McCain Was Against Raising Taxes Before He Was Maybe For It

By TChris, Section Elections 2008
Posted on Tue Jul 29, 2008 at 01:27:02 AM EST
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Another flip-flop from John McCain:

Republican presidential candidate John McCain drew a sharp rebuke Monday from conservatives after he signaled an openness to a higher payroll tax for Social Security, contrary to previous vows not to raise taxes of any kind.

Another position changed to mimic a policy advocated by Barack Obama.

Obama has called for imposing a new payroll tax on incomes above $250,000. ... When Obama announced his plan June 13, McCain's top economic adviser, Douglas Holtz-Eakin, told reporters that as president McCain would not consider a payroll tax increase "under any imagineable circumstance."

Perhaps McCain's imagination has improved. But don't worry. McCain will switch back to his original position tomorrow. But he probably won't return to his support for the privatization of social security until later in the week. His policies depend on his mood, apparently. Or on his moment-to-moment sense of what will play to voters.

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McCain Was Against Raising Taxes Before He Was Maybe For It | 14 comments (14 topical)

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Pols are pols (5.00 / 2) (#1)
by Edgar08 on Tue Jul 29, 2008 at 03:16:25 AM EST

I've heard.

: Obama's a Pop Culture Icon though (none / 0) (#10)
by Salo on Tue Jul 29, 2008 at 11:42:55 AM EST

OPCI or more lyrically the OPC.

: Yup... (none / 0) (#14)
by Thanin on Tue Jul 29, 2008 at 06:01:41 PM EST

McSame is just aother pol, whose votes happen to fall a lot on the anti-choice side.

Flip Flopping McCain (5.00 / 1) (#4)
by Doc Rock on Tue Jul 29, 2008 at 07:01:57 AM EST

Actually McCain's more like a water bug darting first in one direction and then another seeking any advantage.

: Water Boatmen are cool insects. (none / 0) (#11)
by Salo on Tue Jul 29, 2008 at 11:43:47 AM EST

They use surface tension in a unique way.

Too bad McCain didn't check out (5.00 / 5) (#5)
by Anne on Tue Jul 29, 2008 at 08:31:07 AM EST

the fact that Obama has no details about how his plan would be implemented: he has not identified a tax rate, he hasn't identified what kinds of income would be subject to the tax, etc. All it is, so far, is a bunch of words.

So, how comforting it is that these two are playing a game of "me, too" with each other, and neither has a clue what they are advocating?

i always loved the name (5.00 / 3) (#7)
by cpinva on Tue Jul 29, 2008 at 11:19:32 AM EST

"trickle down theory", perhaps the most aptly named economic theory since adam smith first postulated a formal set of rules for the subject.

as to the issue at hand:

Tchris, bear in mind, this is the same sen. mccain who appears not to have a clue (as evidenced by his outrage that younger worker's FICA taxes are used to pay the benefits of current retirees) what the actual purpose of SS is, and how it was set up to begin with.

any additional evidence of his ignorance on the subject is mere icing on the cake, and not unexpected.

perhaps, he thinks this can be used to cut down on the currently projected nearly one half trillion dollar budget defecit, for the current fiscal year. or not. who knows? certainly not sen. mccain, or sen. obama, for that matter.

of course, sen. obama's proclaiming that SS is going to go "bankrupt" rather neatly encapsulates his total ignorance in the field as well.

what we have here is two people, completely bereft of any actual knowledge of the subject matter, declaiming on it.

i am not comforted.

: I say thank god for the millenials (none / 0) (#9)
by Salo on Tue Jul 29, 2008 at 11:41:49 AM EST

because there are so many of them they can take the strain off the gen X-Zers who were propping up the system 1990-2004. And they can have their Obama Pop Culture icon too.

McCain's Social Security Privatization Problem (5.00 / 1) (#16)
by john horse on Tue Jul 29, 2008 at 11:21:15 PM EST

I have less problem with McCain wanted to use higher payroll taxes to shore up social security than I do with his plan to privatize social security. Privatization of social security will take a system that has worked well and replaces it with one that will be full of risks. It is also very, very expensive. This is because the social security taxes that are paid by workers goes to pay beneficiaries. McCain says this is unfair. The social security taxes that workers pay should go to private accounts for those workers. Here is the problem with McCain's scheme. The only way that you can set up private accounts and continue paying current beneficiaries is for the government to borrow the money for these accounts. And if you thought George W Bush was fiscally irresponsible, wait till you see the debt that McCain will saddle us with.

I don't see this (none / 0) (#3)
by alsace on Tue Jul 29, 2008 at 05:52:18 AM EST

on a par with Obama's FISA flip. But on the issue itself, I oppose "prefunding" the outyear shortfalls. The Greenspan Commission's "solution" merely increased government revenues with a regressive tax. If the government needs revenue - and it does, even after Dubya and Dickies's Excellent Adventure ends - better to restore other taxes to pre-Bush levels.

Mccain family motto (none / 0) (#8)
by Salo on Tue Jul 29, 2008 at 11:39:56 AM EST

Mercurial illigitimi

The reign of McCain.... (none / 0) (#12)
by Dadler on Tue Jul 29, 2008 at 01:08:37 PM EST

...falls on the plain with pain.


: plain folks, that is. (none / 0) (#13)
by Dadler on Tue Jul 29, 2008 at 01:08:59 PM EST

ahem.

McCain's embrace (none / 0) (#15)
by weltec2 on Tue Jul 29, 2008 at 07:59:35 PM EST

of Bush's tax cuts for the wealthy signaled an enormous shift in McCain's thinking and an acquiescence to Bush's economic and social policy agenda. McCain had already admitted publically that he knew nothing about economics and he has admitted it again and again since; notwithstanding his denials of these admissions. There have been too many of them. Then suddenly we have this enormous shift to Bush's way of thinking.

It's almost like the movie Network where the newscaster goes upstairs to the BIG GUY who puts his arm around him and helps him understand what he has never understood before.

The McCain of today is not the McCain of 2000. I do not see him as a flip-flopper. I see him as a person who believed one way at one time. Now he believes something entirely different. He has embraced Bush who has sold him a whole new philosophy and way of looking at the world.