McCain's economic policy

As much as I really hope he does not win the Presidential election, I do not hate John McCain. He has said and done things in his career that I do believe are smart and admirable. His economic policies, however, do not fall into that category.

McCain has been quite vocal in his support of standard Republican economic policy, including a variety of proposals to lower taxes. He's said he would abolish the alternative minimum tax, lower corporate taxes, and provide a simplified alternative calculation for individual income tax. It was with great interest, then, that I read David Leonhardt's piece about the recent report from the Tax Policy Center in the Times yesterday.

Suffice it to say, McCain's fine print and his bold rhetoric are inconsistent. He says one thing during a public speech, but the details paint an entirely different picture. His tax cuts would primarily benefit the very wealthy. He utilizes the same "sunset provisions" that Bush has used to mask the true long-term cost of his proposals. His policies would take our already unmanageable deficit to an entirely new level of irresponsibility. Please, read this article, check out the source documents, and come to your own conclusion about whether this is the kind of leader you'd like to see in the White House.