{"id":2411,"date":"2008-02-22T05:05:18","date_gmt":"2008-02-22T11:05:18","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.edgewiseblog.com\/mjh\/election\/which-mccain\/"},"modified":"2008-02-22T10:26:51","modified_gmt":"2008-02-22T16:26:51","slug":"which-mccain","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.edgewiseblog.com\/mjh\/election\/which-mccain\/","title":{"rendered":"Which McCain?"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n

Think Progress \u00bb New McCain Rips Old McCain\u2019s Argument That Bush Tax Cuts Benefit The \u2018Wealthy\u2019<\/a> <\/p>\n

On ABC\u2019s This Week today, host George Stephanopoulos asked Sen. John McCain (R-AZ) about Democratic proposals to protect \u201cmiddle-income Americans\u201d and \u201conly raise\u201d taxes \u201con the wealthy.\u201d In response, McCain bristled at Stephanopoulos\u2019s distinction, mockingly warning against rhetoric that talks about \u201cwho the, quote, \u2018wealthy\u2019 are in America\u201d: <\/p>\n

\n

MCCAIN: But more importantly, we\u2019ll argue about whether we should increase your taxes or decrease them. Obviously, I\u2019m for decreases in taxes. Maybe Americans want their taxes increased. We\u2019ll argue about\u2026 <\/p>\n

STEPHANOPOULOS: \u2026 for middle-income Americans, only raise them on the wealthy? <\/p>\n

MCCAIN: Oh, yes, sure, the wealthy, the wealthy. Always be interested in when people talk about who the, quote, \u201cwealthy\u201d are in America. I find it interesting.<\/strong><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

Now that he has to court the hardline anti-tax factions of the conservative movement, McCain is changing his story<\/a> on tax policy. In 2000, 2001, and 2003, McCain was one of the people \u201cinterested\u201d in talking about \u201cwho the, quote, \u2018wealthy\u2019 are in America\u201d when he argued against Bush\u2019s tax cuts that \u201cmostly benefit the wealthy<\/a>\u201c: <\/p>\n

\n

\u201cThere\u2019s one big difference between me and the others\u2013I won\u2019t take every last dime of the surplus and spend it on tax cuts that mostly benefit the wealthy<\/strong>.\u201d [McCain campaign commercial, January 2000] <\/p>\n

\u201cI am disappointed that the Senate Finance Committee preferred instead to cut the top tax rate of 39.6% to 36%, thereby granting generous tax relief to the wealthiest individuals of our country at the expense of lower- and middle-income American taxpayers<\/strong>.\u201d [McCain Senate floor statement, May 21, 2001] <\/p>\n

\u201cBut when you look at the percentage of the tax cuts that\u2013as the previous tax cuts\u2013that go to the wealthiest Americans, you will find that the bulk of it, again, goes to wealthiest Americans<\/strong>.\u201d [NBC\u2019s \u201cToday,\u201d Jan. 7, 2003]<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

McCain now appears more interested in protecting the \u201cwealthy\u201d than he does in straight talk.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

Think Progress \u00bb New McCain Rips Old McCain\u2019s Argument That Bush Tax Cuts Benefit The \u2018Wealthy\u2019<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Think Progress \u00bb New McCain Rips Old McCain\u2019s Argument That Bush Tax Cuts Benefit The \u2018Wealthy\u2019 On ABC\u2019s This Week today, host George Stephanopoulos asked Sen. John McCain (R-AZ) about Democratic proposals to protect \u201cmiddle-income Americans\u201d and \u201conly raise\u201d taxes \u201con the wealthy.\u201d In response, McCain bristled at Stephanopoulos\u2019s distinction, mockingly warning against rhetoric that … Continue reading Which McCain?<\/span> →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[16],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2411","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-election"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.edgewiseblog.com\/mjh\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2411","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.edgewiseblog.com\/mjh\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.edgewiseblog.com\/mjh\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.edgewiseblog.com\/mjh\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.edgewiseblog.com\/mjh\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2411"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.edgewiseblog.com\/mjh\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2411\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.edgewiseblog.com\/mjh\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2411"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.edgewiseblog.com\/mjh\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2411"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.edgewiseblog.com\/mjh\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2411"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}