Do not vote for John McCain- Part 1 of Election Series

In Part 1 of this election discussion I will go over why you should not vote for John McCain. If you know John McCain’s complete platform and agree with over 75% of it then this article will not sway you. If however you are like most people I run into who intend to vote McCain you have no idea where you candidate stands and just repeat the talking points without any real evidence to stand on. This article is for the people who are unsure and need some data to help them out.

Economy

One of the first and biggest parts of American politics is the voter’s pocket book. John McCain likes to say that he will offer tax cuts across the board and in fact, he will. Here are the side-by-side proposals

The top 1% of the country receives healthy tax breaks while 60% of the country gets meager tax benefits. Moving further, The Tax Policy Center reviewed both candidates’ proposals and concluded “…Senator McCain’s proposals lose $600 billion.” For a country that is already bears a very large deficit this is not good news for our economy.

Energy

McCain’s energy past is abysmal. He has missed many of the past crucial votes on energy legislation in the Senate. He could have had the crucial vote in many bills these past 2 years and has been absent, one time staying in his Senate office as one of the votes was being cast. In an era where energy is becoming a greater issue in the minds of Americans, McCain has been horrifyingly absent.

Foreign Policy

Another large question in this year’s election is what to do in Iraq. McCain buys into the idea that Iraq is the place to fight and is happy to poor more of our countries dwindling resources into a nation that has $6.4 billion oil surplus. All of this while there are larger fights to be had with terrorist organizations in countries such as Afghanistan and Pakistan.

Healthcare

Healthcare

There are many different sides to this issue. Democrats believe in a universal healthcare, a plan that has taken hold in many other countries across the globe. While the effectiveness of these plans is hit or miss depending on which country, John McCain’s plan of privatizing health care is a step in the wrong direction:

More than 30 states already have programs almost exactly like the one McCain just sketched out. They are called "high risk pools," and the idea is pretty straightforward: Private insurers agree to sell policies directly to individuals, even those with pre-existing medical conditions, as long as the state helps to subsidize the cost.

But the whole reason conservatives like McCain prefer this approach to liberal schemes for universal coverage is that it involves minimal government regulation. As a result, private insurers have enormous leeway in dictating the terms of coverage. And one place they use that leeway is by setting high prices. A few years ago, a Commonwealth Fund study found that, on average, state high-risk pools offered coverage that was two-thirds more expensive than regularly priced coverage. In some states, the high-risk coverage was actually twice as high as regular coverage. (linkage)

At those prices, you might think the coverage was spectacular. Not so. While private insurers in high-risk pools are willing to accept people with pre-existing conditions, they're not generally willing to cover expenses related to those pre-existing conditions--at least not right away. Nearly all the plans surveyed had waiting periods of between six months and a year, during which the insurers would not cover care for prior medical problems. (linkage)

Closing words

I used to love John McCain. During the 2000 election, I had hoped he would win the nomination, as I liked him even over Al Gore. He was a man who had no problem standing up to his party and was truly the Maverick he tries to pretend he is today. That John McCain is not the John McCain of this election. I could talk a bit about this topic but the Daily Show puts it perfectly and I will end with a video segment aired on the show a couples of days ago: linkage

::GR Out::

john mccain calls himself a maverick, but he votes with george bush 95% of the time. that’s not a maverick. that’s a sidekick.-- senator bob casey