Day By Day

Wednesday, October 08, 2008

The Debate -- Disappointing!

So let’s get this straight….

Obama wants the government to pay for everyone’s health care, and McCain wants to buy everyone a home. Where is the money coming from? We are already facing a debt crisis. These are irresponsible, even dangerous, positions.

Both men waste time denouncing corruption and greed – earmarks and CEO compensation. These are easy targets, but are also really small potatoes and don’t help address the current double crisis of debt and credit. We are either going to raise taxes a lot or increase the national debt a lot – neither will admit that, but it’s reality. As a reader wrote to Instapundit:

"Tonight, Senator Obama said $18 billion in earmarks between 535 Congressional ne’er-do-wells isn’t that big a deal, but if we can only keep 500 CEOs from getting $350 million in tax breaks, well, that’s how we fix problems!"

Read it here

Both talk about shared sacrifice. Usually this means higher taxes, but both of them also talk about national service and reducing political squabbling. That’s a bit too authoritarian [perhaps even fascist] for my taste.

Neither man, to my mind, is close to being acceptable as President of the United States, but they are all we have. Both are acting completely irresponsibly and advancing dangerous initiatives. Given a choice between two really bad candidates I will go for the old, white-haired, wrinkly guy who will probably only last one term, giving us a chance to reboot after four years.