FLIP-FLOP: McCain Voted For Bush Tax Cuts And Defended The Flip-Flop As A Legislative Gimmick. John McCain voted to extend tax cuts supported by the president that were set to expire between 2005 and 2010. “The Senate voted 53-47…in favor of extending the president's investor tax cuts on dividends and capital gains. Joining in this breakthrough vote was John McCain, the senator who voted against these tax cuts when they were introduced in 2003. This is an important shift for the GOP presidential frontrunner[.]” McCain’s vote was described as “a sharp reversal of his anti-tax-cut posture,” though he defended the shift, saying, “it was a gimmick,” reasoning that “the tax cuts were temporary and then had to be made permanent.” [1]
FLIP-FLOP-FLIP: McCain Voted Against The Repeal Of The Estate Tax, Then Voted For It, Then Explained How He Really Opposed It. After McCain voted with all but one of his Republican colleagues for cloture on the “Death Tax Repeal Permanency Act,” which failed 57-41, he was asked about the vote “to give multimillionaires a permanent estate tax cut,” which McCain explained by saying he still opposed the repeal. McCain said, “I voted, I still oppose a complete repeal of the Estate Tax. And at the time, I said I would like to take care of family farms, businesses, et cetera at a certain level. I still support that proposal that we could take care of 99.9 percent of American families, businesses, farms, et cetera at setting it at five million, eight million with a reduction down to 15 percent in the rate.” [2]
2003: McCain Was Against Tax Cuts Because It Will Worsen the Deficit Before It Ever Helps the Economy.” Senator McCain rejected “Bush's tax cuts, especially the $1.37 trillion blockbuster Bush pushed through Congress in 2001, criticizing its economic premises and its likely impact. At best, it's a long-term economic stimulus, not the immediate boost the economy needs, McCain said. ‘All the predicates for the 2001 tax cuts and all the predictions for its results were absolutely, completely wrong,’ he said. And it will worsen the deficit before it ever helps the economy, he added.” [3]
Recent taxes/deficit stories
John McCain and the Windfall Profits Tax
John McCain doesn't hate the windfall profits tax as much as the RNC does.
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Pressure Mounts on McCain to Release Tax Returns
The McCain campaign's decision to withhold Cindy McCain's tax returns is drawing criticism from across the political spectrum. This morning, editorials in both the Washington Post and Washington Times echoed calls for the McCain campaign to release Cindy McCain's tax returns. This follows a column in yesterday's New York Observer that blasts McCain for his hypocrisy on disclosure, noting that Mrs. McCain's corporate jet "has been flying him and his entourage of lobbyists around the country at bargain rates."
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DNC Calls on McCain Campaign to Release Cindy McCain's Tax Returns
On the Today Show this morning, Cindy McCain defended the McCain campaign's decision to withhold her tax returns, saying they would never make her tax returns public--not even if she becomes First Lady.
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MUST READ: “McCain Offers Tax Policies He Once Opposed”
Washington, DC - A report in today's Washington Post highlights how far John McCain is willing to go to get elected. According to the Post, "Now that he is the presumptive Republican presidential nominee, however, McCain is marching straight down the party line. The economic package he has laid out embraces many of the tax policies he once decried: extending Bush's tax cuts he voted against, offering investment tax breaks he once believed would have little economic benefit and granting the long-held wishes of tax lobbyists he has often mocked."
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MUST READ: McCain Tax Cuts Would Bloat Deficit Or Take Huge Spending Curbs
Today the Wall Street Journal details how disastrous John McCain's economic plans would be. Though he has proposed tax cuts that would either "cause the federal deficit to explode" or require huge cuts to critical programs like Social Security, he has yet to explain where those cuts would come from or how he would pay for his plan. Experts agree that McCain's numbers just don't add up.