Here's a brief, but illuminating, timeline of recent events in the economic crisis:

Friday, October 3:
-Congress passes the vague $700 billion dollar bailout package which will somehow save the economy by "injecting the money into the system."

Wednesday, October 8:

-Britain announces its plan to partially nationalize its banks, on a temporary basis, and to flood the system with billions of dollars, and guarantee inter-bank loans.

Saturday, October 11:

-Lindsey Graham, McCain's friend and advisor, tells Politico.com that McCain formulating an economic plan, and is looking into cutting taxes on investors' capitol gains and dividends : "It will be a very comprehensive approach to jump-start the economy, by allowing capital to be formed easier in America by lowering taxes."  Graham indicated that McCain would release the new economic plan on Monday.

Sunday, October 12:

-Fifteen major European leaders meet and agree to follow Britain's plan...they will immediately start investing over a trillion dollars to partially nationalize their banks, and at the same time shore up lending between banks by guaranteeing the loans.

-The McCain campaign announces they ARE NOT going to be releasing an economic plan Monday, nor do they have any plans to do so: "We do not have any immediate plans to announce any policy proposals outside of the proposals that John McCain has announced, and the certain proposals that would result as economic news continues to come our way," said Tucker Bounds, McCain spokesperson. McCain's policy adviser, Douglas Holtz-Eakin, stated "I have no comment on anything, to anybody."

Monday, October 13:

-Obama releases his economic plan.  It includes, among other things, a 90-day moratorium on home foreclosures and a two-year tax break for businesses that create new jobs.  The plan also includes allowing people to withdraw up to $10,000 from their retirement accounts without penalty for the next year, raising taxes only on the 5 percent of people who make more than $250,000 a year, and tax cuts for those making less than $200,000 a year. The plan endorses the $700 billion Wall Street bailout plan and the recent, added measure of partially nationalizing the major banks.  It also calls for tax breaks for most families, cutting capital gains taxes for investment in small business and extending unemployment benefits.

-Following the announcement of Obama's plan, the McCain campaign announced that it has a new economic plan...which will be released Tuesday, October 14th.

Tuesday, October 14th:

-Secretary of the Treasury Paulson announces the administration's plan...which now essentially mirrors Britain's plan.  The government will buy "preferred shares in qualifying financial institutions, with stakes in each institution limited to $25 billion or 3 percent of risk-weighted assets. It set a Nov. 14 deadline for banks to apply for government purchases."  The nine banks that have been selected would have to accept part-ownership by the government to qualify.  The Federal Reserve announced that it will begin buying massive amounts of short-term debt starting on October 27.

As of this writing, the McCain plan has not been announced...but we should, if memory serves, know exactly what to expect:
-It will contain everything in the British plan.
-It will contain everything in the Administration's plan.
-It will contain everything in Obama's plan.
-It will claim that all the ideas from the aforementioned plans...are McCain's ideas.
-It will attempt ruin the ideas from the aforementioned plans by subtle twists of language, guaranteeing that the banks profit off the bailout.

McCain was often criticized this past week for his announcement that in HIS plan to buy up the high-risk mortgages (you know...the plan that was initially Obama's...already included in the bailout provisions) the Treasury would buy them at FACE VALUE from the lenders and in return, give the homeowners low-interest mortgages based on their homes' REDUCED VALUE.   In short:  the lenders lose NOTHING (even profit by it) and you get a lot less for your house.

Even House Republican leader, Representative Roy Blunt (R-MO), said that the McCain mortgage proposal was unnecessary, in part because Obama already made sure it was included:  "essentially in several pieces of law already,"  and also because it doesn't make sense the way McCain has twisted it: "Somebody needs to take the loss here, and it needs to be the person that had the bad judgment of making that loan, of buying those poorly put-together mortgage-backed securities. It shouldn't be loss borne by the taxpayer."

Bruce Bartlett (former economic advisor for Bush, Sr. and Reagan) had this to say:  "At this point I don't think McCain can say anything on the economy that will sound credible."

But you don't have to take it from Bartlett...take it from McCain:



UPDATE 12:01 PM - The McCain camp has delivered their economic plan.  According to the Associated Press:

"The Arizona senator called for trimming taxes on older Americans dipping into their retirement accounts, and for suspending tax rules he said "force seniors to sell their stocks in the midst of this financial crisis."  He said he would accelerate a tax write-off for those forced to sell at a loss in the current market conditions, and reduce capital gains taxes for 2009 and 2010 "to raise the incentive to save and invest," according to a statement outlining the proposals.  Older Americans "have seen the financial markets undertake a daily assault on their life savings in recent weeks," the statement said. "Families are being forced to sell at a loss to meet their bills."  McCain said withdrawals from retirement accounts -- IRAs and 401(k)s -- should be taxed at the lowest rate, ten percent, this year and next, for the first 50,000 dollars withdrawn from such accounts each year.  The Republican further proposed reducing the maximum tax rate on long term capital gains to 7.5 percent in 2009 and 2010, so as not to penalize Americans forced to sell stocks in current conditions."

And the Obama campaign's response:

"John McCain's latest gambit is a day late and 101 million middle-class families short. McCain's plan would spend $300 billion to bailout the same irresponsible Wall Street banks that got us into this mess without doing anything to help jumpstart job growth for America's middle class. His plan continues to provide no tax relief at all to 101 million hardworking families, including 97 percent of senior citizens, and it does nothing to cut taxes for small businesses or give them access to credit. Senator McCain also shows how little he understands the economy by offering lower capital gains rates in a year in which people don't have an awful lot of capital gains. His trickle-down, ideological recipes won't strengthen our economy and grow our middle-class, but Barack Obama's pro-jobs, pro-family economic policies will."