Bleep the Press

So, I was watching Meet the Press yesterday. Senator McCain was on, and as always, watching him talk for 20 minutes led to a whole lot of eye-rolling and me muttering "yeah, yeah, yeah" to myself, and one loud decoration of "What the fuck!" that scares the cat. Today's WTF moment:

"Well, look, I would be glad to review the Reagan record, but the Reagan record was certainly one that reined in spending."

In response to that, here are some graphs.












As you can see:
1) Raw debt skyrocketed under Ronald Reagan.
2) Debt as a percentage of GDP skyrocketed under Ronald Reagan.
3) The national budget deficit skyrocketed under Ronald Reagan.
4) Federal spending has been on a consistent, unfettered rise since 1970.

And thus we come to the inevitable conclusion that on at least (at least) one issue, John McCain is full of crap.

McCain's performance yesterday didn't do anything to contradict the claims that his behavior is "erratic." Brokaw came at him out of the gate with talk about his trailing poll numbers, which put him immediately on the defensive. He started talking about how he doesn't agree with the polls, but how if he did, he still has Zogby on his side saying that he's only three points down (counting on the fact that no one has noticed that throughout this election cycle, Zogby has consistently been the least accurate and a persistent outlier from every other polling service). After that, he devolved into nongrammatical, nonsensical sentences that started on one topic and ended on something not at all related, sputtering talking point buzzwords at random and trying to piece them together as well as he could.

So, you know, I'm sure we don't want to spend the morning arguing about polls that are accurate or inaccurate, but I will stand before the American people with my view that, that I think that we don't, we cannot fine small business people and their, you know, or their employ--small business people who have employees without health insurance, that he's going to fine them if they don't have, have the insurance policy that they want, that Senator Obama wants them to have.

On the economy, look, we just, we just figured it out with "Joe the Plumber." Americans just figured it out. He wants to spread the wealth around. And every time there's a poll, there's a different tax plan. There's a different tax plan for America. He's the guy that Senator Obama voted to--for a Democrat budget resolution with will impose taxes on individuals making $42,000 a year.

The last time a president of the United States that did that was a guy named Herbert Hoover, protectionism and raising taxes.

That's what--listen, even the flat tax people somewhat pay more. Even--you put into different, different categories of wealthier people paying, paying higher taxes into different brackets. I mean, and the, and these are different times, my friend. These are times of the biggest financial crisis we've faced in America.

So, so let me just tell you again, I also said, when I opposed the Bush tax cuts, said--that is left out of this equation, I said I've got to--we've got to get spending under control.

That's, that's what, that's what our fundamental belief--the reason why we have governments. In times of crisis, we go in and we try and help the people, especially in this situation where they're the, the victim of a drive-by shooting by excess, greed and corruption in Washington and Wall Street. And again, I and others said we have to have legislation to rein it in. Senator Obama didn't lift a finger.

Well, in simplest terms, if their neighbor next door throws the keys in the living room floor and leaves, then the value of their home is going to dramatically decrease as well.

Michigan, as I understand it, is second--one of two states in America that has a declining population because businesses are fleeing the state. So the worst thing we can do is increase taxes. And Senator Obama wants to do that, and now it's $200,000. I guess last week it was $250,000. It changes with ever--whatever the polling data tells him and his advisers.

Senator Obama wants to "spread the wealth around," "fairness." And that, that is the most liberal economic position that I've seen in the United States of America. Just a fact.

Her husband is a--works the third shift on a oil--in--facilities on the North Slope. He's a--they, they have a--she has executive experience and has given back money to the taxpayers.

Look, she [Gov. Palin] lives a frugal life. She and her family are not wealthy.