McCain:
Democrats Will Raise Taxes, And 'Have the Audacity To Hope You Don't Mind.'
In the car a little while ago, I was listening to McCain deliver his big economic speech. If you're a fiscal conservative, you ought to take a look; it should have you doing cartwheels, particularly with McCain's fired-up criticism of President Bush for not using the veto pen against wasteful spending.
A lot of Republicans usually grind their teeth when McCain lashes out at his own party, but when the criticism is in this vein...
For Republicans, it starts with reclaiming our good name as the party of spending restraint. Somewhere along the way, too many Republicans in Congress became indistinguishable from the big-spending Democrats they used to oppose. The only power of government that could stop them was the power of veto, and it was rarely used.
... I think the griping will be limited to GOP lawmakers appropriations committees.
One of the things that jumped out at me is that McCain addressed a common populist gripe, the CEO who runs his company into the ground and jumps ship with his massive salary and bonus intact. Democrats rip "corporate fatcats" all the time, without ever seeming to get around to naming names; any corporate executive is a cookie-cutter villain in their narratives. McCain actually gets specific:
Americans are also right to be offended when the extravagant salaries and severance deals of CEO's — in some cases, the very same CEO's who helped to bring on these market troubles — bear no relation to the success of the company or the wishes of shareholders. Something is seriously wrong when the American people are left to bear the consequences of reckless corporate conduct, while Mr. Cayne of Bear Stearns, Mr. Mozilo of Countrywide, and others are packed off with another forty- or fifty million for the road.
Notice this section describing his opponents:
Of course, they would like you to think that only the very wealthy will pay more in taxes, but the reality is quite different. Under my opponents' various tax plans, Americans of every background would see their taxes rise — seniors, parents, small business owners, and just about everyone who has even a modest investment in the market. All these tax increases are the fine print under the slogan of "hope": They're going to raise your taxes by thousands of dollars per year — and they have the audacity to hope you don't mind.
I think this will be the news, or ought to be... it will be interesting to see if the Democrats echo this proposal:
I propose that the federal government suspend all taxes on gasoline now paid by the American people — from Memorial Day to Labor Day of this year. The effect will be an immediate economic stimulus — taking a few dollars off the price of a tank of gas every time a family, a farmer, or trucker stops to fill up. Over the same period, our government should suspend the purchase of oil for the Strategic Petroleum Reserve, which has also contributed to the rising price of oil. This measure, combined with the summer-long "gas-tax holiday," will bring a timely reduction in the price of gasoline. And because the cost of gas affects the price of food, packaging, and just about everything else, these immediate steps will help to spread relief across the American economy.
