McCain’s Preposterous Tax Cut Math

I read about John McCain’s new economic plan and wow, does he give the Dems some great ammunition. The WSJ, conservative and Republican as it is, put it straight. The Senator who voted against George Bush’s tax cuts for the wealthy twice is now espousing both these cuts and more. He’s proposed paying for $650 billion in tax cuts with just $160 billion in spending cuts. Huh?

Even the spending cuts, says Robert Bixby of the Concord Coalition, have a ‘nonexistent’ chance of passing. “These are very, very deep cuts, that nobody in Washington has the stomach to even consider.

Yet here is the GOP front-runner, now crowing about how he’s gonna cut your taxes. HOW?? Perhaps he will continue the path of George Bush, and saddle the next generation with deficits. The McCain campaign even goes further, claiming that a proposal to change the tax treatment of capital expenses will cost the government nothing. “Outside experts put the cost at tens of billions per year,” said the story. “To say that there’s no cost is so intellectually dishonest, it’s outrageous,” said Ronald Pearlman, a Georgetown tax professor.

By the way, McCain now says it will only take two terms to eliminate the budget deficit. Earlier he had promised that it would be all caught up in one.