The Hiller Instinct: Politics and the economy

Fear not, said John McCain and Barack Obama. They promise to save our savings and keep their campaign promises.

Forgive me, but I'm not convinced. 

Cue the video of the soup lines, because everybody says this is the greatest threat to our economy since the Great Depression and that's not all it's being compared to:

"We are in the most serious crisis since World War II," John McCain said on the Today Show.

The financial crisis is creating a political crisis for McCain, who's been slipping in the polls. Perhaps because, in the past, he was against regulation, but now he wants more of it.

"When we're talking about a trillion dollars of taxpayer money, "trust me" just isn't good enough," McCain said.

But McCain thinks it's good enough when he says we should trust him not to raise taxes no matter how much the bail out costs:

"I am opposed to new taxes," he said.

Like McCain, Barack Obama supports a government bailout.

Obama also says--if elected--he will still expand health insurance, decrease the cost of college and cut taxes for the middle class. Today he explained how he'll do it:

"As President, I will go through the entire federal budget, page by page, line by line, and I will eliminate the programs that don't work and aren't needed." But whatever's happening on Wall Street, it's not serious enough to make the two candidates cooperate. Instead, today, they both released attack ads:

Obama's ad says- "McCain just published an article praising Wall Street deregulation... John McCain. A risk we just can't afford to take" McCain's ad says- "His money man, Tony Rezko. Client. Patron. Convicted felon. With friends like that, Obama is not ready to lead."

Attack ads are easy. What we need are answers to some hard questions, like:

Why should Washington--and we--just bail-out the banks' bad loans? Why don't we get the good ones, too?

And, as we all wait for the Federal Government to rescue us, what has it saved before to make us believe it can do it?

I'm Andy Hiller and that's my instinct.

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