McCain, Obama Advisers See Balanced Budget

(CBS)  Former treasury secretary Robert Rubin, who is advising Barack Obama, and former Hewlett-Packard head Carly Fiorina, who is advising John McCain, said on Face The Nation Sunday that a balanced budget is foreseeable despite a federal deficit that has ballooned to more than $400 billion.

"We could have had surpluses during this decade," said Rubin. "We started the decade with surpluses and we had good federal revenues. But instead, because of the fiscal policies put in place, we had deficits through all this period.

"What Senator Obama has said is that he is committed to restoring sound, long-term fiscal conditions," Rubin continued. "I think that's essential if we're going to have a good and strong economy. He said he'll pay for everything he's going to do with respect to Social Security and Medicare."

Rubin said "we could absolutely get back" to a balanced budget.

Fiorina said McCain would balance the budget by 2013 by growing the economy and getting government spending under control.

"John McCain has never asked for an earmark," Fiorina said. "He has promised he would veto every bill [that has them]. Barack Obama has voted for bills that are laden with pork, whether it's the 2005 Bush-Cheney energy bill, the 2008 agricultural subsidy bill. Both of those John McCain voted against because they were laden with pork. Both of those Barack Obama voted for."

[According to Craig Holman of government watchdog group Public Citizen, who is quoted in this USA Today article, McCain "delivered" on a $14.3 million earmark for SunCor Development in 2003.]

Asked about McCain's comment that "there is nothing that's off the table" when asked about an increase in payroll taxes last week, Fiorina said the Arizona senator does not support raising payroll taxes despite the comment.

"John McCain has been very explicit in saying he does not support an increase in payroll taxes, particularly because they impact small businesses and sole proprietorships more greatly than any other part of our economy," she said. "His record is very clear on that, and he has a number of economists who support his assertion, that we can solve the Social Security and Medicare crisis - but particularly Social Security - without raising payroll taxes."

Both Rubin and Fiorina, top economic advisors to their respective candidates, said economic conditions could deteriorate further.

"I think that the current difficulties, the current duress, I think the most likely scenario with respect to all of that is that it will likely to continue for quite some period of time, could get a little bit worse," Rubin said. "There's always some chance that matters could get better more rapidly, but I think that's very low probability. And there's some chance (and hopefully it's a low probability) that things could get considerably worse."

"I certainly agree with him that the situation could get worse," said Fiorina. "And there are a couple of things that will make it worse. One is to raise taxes, which is what Senator Obama proposes to do. Another is to massively increase government spending, which is what Senator Obama would propose to do, over $1.5 trillion in increased government spending. And the third is to become isolationist and protectionist, which Senator Obama would also propose to do."

Rubin denied that Obama intended to raise taxes.

"What Senator Obama said is that he'll have a middle-class tax cut, and that tax cut will go to roughly 95 percent of all the people whose incomes are under $250,000," he said. "For people whose incomes are in excess of $250,000, their income tax rates will go back to the rates we had under President Clinton. Their capital gains rate will go up to some rate less than the rate we had during most of the time President Clinton was in office. Taxes on dividends will go up to the rate that will apply to capital gains, and that will be substantially below the rate that was in place when President Clinton was elected."

He also said Obama has not changed his mind on expanding offshore drilling, which Obama now says he would consider under very controlled circumstances despite opposing it in the past.

"What he said with respect to offshore drilling is it's going to have no effect in the short term, zero; that it's going to take years for this to come on board," said Rubin. "On the other hand, you're referring to the proposal that came up Friday, in which offshore drilling was a piece of a much larger piece of legislation.

"What he basically said, as I understand it - and I think this is right - is that there's a lot in there that he thinks could be constructive," he added. "And if it means doing something that he has a lot of reservations about in order to accomplish something much larger that's constructive, then that's the way a legislative process should work, in a democracy."

---

Read the full "Face the Nation" transcript here.

[mcvet-1]

When those 75 million people retire and get nothing, they can address their hate mail to Franklin D. Roosevelt - a lot of good it will do them!

