Now that he is the presumptive Republican presidential nominee, however, McCain is marching straight down the party line. The economic package he has laid out embraces many of the tax policies he once decried: extending Bush’s tax cuts he voted against, offering investment tax breaks he once believed would have little economic benefit and granting the long-held wishes of tax lobbyists he has often mocked.You’ll find the full Post story here.
McCain’s concerns--about budget deficits, unanticipated defense costs, an Iraq war that would be longer and more costly than advertised--have proved eerily prescient, usually a plus for politicians who are quick to say they were right when others were wrong. Yet McCain appears determined to leave such predictions behind. ...
To supporters, McCain has simply seen the light and now understands the power that business tax relief has to spur economic growth and innovation. Said J.D. Foster, a former Bush White House and Treasury tax policy expert, now at the Heritage Foundation: “It’s logical that he wouldn’t be repeating the arguments he made then. We all learn from experience.”
To critics, it is political pandering. “It’s just part of the new John McCain that’s taking on the conventional wisdom that in tight races, you have to energize the base and win by 50.000001 percent,” [former U.S. Senator Lincoln] Chafee [R-Rhode Island] said. “I was frankly surprised that he’s kept it up after securing the nomination. I thought he’d move to the center, and I haven’t seen it.”
READ MORE: “McCain Invests His ‘Credibility Capital’ in Hiring Lobbyists,” by Steve Benen (The Carpetbagger Report); “Will McCain denounce Floyd Brown?,” by Joe Conason (Salon); “McCain Tour Highlights Those He Doesn’t Plan to Help,” by Steve Benen (The Carpetbagger Report); “Arianna Huffington on McCain: Hijacked by the Right” (Real Time with Bill Maher).
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