.... And, just for the record, John McCain isn’t a socialist, either." (9)
Bob Barr, the Libertarian Party nominee for President, respectfully disagreed in his third (and last before Election Day) Townhall column, of October 31. It was no surprise that the Barr campaign would seek to capitalize on the issue. Barr had previously tried to involve himself in the Joe the Plumber hype with an embarrassing October 16 press release that began:
'"Joe the Plumber' doesn't need Senators Barack Obama or John McCain," says Bob Barr, the Libertarian Party's nominee for president. "He needs 'Bob the Builder.'" (10)
Thankfully, there was none of that in the Townhall column.
Instead, Barr again turned the focus on the Republican record of the last eight years under the Bush presidency, this time to portray the GOP attacks on Obama as a case of pot and kettle:
Sen. John McCain accuses Sen. Barack Obama of being a "socialist," but it is President George W. Bush, supported by Sen. McCain, who has done the most to socialize the U.S. economy. Courtesy of the Republican Party, the federal government is set to own a sizeable chunk of the housing, auto, banking and insurance industries, as well as pieces of individual companies lining up to sell securities to Washington. Even individual homes, with Uncle Sam preparing to become the mortgage guarantor of last resort, are the targets of nationalization. (11)
Barr then lists, at painstaking length, socialistic measures undertaken or proposed by the Bush administration:
The Republican Party once campaigned against irresponsible federal spending and government red ink. Then George W. Bush became president. With a Republican Congress, he turned a budget surplus into a half trillion dollar deficit, added trillions of dollars in unfunded liabilities with creation of the Medicare drug benefit, and expanded virtually every federal program, domestic as well as foreign.
Only after the Democrats retook control of Congress did President Bush suddenly become concerned about fiscal responsibility. But that lasted only until the subprime mortgage crisis enveloped Washington. Taking its cue from Democratic tax and spend policies of the past, the administration then opened the Treasury doors to all comers.
So far, the Bush administration, Congress, and Federal Reserve have provided more than $2 trillion in bailouts. Congress got the ball rolling, with an assist from the administration, with a $300 billion bailout of the housing industry. The president even agreed to a multi-million dollar taxpayer pay-off to the left-wing activist group ACORN to grease the legislative wheels.
Then Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson abandoned his contrary assurances and nationalized Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac at a cost of $200 billion, though the price could go higher.
Bailouts began sprouting like mushrooms after a heavy rain—$29 billion to cover Bear Stearns, hundreds of billions of dollars from the Federal Reserve to banks and investment banks, as well as to buy mortgage-backed securities, $85 billion to nationalize the big insurer AIG, followed by another $38 billion for AIG and $25 billion more in loans to the auto industry.
Then there was the grand pay-off to Wall Street. Secretary Paulson came up with the wholly arbitrary $700 billion bailout—his aides admitted that he just wanted a really big number. And the administration accepted an extra $150 billion in pork and special tax breaks to win over reluctant congressmen.
Now the $700 billion is being used to buy up the U.S. economy. First, the administration decided to "invest" in big banks, whether they wanted it or not.
Then the administration suggested a new $40 billion homeowners program. The federal government is going to start guaranteeing individual mortgages..
But the administration isn’t finished. On Friday, October 24, the Treasury Department announced that it was going to buy ownership stakes in major insurance companies.
Now the Financial Services Roundtable has asked the Treasury Department to buy into securities dealers, auto manufacturers, and even U.S. subsidiaries of foreign companies.
"What," Barr asked rhetorically, "will be left for the next president to socialize?"
Barr's conclusion:
Is Sen. Obama "socialist?" Yes, he wants to "spread the wealth," as he puts it. But that’s what the Republicans have been doing for the last eight years. We already have "big government," "socialism," or whatever else you want to call it—and it was Republicans who gave it to us.
"If he was elected, Sen. McCain would continue to this drive to bigger and bigger government," Barr points out: "He has proposed that the federal government spend $300 billion to buy every bad mortgage in America.
"But [Barr repeats the point from his previous column] he isn’t going to win.
The real alternative this election is Bob Barr and the Libertarian Party. Only a vote for Bob Barr will tell Washington that there are Americans who don’t want socialism, whether from the Democrats or the Republicans. Only Bob Barr represents real change in Washington.
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Sources
(1) Vernon Davidson, "Palin continues to paint Obama with socialist label," Jamaica Observer, Nov. 1, 2008. http://www.jamaicaobserver.com/news/html/20081031T230000-0500_142014_OBS_ PALIN_CONTINUES_TO_PAINT_OBAMA_WITH_SOCIALIST_LABEL.asp
(6) Joe Garofoli, "Lies, Half-truths and Contradictions: Enough with the Socialism smear," San Francisco Chronicle Politics Blog, Oct. 28, 2008. http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/blogs/sfgate/detail?blogid=14&entry_id=32053
(9) Joe Garofoli, Socialist candidate for prez: Obama is no socialist," San Francisco Chronicle Politics Blog, Nov. 1, 2008. http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/blogs/sfgate/detail?blogid=14&entry_id=32219
(10) David Weigel, "Can we privatize it? Yes, we can!", Reason Hit & Run, Oct. 16, 2008. http://www.reason.com/blog/show/129508.html
(11)All quotations in italics are from: Bob Barr, "Republicans Accuse Democrats of 'Socialism,' but Republican Bailouts-Without-End are as Big Government as it Gets," Townhall, Oct. 27, 2008. http://townhall.com/Columnists/BobBarr/2008/10/27/republicans_accuse_democrats_of_%E2%80%9Csocialism,%E2%80%9D_but_ republican_bailouts-without-end_are_as_big_government_as_it_gets?page=1
The views expressed in this
article are those of George Dance only and do not represent
the views of Nolan Chart, LLC or its affiliates. George Dance is
solely responsible for the contents of this article and is not an
employee or otherwise affiliated with Nolan Chart, LLC in his/her role as a columnist.
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