I think his flip flopping on and admitted illiteracy about economic and tax policy issues has the potential, by itself, to diminish his conseravtive support, but, it hasnt so far.....
Quote:
http://www.opinionjournal.com/editor...l?id=110007600
'Reform. Reform. Reform.'
John McCain explains his eclectic--and troubling--economic philosophy.
by STEPHEN MOORE
Saturday, November 26, 2005 12:01 a.m. EST
....On a broader range of economic issues, though, Mr. McCain readily departs from Reaganomics. His philosophy is best described as a work in progress. He is refreshingly blunt when he tell me: "I'm going to be honest: I know a lot less about economics than I do about military and foreign policy issues. I still need to be educated." OK, so who does he turn to for advice? His answer is reassuring. His foremost economic guru is former Texas Sen. Phil Gramm (who would almost certainly be Treasury secretary in a McCain administration). He's also friendly with the godfather of supply-side economics, Arthur Laffer.
But Mr. McCain is no antitax supply-sider himself. He grandstanded against the Bush capital-gains and dividend tax cuts and even co-sponsored an amendment with Tom Daschle to scuttle the reduction in the highest income-tax rates. Why? "I just thought it was too tilted to the wealthy and I still do. I want to cut the taxes on the middle class." Even when I confront him with emphatic evidence that those tax cuts have been an economic triumph and have increased revenues, he is unrepentant and defends his "no" vote by falling back on class-warfare type thinking: "We have a wealth gap in this country, and that worries me."
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Quote:
http://www.boston.com/news/politics/..._its_abou.html
December 18, 2007
....McCain suggested to reporters Monday that American consumer culture offered a short cut to expertise. "The issue
of economics is not something I've understood as well as I should," McCain said. "I've got Greenspan's book."...
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