There's been some argument over how to treat John McCain's policy ideas. Some folks hold that they're terrible and should be opposed. Others think they're terrible, but more than that, they and make no sense, and McCain clearly doesn't mean them so they should be ignored. This, I think, is the take of most of the media, which assumes that, on domestic policy, McCain is pandering to his base and shouldn't be taken seriously. But, at the end of the day, these are his policies, and she should be forced to stand by them. It's not for the media to decide that he's a) lying and b) that's okay. Take McCain's tax policy, for one. He wants to repeal the Alternative Minimum Tax ($430 billion in lost revenue over 10 years), cut the corporate tax rate from 34 percent to 25 percent ($995 billion lost over 10 years), and end taxation of corporate investment in technology and equipment ($745 billion over 10 years). In addition, he's going to make the Bush tax cuts permanent. We're now talking a revenue loss of over $3 trillion. How's he going to fund his wars?What's even more remarkable, though, is how regressive McCain's cuts are. They're more regressive, by far, than the Bush tax cuts. The Center for American Progress just released a report showing how much of each set of cuts goes to each income quintile, and I've put the results into a graph for you. McCain is in blue, Bush is in red.
On foreign policy, it's become common to say that McCain is like Bush, only more so. What's impressive is that he's proving that true on domestic policy, too. And yet despite the $3 trillion+ hole he's blowing in the deficit, the media regularly reports that McCain is a deficit hawk. Why? Because he doesn't like earmarks ($18 billion per year). Quite an age we live in, where fiscal responsibility is paying for about 1/20th of your spending. This guy is the Republican nominee for president. It's time the media began asking him how he's going to pay for all his spending. If he's going to cut Medicare and Social Security -- the only expenditures large enough to support this plan -- let him say so. That, supposedly, is the virtue of McCain, that he says stuff like that. But it's a bit dumb for the media to be all excited about a guy who answers your questions and then not actually ask him the hard questions.
On foreign policy, it's become common to say that McCain is like Bush, only more so. What's impressive is that he's proving that true on domestic policy, too. And yet despite the $3 trillion+ hole he's blowing in the deficit, the media regularly reports that McCain is a deficit hawk. Why? Because he doesn't like earmarks ($18 billion per year). Quite an age we live in, where fiscal responsibility is paying for about 1/20th of your spending. This guy is the Republican nominee for president. It's time the media began asking him how he's going to pay for all his spending. If he's going to cut Medicare and Social Security -- the only expenditures large enough to support this plan -- let him say so. That, supposedly, is the virtue of McCain, that he says stuff like that. But it's a bit dumb for the media to be all excited about a guy who answers your questions and then not actually ask him the hard questions. 
