Taxing Questions
George W. Bush didn't waste much time once he took office to press for tax cuts: in June of 2001, he signed into law a measure that would result in a $1.35 trillion tax cut over ten years. Shortly after the Iraq invasion began in 2003, Bush signed another tax cut bill into law; this legislation cut tax revenue by another $350 billion. John McCain's reaction to these and other tax cuts as well as the subsequent renewal votes, illustrate some of his most dramatic position shifts.
Flip
When the first bill came up in 2001, John McCain voted no, giving this reason: "I cannot in good conscience support a tax cut in which so many of the benefits go to the most fortunate among us at the expense of middle-class Americans who need tax relief."
He was again asked about tax cuts in early 2003 by Katie Couric, and his response was this:
"[When] you look at the percentage of the tax cuts that—as the previous tax cuts—that go to the wealthiest Americans, you will find that the bulk of it, again, goes to wealthiest Americans. … A lot of Americans now are paying a very large a—low and middle-income Americans are paying a significantly larger amount of their income in taxes. I’d like to see them get the bulk of the relief."
With this rationale firmly established, John McCain voted against both sets of tax cuts. Indeed, he demonstrated patience, reason, and the ability to vote his conscience, even on big legislative items.
Last, here's another little known McCain gem: Remember, if you can, back to the year 1999. Do you recall that the US had actually had managed to achieve a budget surplus? John McCain had a plan for using this budget surplus that was unlike his primary competitors at the time. This is from a McCain commercial that aired in early 2000:
"There’s one big difference between me and the others—I won’t take every last dime of the surplus and spend it on tax cuts that mostly benefit the wealthy. I’ll use the bulk of the surplus to secure Social Security far into the future to keep our promise to the greatest generation."
Flop
It was nice while it lasted, but in early 2006, McCain made a drastic shift and began to move in lockstep with George W. Bush's tax cuts. It started out with his vote to support the renewal of tax breaks for capital gains and dividends. Without question, this was a tax break that was incredibly skewed to benefit the wealthy. McCain had voted against the original bill, but nonetheless voted to extend it. Not coincidentally, this was the time that John McCain started reaching out to the Republican party's fiscal conservatives as part of the early stages of his presidential bid.
Even members of the party made cynical comments about McCain's intentions when his voting pattern changed. Notorious anti-tax advocate Grover Norquist noted "It's a big flip-flop, but I'm happy he's flopped." Perhaps Larry Hunter, tax strategist for the GOP put it best: "It looks like a further morphing of McCain into George W. Bush." (emphasis added)
Further tax votes have just continued to reinforce McCain's new supply-side economic policies, his proclaimed support for middle-class families notwithstanding.
Bonus
Amazingly, John McCain has started to become even more radical than George W. Bush with some of his proposals. NPR recently characterized McCain's newest proposals thusly: "McCain is even proposing new tax cuts, with the biggest benefits going to the top one-tenth of 1 percent of households and little relief for the bottom three-fifths of taxpayers." (emphasis added)
The circle is, as they say, complete.
Comments
1.) Adam_B at 4:03 AM on Jul 21, 2008
This, to me, is the epitome of McCain flip-flops, and it's a pretty sad one.
In the beginning, he was actually offering a pretty principled rationale for his position of opposing the reckless tax cuts.
But it's become increasingly clear that the further the campaign went on, the more he was willing to sacrifice his positions on that.
