the tindog coffeehouse

According to financial disclosure statements filed by the two presumed presidential candidates, Barack Obama earned about $4 million dollars last year (mostly book royalties) while carrying no credit card debt. John McCain, meanwhile, earned about $340,000 but has a joint American Express account with a balance of $10,000-$15,000 with an interest rate of 25.99%.

Of course, you’re asking the obvious question: What would Andrew Jackson think about that?

I’m currently reading An Empire of Wealth: The Epic History of American Economic Power by John Steele Gordon. He points out Jackson’s quest to eliminate the national debt, which had “soared” to $125 million after the War of 1812.

Jackson had two purposes in ridding the country of debt. The first, of course, was that he thought debt was bad in and of itself. He had called it a “national curse” in his first run for the presidency in 1824. But he thought that the institutions and the people who benefitted from it were a national curse as well. “My vow,” he pledged, “shall be to pay the national debt, to prevent a monied aristocracy from growing up around our administration that must bend to its views, and ultimately destroy the liberty of our country.”

And in fact, Jackson lived up to his pledge, reporting in his 1834 State of the Union address that “the country would be debt-free on January 1, 1835, and have a balance on hand of $440,000.” (Emphasis mine.)

Well, now I know who I’m voting for in November! (Even if he has been dead for 163 years.)