Radical Avenue

Don’t look now, but the Straight Talk Express has derailed again. Lately, the senior Senator from Arizona has been serving up enough whoppers to make the Burger King proud.

Surely by now someone in the McCain campaign has noticed that 70% of Americans disapprove of President Bush’s leadership on the economy. You’d think McCain would be distancing himself from Bush’s policies. Instead McCain has embraced Bushonomics wholeheartedly.

Economics for Dummies
In 2001 McCain opposed Bush’s economic prescription because he “could not in good conscience support a tax cut in which so many of the benefits go to the most fortunate among us.” McCain has since flip flopped on the matter. He now hopes to make the Bush tax cuts permanent. Extending the Bush legacy will cost an estimated $2 trillion over the next 10 years, according to the Tax Policy Center, a nonpartisan group.

But wait, McCain also wants to lower corporate tax rates, reduce the estate tax, allow accelerated write off of corporate investments and completely eliminate the Alternative Minimum tax. These proposals will cost America more than $550 billion a year, around $6 trillion over 10 years. Nevertheless McCain says he’ll produce a balanced budget by the end of his first term.

The Numbers Don’t Add Up
McCain says he’ll compensate for his massive reduction in federal revenue by eliminating earmarks and “changing the way Washington does business”. Both of these statements are ludicrous. Earmarks have constituencies. McCain won’t likely veto the many spending bills which benefit American veterans. And you’d have to go all the way back to FDR to find a transcendental president. Roosevelt took office in the midst of the Great Depression. We haven’t fallen to that level of desperation yet in this economy.

For argument’s sake, let’s say that McCain ends all earmarks. That would save the country around $18 billion annually. McCain says he would save another $32 billion annually by closing tax loopholes, program review and through reduced Medicare benefits. The budget would still be well over $500 billion in the red under those circumstances. A third grader could figure it out. The Republican candidate must think Americans don’t do math.

McSame, McCain, economy, taxes