Public Please

I recently read Jennifer Ablan’s article, “At Reuters Summit, McCain seen as best choice for economy“, that reported that some people on Wall Street think McCain would be better for our economy than Obama because of his tax policies.

Here’s the comment that I posted in response to this perspective with respect to McCain’s war policies:

When we talk about McCain’s potential impact on the economy, we need to include some common sense, Main Street perspectives and not only the prognostications of entrenched Wall Street insiders. I don’t really support any of the presidential candidates, but it seems like McCain’s steadfast financial support of the war has really increased the national debt. We have spent over 528 billion dollars on the Iraq war so far - that’s over 528,000 million dollars. So I think it’s very hard to make the case that McCain’s policy of military spending is good for our economy. War is very, very expensive, and what we purchase are not capital investments or new markets, but more guns, blood, and enemies.

Before we decide on whether McCain or Obama is better for the economy, we should answer the following questions with respect to military spending:

What fraction of the national budget goes to military spending, is this an appropriate fraction, and how have the presidential candidates voted with respect to military spending?

Which presidential candidate is most likely to increase military spending?

Which presidential candidate is most likely to decrease military spending?

Which bills did McCain vote for to finance the Iraq War?

Which bills did Obama vote for to finance the Iraq War?

Did other presidential candidates, such as Dennis Kucinich, Ron Paul, Mike Gravel vote for any bills that financed the Iraq War?

And of course, we need to ask questions about other kinds of spending as well. How will the candidates spend money on transportation infrastructure, health care, the environment, and energy? To improve our economy, we not only need to stop spending money on services we do not need, but we also need to start spending money on services we do need. With respect to national security, we need to seriously reflect on whether our military spending is increasing our security or decreasing it. I am not convinced that the Iraq war has improved our national security. We must ask ourselves, was it worth it? We must ask ourselves, did the Iraq War really improve our economy, our quality of life, and our moral standing? And, we must ask ourselves, which politicians voted to go to war, voted to stay at war, and voted to forget the war?

With all of this in mind, it seems as though we must reform our initial question. The deeper question is:

Is there a viable presidential candidate who is for our economy?