Great WaPo: McCain's Convenient Untruth

[toddGA]

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/09/07/AR2008090701950.html



By Sebastian Mallaby
Monday, September 8, 2008; Page A17

When it comes to fighting wars, John McCain stands up and calls for sacrifice. "We never hide from history; we make history," he declared in his convention speech. But when it comes to taxes, McCain is unwilling to demand even a teensy bit of sacrifice. In a McCain administration, Americans would not have to surrender a dime more of their money to a cause larger than themselves.

Why this bipolar attitude toward sacrifice? Start with the answer that McCain himself provides. "My tax cuts will create jobs. His tax increases will eliminate them," he said at the convention, offering one of the speech's few policy contrasts between Obama's platform and his own. In other words, McCain is not calling for tax sacrifice because he believes it would be counterproductive. On taxes, he is saying, you can selfishly avoid sacrifice -- and serve the public good.

This, unfortunately, is a convenient untruth. Tax hikes taken to an extreme can indeed backfire, harming growth and job creation. But it's a stretch to assert that Barack Obama's tax plan would do that. And it's downright scandalous to pretend that the economy can be strengthened in anything other than the short run by unaffordable tax cuts.

Obama is not proposing to raise taxes for most Americans. To the contrary, he would triple the earned-income tax credit for low-wage earners, increasing work incentives at the bottom. He would cut taxes on people in the middle -- indeed, he would do so more aggressively than McCain would. It is only the wealthiest Americans who would face higher tax bills under Obama. According to the nonpartisan Tax Policy Center, Obama's plan would require the richest 1 percent of Americans to sacrifice a modest 1.5 percent of their after-tax income in 2012. By contrast, no-sacrifice McCain would award America's elite a 9.5 percent increase.

[BlooInBloo]

1. Now if only Americans were literate.

[TeamsterDem]

9. LOL. "If" indeed. n/t

[dkf]

2. So true. He wants us to volunteer our lives but not our money

How messed up is that?

[sandnsea]

3. we..pledge..our Lives, our Fortunes, and our sacred Honor.

Yeah, Republicans always forget that pledging of our fortunes to the cause thingy.

[dkf]

4. All I say is I'd rather pledge my money than my life.

But I'd rather pledge nothing to a ridiculous war.

[sandnsea]

5. I think they like pledging their lives

because, well, they don't actually pledge their lives, they pledge ours. So they can pretend "freedom isn't free" and act as if they've made the ultimate sacrifice, when they haven't done squat.

[regnaD kciN]

7. Pledging our lives instead of theirs...

A luxury ship goes down, and a group of survivors (including Tony Blair, Vladimir Putin, and George W. Bush) are huddled in a lifeboat. The crew member tells them "We're overloaded...we won't be able to float with this many people on board." Tony Blair gets up, says "I do this for my country. God save the Queen!" and jumps overboard.

A bit later, the crew member says "We're still overloaded...we won't be able to continue this way." Vladimir Putin gets up, says "I do this for my country. Long live Mother Russia!" and jumps overboard.

An hour or so later, the crew member says "No, we still have too many people...unless we lighten the load, we're going to sink." George W. Bush gets up, says "I do this for my country. God Bless America!"...












...and pushes two other people overboard.

[Heather MC]

6. McCAIN does propose a tax hike he just calls it different things

If you believe as I do that the GOV should cover healthcare for all then you will understand that McCains healthcare is a major tax increase

He would give familys a "$5000, tax credit to go towards Healthcare" Healthcare for an AVG Family
is 12,000 a year, your cost would be $7,000. THAT's A MAJOR TAX INCREASE
What AVG American Family in this current economic situation can afford a $7000 tax increase?

and that's just one of his plans.

[Waiting For Everyman]

8. K&R

Thanks for the story link. It's THE big central issue.

The Repubs use code words, as they did again in their Convention speeches: "smaller government" means privatization and lots of government contracts for the rich with no pesky oversight that way, of spending... oh, and selling off our assets as much as possible too; "cutting taxes" means only on the rich, but more on everyone else while they run up deficits (on those privatized contracts); "getting government out of our lives" means throw out regulation so the predators can run wild - forget a level playing-field for average people. They're the sharks, we're the food-chain. BTDT. Gramm-ism.

Palin and McCain are FOR all those things. Big change. Except for the Clinton years, it's been that way since 1980.

McCain keeps wanting sympathy for himself for being a POW 40 years ago. Yet he has no sympathy for middle-class Americans or those in outright poverty.

Justice would be him getting his ass kicked in a historic landslide.

[GoesTo11]

10. Taxes on the rich and corporations are basically negative.

Corps and the wealthy have so many shelters, they don't pay anything. Then with sweetheart no-bid deals and bailouts, they basically huge handouts. How much more do we have to give them before they'll create some jobs?