McCain's Convenient Untruth

That was the headline that greeted me this morning on my mobile phone from the Washington Post this morning. I could hardly believe my eyes. While I have had significant respect for Senator McCain's maverick ways and attempts to change the status quo in Washington, I distinctly recall that he would not make any negative attacks during this campaign. This past week was, unfortunately, replete with said attacks.

According to Sebastian Mallaby's Washington Post piece today, "Obama is not proposing to raise taxes for most Americans. To the contrary, he would triple the earned-income tax credit for low-wage earners, increasing work incentives at the bottom. He would cut taxes on people in the middle -- indeed, he would do so more aggressively than McCain would. It is only the wealthiest Americans who would face higher tax bills under Obama. According to the nonpartisan Tax Policy Center, Obama's plan would require the richest 1 percent of Americans to sacrifice a modest 1.5 percent of their after-tax income in 2012. By contrast, no-sacrifice McCain would award America's elite a 9.5 percent increase."

Obama's plan is very similar to the highly respected plan of former President Bill Clinton that provided tax breaks for poorer people - jobs were created, there was a significant budget surplus that has dwindled to nothing, indeed, we are facing historically large deficits at the federal level, even as the Bush administration takes over the receivership of Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae.

John McCain would give more tax breaks to the wealthiest individuals in the country - those who already pay proportionately less taxes than working class Americans because of their deductions with second homes, boats and other such items.

And so it goes.....