McCain's Flip on Taxes for the Wealthy on Tape
I've been looking for this video so props to ThinkProgress for tracking it down. Check out what John McCain thought about increasing taxes (slightly, like Obama is proposing) just a few years ago.
McCain on Taxing the Wealthiest Americans in 2000
Back then, McCain said:
[T]he very wealthy, because they can afford tax lawyers and all kinds of loopholes, really don't pay nearly as much as you think they do when you just look at the percentages. [...]So, look, here's what I really believe, that when you are — reach a certain level of comfort, there's nothing wrong with paying somewhat more. ... And frankly, I think the first people who deserve a tax cut are working Americans with children that need to educate their children, and they're the ones that I would support tax cuts for first.
But these days he says:
Oh, yes, sure, the wealthy, the wealthy. Always be interested in when people talk about who the, quote, 'wealthy,'" mocked McCain in February when asked about his pro-rich tax plan.
So, what's changed since then? Well, we've lost a shitload of jobs since Bush has been president, but the conservative argument is that tax cuts for the wealthy INCREASE job creation and that hasn't panned out. We've also seen an explosion of federal debt under George W. Bush and 6 of 8 years GOP rule in congress. So where has the John McCain of 2000 gone?
For one, that dude has been locked in a lead box and replaced with Tax Cut and Spend John McCain 2008 who will seemingly do and say anything to appeal to the base who knows nothing but that taxes (and liberals, and homos, and learnin' are evil). So, did McCain have some sort of epiphany in the eight years that have passed or is this just more of the same base pandering we've come to expect?
