Flashes and Thunder

Let no one say I’m not equal opportunity: After a previous post on Jewish scholars endorsing Barack Obama for president, I’m posting the following item (found here), regarding an endorsement of John McCain’s economic plan by a group of economists and academics convinced that his plan is (and I quote) “a comprehensive, pro-growth, reform agenda.”

His plan would control government spending by vetoing every bill with earmarks, implementing a constitutionally valid line-item veto, pausing non-military discretionary government spending programs for one year to stop their explosive growth and place accountability on federal government agencies.

His plan would keep taxes from rising, because higher tax rates are exactly the wrong policy to restore economic growth, especially at this time.

His plan would reduce tax rates by cutting the tax that corporations pay to 25 percent in line with other countries, by completely phasing out the alternative minimum tax, by increasing the exemption for dependents, by permitting the first-year expensing of new equipment and technology, and by making permanent a reformed tax credit for R&D.

His plan would also create a new and much simpler tax system and give Americans a free choice of whether to pay taxes under that simple system or the current complex and burdensome income tax.

His plan would open new markets for American goods and services and thereby create additional jobs for Americans by supporting good free trade agreements, such as the one with Colombia, and working with leaders around the world to avoid isolationism and protectionism. His plan would also reform education, retraining, and other assistance programs so they better help those displaced by trade and other changes in the economy. His plan addresses problems in the financial markets and housing markets by calling for increased transparency and accountability, by targeted assistance to deserving homeowners to refinance their mortgages, and by opposing so-called reform plans which would raise the costs of home-ownership in the future.

The above actions, as well as plans to address entitlement programs – especially Social Security, Medicare and other government health care programs – and his regulatory reforms – especially in the area of health care – constitute a broad and powerful economic agenda. Because of John McCain’s experience working with the American people in all walks of life, with members of Congress on both sides of the aisle, and with leaders around the world, we are optimistic that these plans will become a reality and will create jobs and restore confidence and strong economic growth.

Ohio economists signing this particular document include Charles Upton and Michael Ellis of Kent State University; Joseph Zoric, Franciscan University of Steubenville; Paul Evans, Claudio Gonzalez-Vega, Douglas Southgate and Douglas H. Graham of Ohio State University; Douglas K. Adie and Lowell Gallaway of Ohio University; Timothy S. Fuerst of Bowling Green State University and Dave Garthoff of THE University of Akron.

What I learned? If you’re an Ohio economist working at a large public university, and your name is Doug, you support John McCain’s policies.

This entry was posted on Thursday, October 30th, 2008 at 3:17 pm and is filed under Akron U, Collaboration, Freedom of Speech, Higher Ed, Kent State, Ohio, Quotes, THE Ohio State University, money, writing. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.