Jimmy P. at the RNC—If you're a Republican and you let a Democrat get to your right on taxes, you're probably going to have plenty of free time to ponder just how that happened. And to many economic conservatives, McCain is at risk of letting that happen. Now it's not so much that McCain doesn't have hefty tax cut package, it's just that Obama's seems more direct and family focused. While Obama emphasizes putting money into people pocket's right away, McCain focuses on growing the economy and creating jobs by keeping the Bush tax cuts and cutting corporate tax rates. (We currently have the second highest corporate tax rate on the planet.) Obama wants to create jobs primarily through his energy and infrastructure spending initiatives. Two different philosophies. But Fred Thompson showed in his speech last night that it is possible to sell the McCain approach to non-economists:
"We need a President who understands that you don't make citizens prosperous by making Washington richer, and you don't lift an economic downturn by imposing one of the largest tax increases in American history. Now our opponents tell you not to worry about their tax increases. They tell you they are not going to tax your family. No, they're just going to tax "businesses"! So unless you buy something from a "business", like groceries or clothes or gasoline...or unless you get a paycheck from a big or a small "business", don't worry...it's not going to affect you. They say they are not going to take any water out of your side of the bucket, just the "other" side of the bucket! That's their idea of tax reform."
Me: McCain may yet offer a new tax twist to his economic plan — we still have two months to go until Election Day — but the key will be to create a plan that wouldn't severely affect the budget over the near term.
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