McCain’s fuzzy tax cut math

In December John McCain said, "The issue of economics is not something I've understood as well as I should."

McCain claims he was just joking, but looking at his actual economic plan, it certainly appears his initial claim was correct: When it comes to the economy, John McCain really doesn't know what he is talking about.

In today's column, Paul Krugman analyzes McCain's tax plan, and he concludes that it "doesn't seem to embody any coherent policy agenda. Instead, it looks like a giant exercise in pandering."

That's because McCain uses fuzzy math to hide the true cost of his irresponsible tax cuts. As Krugman writes,

According to the nonpartisan Tax Policy Center, the overall effect of the McCain tax plan would be to reduce federal revenue by more than $5 trillion over 10 years. That's a lot of revenue loss -- enough to pose big problems for the government's solvency.

Krugman explains that McCain and his advisers responded to this analysis by falsely criticizing the Tax Policy Center's methodology -- but avoiding the substance of its conclusions:

It's the sort of fiscal double-talk that has been a Bush administration hallmark. In any case, it offers no answer to the principal point raised by the Tax Policy Center analysis, which has nothing to do with scoring: the McCain tax plan would leave the federal government with far too little revenue to cover its expenses, leading to huge budget deficits unless there were deep cuts in spending.

And Mr. McCain has said nothing realistic about how he would close the giant budget gap his tax cuts would produce -- a gap so large that eliminating it would require cutting Social Security benefits by three-quarters, eliminating Medicare, or something equivalently drastic.

It's time John McCain starts being straight with the American people about the true costs of his economic plan.

Posted by Americans United For Change Web Team