Posted by liberty_1776 at 04:34 PM : Aug 03, 2008

LOL Are you living in some sort of space warp? I do hate trying to talk with people who have nothing more than MAYBE a 6th grade education! THE point was a simple one and it was that MILLIONS of AMERICAN''S have benefited GREATLY from Social Security. This poor fool doesn''t address the reality that Social Security has prevented MILLIONS of AMERICAN''S from being a burden on their families and allowed them to grow old with some dignity. He instead try''s to imply that we are going to allow Boomers to go without benefits because of the mismanagement of the Bush Administration. The System is broken, Social Security is as needed today as it was in years gone by. What is broken is our Leaders who refuse to make the tough decisions necessary to make the programs commitments a reality! Now PLEASE go back to school and for goodness sake give up the love for Joe McCarthy...it''s old, it''s tired and it has NO relation to present day America. Sieg Heil Joe

[mcvet-1]

So who do we agree with here? The great Rubin or the LOSER Dr. Phil?? ROFLMAO Sieg Heil McBush!!

Posted by MCVet-1 at 04:16 PM : Aug 03, 2008

Rubin gave us Subprime just as much as Gramm did, then after he went to Citi, to fukkk them up too.

Posted by Marshall_Nee at 04:40 PM : Aug 03, 2008

You didn''t answer the question! I''ve often wondered how people have fallen for this stuff for so long! It play''s to the UNEDUCATED and the simple minded. The Question was who do we trust more on the Economy, Rubin, who presented Congress the LAST Balanced Budget we had and handed the Republican''s a Balanced Budget and Surplus in 2000 or A man who thinks the entire economic mess is in your mind! THAT was the question!

[pattysnow]

John McCain is in serious need of a new surrogate. Carly Fiorina doesn''t know how to answer simple questions and wasted her interview on Obama attacks. Her sarcastic tone didn''t help either. Meanwhile Rubin managed to be quite informative without a mere mention of McCain. Maybe being ousted from HP left Ms. Fiorina''s edges a wee bit sharp...

[mart7lin]

Correction: All Carly Fiorini talked abocut was Obama...did answer question about what McCain would do on the issues.

[mart7lin]

On Face the Nation Today, Carly Fiorni did not answer ANY question he asked. All she talked about was John McCain. I just kept waiting for him to redirect her to the question at hand. On the other hand, Mr. Rubin answered the questions in detail. The McCain camp is in over their heads and the pundits, like Mr. Schieffer, are giving them a pass.

[zerato-2009]

According to Craig Holman of government watchdog group Public Citizen, who is quoted in this USA Today article, McCain "delivered" on a $14.3 million earmark for SunCor Development in 2003. Mccain has said he has never used an earmark. I guess he lied

Mccain said "This is a election on who you can trust." Mccain a repub you can''t trust

[allurfears]

Cindy McCain could help. That $75,000 a month Cindy spends on credit cards could go to something useful like the national debt that McBush has raised to $10 TRILLION dollars.

[marshall_nee]

So who do we agree with here? The great Rubin or the LOSER Dr. Phil?? ROFLMAO Sieg Heil McBush!!

Posted by MCVet-1 at 04:16 PM : Aug 03, 2008

Rubin gave us Subprime just as much as Gramm did, then after he went to Citi, to fukkk them up too.

[liberty_1776]

When those 75 million people retire and get nothing, they can address their hate mail to Franklin D. Roosevelt - a lot of good it will do them!

[liberty_1776]

MCVet-1:

"I wonder how many MILLION American''''s would NOT agree with you on that?"

Answer: About 75 million Baby Boomers (Americans born between 1946 and 1964) when they retire with no Social Security benefits.

Also, FDR was a typical Anti-American socialist:

"In the 1930s, the Supreme Court struck down many pieces of Roosevelt''s New Deal legislation, including the Railroad Retirement Act. In May, the Court threw out a centerpiece of the New Deal, the National Industrial Recovery Act, the Agricultural Adjustment Act, and New York State''s minimum-wage law. President Roosevelt responded with an attempt to pack the court via the Judiciary Reorganization Bill of 1937. On 5 February 1937, he sent a special message to Congress proposing legislation granting the President new powers to add additional judges to all federal courts whenever there were sitting judges age 70 or older who refused to retire.[27] The practical effect of this proposal was that the President would get to appoint six new Justices to the Supreme Court (and 44 judges to lower federal courts), thus instantly tipping the political balance on the Court dramatically in his favor. The debate on this proposal was heated and widespread, and lasted over six months. Beginning with a set of decisions in March, April, and May, 1937 (including the Social Security Act cases), the Court would sustain a series of New Deal legislation."

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Social_Security_(United_States)