McCain or Obama: Who Will End the Financial Crisis?

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By Dr. Merrill Matthews, resident scholar with the Institute for Policy Innovation

There are at least three necessary ingredients for jumpstarting a faltering economy. John McCain embraces all three; Barack Obama shuns them. It's just that simple.

Free Trade -- Economist Milton Friedman once said that of all the pro-growth policies a government should adopt, free trade is the most important. Former Federal Reserve Bank Chairman Alan Greenspan has said that taxing trade between countries makes no more economic sense than taxing trade between states.

McCain aggressively pushes free trade agreements. Obama, especially since pandering to the union vote in the Ohio and Pennsylvania primaries, talks like a protectionist and even opposes the Colombia Free Trade Agreement.

Low, simplified taxes --  McCain maintains the current tax rates on income, capital gains and dividends and cuts the corporate tax rate. Obama proposes numerous "tax cuts," many of which are nothing more than income transfers to people who don’t pay taxes. He would complicate the tax code and, because he's targeting the cuts, he gets to pick the economic winners and losers.

Reduced government spending and regulations -- According to the National Taxpayers Union Foundation, during the first session of the 110th Congress:

*  McCain sponsored or cosponsored 22 bills, which would have increased federal spending by $8 billion annually.

* Obama sponsored or cosponsored 114 bills, increasing federal spending $75 billion annually.

That's a little more than $9 of government spending for Obama for every $1 for McCain.

While McCain has also suggested some troubling programs (like buying up home mortgages), his basic economic plan would be the best "economic stimulus package" the country could get.