By Samuel Rubenfeld
Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) unveiled an economic plan on Tuesday in Pittsburgh that centered on tax cuts, but also featured elements of populism and criticism of the economic policies of Presidents Bush and Reagan, while also spending the rest of the past week attacking his Democratic opponents.
“It will not be enough to simply dust off the economic policies of four, eight or 28 years ago,” he said in the speech at Carnegie Mellon University. “We have our own work to do.”
In the plan, McCain proposes making President Bush’s tax cuts from 2001 and 2003-tax cuts McCain voted against when they came up for a vote in the Senate-permanent, he plans to cut corporate tax rates from 35 percent to 25 percent, eliminating the alternative minimum tax, doubling the value of a tax exemption on a dependent, from $3,500 to $7,000, amongst other proposals.
McCain also pushed for Congress to eliminate the 18.4-cent federal tax on gasoline during the summer-from Memorial Day to Labor Day-prior to the Republican convention in Minneapolis, Minn. this September. He also proposed making wealthier recipients of Medicare pay higher premiums for the prescription drug benefit they now receive due to Part D, Medicare’s prescription drug program passed in 2003 despite McCain’s opposition to it.
The campaign estimated the economic plan would cost $200 billion, but that did not include making the tax cuts permanent, which would double its cost. McCain would offset the cost by eliminating earmarked pork-barrel projects, closing tax loopholes, freezing discretionary non-military spending for one year and later on eliminating wasteful programs.
But the gas idea has gotten little traction in Congress, and both his Democratic rivals immediately criticized the speech.
“John McCain promises straight talk,” said Neera Tanden, a policy director of Sen. Hillary Clinton’s (D-N.Y.) campaign, in a statement following McCain’s speech. “But his speech today is really double talk.”
An Obama spokesman also said McCain’s policy proposal was disingenuous. “Senator McCain’s economic plan offers no change from George Bush’s failed policies by going full speed ahead with fiscally irresponsible tax cuts for the wealthiest Americans that John McCain himself once said offended his conscience,” said Bill Burton.
The McCain campaign faced some criticism on Tuesday over recipes posted on its campaign Web site supposedly by Cindy McCain, the potential first lady. The Huffington Post reported on Monday night that the recipes on the site were actually taken verbatim from the Food Network, and one was pulled from Rachel Ray. By Tuesday afternoon, the recipes were pulled from the Web site.
The campaign said that the intern tasked with posting Cindy’s recipes instead went to the Internet has been dealt with. “We took away his zero pay,” said Tucker Bounds, a campaign spokesman.
On Friday afternoon, the Huffington Post reported that Democratic presidential hopeful Sen. Barack Obama (Ill.), at a closed fundraiser in San Francisco, called voters in small towns in Pennsylvania “bitter” because they were ignored by the Clinton and Bush administrations, saying they “cling to guns or religion or antipathy to people who aren’t like them” when voting in elections. McCain said Obama’s comments were elitist.
“It shows an elitism and condescension toward hard-working Americans that is nothing short of breathtaking,” said Steve Schmidt, a senior McCain advisor in Saturday’s New York Times.
After a month of criticism for encouraging the market to figure out the foreclosure and subprime market crises, McCain changed his position last Thursday, and he offered a plan to help homeowners struggling to pay their mortgages. In a speech in Brooklyn, McCain said efforts in Congress were not enough.
“This plan is focused on people,” McCain said. “People decide if they need help, they apply for assistance and if approved the government under my HOME Program supports them in getting a new mortgage that they can afford.”
In a Reuters/Zogby poll released Wednesday, McCain was seen as a better manager of the economy than either of his Democratic opponents. He led Obama by three points, and Clinton by five, over who could best handle the economy, despite McCain early on in the campaign saying he is not an expert on the economy.
The same poll has Obama and McCain in a statistical tie at 45 percent each in a head-to-head contest, and McCain leads Clinton by five points, 46 percent to 41 percent, should they face each other in the November general election.