Report from this afternoon's McCain campaign teleconference

Once again I had the pleasure of listening in on a John McCain campaign teleconference. Unlike the last one, I didn't get to ask a question, but I really enjoy these events.

The subject was Obama's record of higher taxes. Taking part was Carly Fiorina, former CEO of Hewlett-Packard, John Taylor, the Mary and Robert Raymond Professor of Economics at Stanford University, and Doug Holtz-Eakin, McCain 2008 senior policy adviser. The latter is a real workhorse for the campaign, not only is Holz-Eakin a regular in these teleconfernces, just a few minutes after this one ended--he was interviewed by the Fox News Channel's Neil Cavuto.

I've included excerpts from each presenter.

Fiorina spoke first:

I think today's op-ed (My note: here it is) from the Obama campaign is yet another example of the stark difference between the reality of Obama's record and his rhetoric. And it is also an example of Obama's shifting rhetoric over time.

Let me begin with a couple big-picture points. The reality of Barack Obama's record is the following: He has voted to raise taxes 94 times in his short time as a senator. Most recently, he has voted to raise taxes on people making as little as $42,000 a year. And when he voted in favor of that budget resolution, he indicated that he thought it was a great step in getting our priorities back in the right place.

The reality of his record is also that, in his short time in the U.S. Senate, he has asked for almost a billion dollars in earmarks. That equates to roughly a million dollars for every day he has served in office.

And finally, he has proposed almost a trillion dollars in new spending programs -- $863 billion of new spending programs to be precise, spending programs that range everywhere from free mandatory preschool education for every child in America to government-mandated health care. So, the reality of Barack Obama's record is that he is for both higher taxes and much higher spending.

Then Taylor:

This is a global economy we're in. You need to take into account the fact that other countries have lower taxes, and if we don't do the kind of things John McCain is proposing, it's going to hurt the economy, especially if we go in the direction of what Senator Obama is proposing.

Finally, I'd just like to mention on the international trade part, which Carly mentioned, which is so important right now. In the Second Quarter, the only reason we had growth at all was because of strong export performance. So to turn your back on international trade, to question trade agreements at any time is exactly in the wrong direction. It's the most important stimulus we have now, far more important than any new stimulus proposals that are coming out.

Holz-Eakin spoke last:

I think Carly has given a very succinct summary of the character of the record, the continual shifting on the position of taxes. This is not new for this particular area. This is a candidate who said he would take public financing and join John McCain in that effort. This is a candidate who promised to join John McCain in the town halls, face the American people, listen to their concerns, take their questions and debate on the issues and has refused to do so. This is a candidate who ensured his followers that he would filibuster the FISA bill and in the end simply supported it. And this is a candidate who has simply chosen positions of political expediency on the issues that affect jobs, the single most important American concern today, positions of political expediency on NAFTA which affect our trading partners, on taxes, on every aspect of his policies.

Today's op-ed by Austin Goolsbee and Jason Furman (My note: authors of the Wall Street Journal article) is simply not to be taken seriously. It's simply the next iteration of positioning for political purposes and quite frankly it is not surprising that he would not want to reveal the agenda that his record suggests is the accurate agenda. An agenda that John Taylor said is damaging to the American economy and that is an agenda that is unpopular with the American people.

If you recognize Goolsbee's name, it's because he's the man (although he denies it) who visited the Canadian Consulate in Chicago, and told the consul general that the Canadian government shouldn't worry about his boss' anti-NAFTA rants--which were liberally spewed during the run-up to the Ohio Democratic Primary. Hillary Clinton won Ohio.

Goolsbee is a University of Chicago economics professor.

Milton Friedman, why did you leave us?

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