The economic advisers
Posted by Wen Stephenson on Wednesday, October 8, 2008
A heads-up to listeners — as part of our series on the issues of 2008, we’ll be joined in our first hour tomorrow (Thursday) by the top economic advisers to McCain and Obama. Douglas Holtz-Eakin, who served as chief economist on George W. Bush’s Council of Economic Advisers in 2001-02 and as director of the Congressional Budget Office from ‘03 to ‘05, is policy director for McCain. And Austan Goolsbee, an economist at The University of Chicago and the Progressive Policy Institute, is adviser to Obama.
That’s tomorrow, Thursday, at 10am Eastern. Let us know your questions here — and be sure to join the conversation tomorrow.
UPDATE: We’ve now posted the page for this show, so you can post your questions/comments there. Many thanks.
As a foreign business student graduating very soon, I was wondering how the financial crisis and its consequences will influence US policies regarding the H1B visa. As of now, there is a huge gap between demand for foreign professionals and the annual quota allotted, which hurts American businesses and the economy as a whole.Will a McCain or Obama Administration use the economic downturn as an excuse to tighten the quota even more or will they defy public opinion and address the problem in a logical and fair way?
Posted by Tatiana Pereira, on October 8th, 2008 at 1:33 pm EDTSenator McCain seems to have a loose collection of economic ideas: make Bush’s tax cuts for wealthy Americans permanent and at the same time buy up sub-prime mortgages so people can retain ownership of their houses.
The mortgage buyout smells like the gas tax cut during the primaries, something tossed out at the last minute to get votes. It doesn’t seem to mesh with his trickle down tax cutting ideas and this makes it seem opportunistic.
Since he’s cutting taxes and the pork he plans to cut amounts to a small percentage of the national budget, where will the money come from to do all of these things?
Is there some overarching theme in McCain’s economic thinking?
Posted by Richard, on October 9th, 2008 at 8:29 am EDTCould your guests please talk to the wisdom or lack thereof of investing Social Security dollars in the stock market?
Posted by William Lauf, on October 9th, 2008 at 9:26 am EDTI would like to know why a real substantial raise of the minimum wage has not been a strong bargaining tool for the bail out and is still not talked about as a way to help “main street”. It is clear to me that such a raise would help everybody.
Posted by Mireille Lang, on October 9th, 2008 at 10:47 am EDTMy second point is that the common republican wisdom is that you have to cut taxes on small businesses because they create jobs and are a vital part of the economy. But aren’t they the purveyors of most minimun or low wages/no benefits jobs?
In regards to the McCain plan to have people go out to buy their own healthcare plans…
I do not have the time to shop for a long distance plan, let alone a healthcare plan. I think the Medicare restructuring has show how incredibly complicated choosing your own plan can be.
Posted by Brian, on October 9th, 2008 at 10:48 am EDTWe welcome comments from all of our listeners.
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