You can usually count on McClatchy papers for some good, cut-through-the-BS reporting, but, as Publius shows, their piece comparing the candidates' health care plans and calling McCain's tax changes "progressive" misses the mark. Now, there's no doubt that equalizing the tax code has some progressive effects. But towards conservative ends. McCain's plan asserts that the problem in health insurance is that people have too much of it, and find it too easy to access care. The fix is easy: Move more of the burden for medical costs onto individuals, so they'll use less care, or not be able to afford it at all. That's not progressive, even if it does cap a regressive tax deduction along the way. In its overall vision, McCain's plan is, as I've argued before, the logical extension of the current health system: It's health reform for people who don't need health care. It's a reform plan that advances the interests of healthy and the well-off while harming the ill and the economically vulnerable. That's about as far from a progressive approach as you can get.
