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StumbleuponMcCain's economic fix: Lower taxes, retool auto industry
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Thursday, August 28, 2008
John McCain supporters participate in a 'Road to the Convention' sign-making party on the floor at the Nutter Center on the Wright State University campus. McCain is scheduled to speak in the Nutter Center on Friday, Aug. 29.DAYTON — Sen. John McCain believes he has the key to repairing Ohio's battered economy: energy independence, a retooled automotive industry, continuing free trade policies and lower taxes.
"We will get our economy going again and the best way to do that is through job creation," McCain said on Wednesday, Aug. 27, during an interview with the Dayton Daily News.
"I think the worst thing you can do is raise taxes in a poor economy and Sen. Obama wants to raise taxes. I want to keep them low," said McCain, the presumptive Republican presidential nominee.
But McCain's tax cuts won't benefit everybody, said Reggie Johnson, spokesman for Barack Obama, who will accept the Democratic Party nomination in Denver tonight.
"Sen. McCain wants to give $4 billion in tax breaks to oil companies," Johnson said. "Sen. Obama won't raise taxes on Americans making less than $250,000 a year."
Ohio has lost 214,700 non-agricultural jobs since 2000, according to the state's Labor Market Review. Free trade, federal tax cuts and aggressive use of tax breaks by state and local government to entice and retain businesses haven't staved off those job losses.
But McCain said further tax cuts, along with free trade, will produce job gains.
"I want to cut business taxes so they'll stay in the United States and create additional jobs," McCain said. "If there is any good news about our economy (it) is our increase in exports. I think it's very important that we have open markets around the world."
McCain said he knows people are hurting in Ohio, Pennsylvania and Michigan — the "heartland of America."
"We have seen manufacturing jobs flee," McCain said. "We have people who are sitting around the kitchen table figuring out how they're going to afford their health care and educate their kids, and many of whom have recently and suddenly lost a job."
McCain said his plan would help people refinance homes at risk of foreclosure and he would double the tax exemption for children. Those who've lost their jobs need better retraining opportunities because "the present ones were designed for the 1950s," McCain said.
Sinclair Community College spokeswoman Madeline Iseli took issue with that remark.
"If we weren't preparing them for jobs that are here right now we wouldn't have an enrollment of 24,000 students. We wouldn't exist," said Iseli. "The market demands that we prepare people for the jobs that exist and will exist."
McCain said retooling the auto industry to make hybrid and electric cars would create "millions" of jobs and he wants to create another 700,000 by building 45 new nuclear power plants by 2030.
"I believe we can resurrect the automotive industry through high tech, hybrids, electric cars, etc.," McCain said. "We've got to get our transportation system, our automobiles off of gasoline as much as possible because we're sending $700 billion a year overseas to countries that don't like us."
