The McCain "Transfer of Wealth"

In many ways, John McCain is a symbol of the failure of the Republican Party. He didn't cause the failure, but he is a symbol of the Republican Party's transformation into a party that no longer values fiscal responsibility. In its place, we have a massive National Debt that will be passed on to our children and grandchildren.

This is most evident in McCain's views on tax policy. His views today are dramatically different than they were just a few years ago. In an interesting article documenting these changes ("John McCain: Straight Talk on Taxes?"), Citizens for Tax Justice concludes that's it's impossible to pin down what John McCain really believes.

At a time when the concentration of wealth in America is reaching record levels, we have McCain branding Obama's tax plans as "socialist" and complaining about "transfers of wealth" and "class warfare."

Well, the transfer of wealth already happened, and it has concentrated the share of the nation’s income (20%) flowing to the top 1 percent of Americans to its highest level since 1928, according to a study cited by the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities. It's not a coincidence that the stock market crash of 1929 came just a year later.

The Obama plan to increase the top income tax rate to 39.6% is still well below the top rate from 1932 to 1986, a period that includes several Republican Presidents. Back then, Republicans did what they had to do to balance the budget. But that was before "Reagan proved deficits don't matter," as Dick Cheney puts it.

John McCain would like to be thought of as one of the great leaders of the Republican Party, but these leaders understood the importance of a fair and balanced tax policy:

President Theodore Roosevelt - December 3, 1906

The man of great wealth owes a peculiar obligation to the State, because he derives special advantages from the mere existence of government. Not only should he recognize this obligation in the way he leads his daily life and in the way he earns and spends his money, but it should also be recognized by the way in which he pays for the protection the State gives him.

President Dwight Eisenhower - October 17, 1960

In many countries of the free world private enterprise is greatly different from what we know here. In some, a few families are fabulously wealthy, contribute far less than they should in taxes, and are indifferent to the poverty of the great masses of the people. Broad purchasing power does not, therefore, exist, even for the domestic products of the nation. A country in this situation is fraught with continual instability.

Instead, John McCain is more likely to be remembered as a carbon-copy of George W. Bush and his failed "trickle down" economics policies. Not the legacy he had hoped for, I suspect.