...with tax cuts for the, um, not poor.
Grandpa visited a shuttered factory in Ohio yesterday on his "I care, really I do" tour (not sure if his $100 million wife was there), and talked about free trade vs. protectionism, encouraging the out-of-work folks there to consider going to community college and learning how to work a computer. You know, be part of the "knowledge economy".
According to this article, his big plan to help these folks is...wait for it...see if you can guess (hint - he's a Republican)...yup, tax credits.
Sen. McCain, who is a father of seven, proposed doubling the tax credit for children. In Youngstown, nearly half of single-working-mother families live in poverty. Sen. McCain said the current tax credit isn't adjusted for inflation and the increased credit would allow adults to "invest more in their own families."
Listen, let's assume that the half of single-working-mother families living in poverty include two children, for the sake of this exercise. According to the most recent HHS poverty guidelines (pdf), a family of three has to make less than $17,170 to be considered "in poverty".
Um, Grandpa? How much do people making less than $17,000 pay in taxes?
I don't have a problem (for the most part) with a higher tax credit for kids. Childcare is expensive, and it's the kind of thing where the government can help you out in this way. But let's face it. This is McCain picking low-hanging fruit; he doesn't know how to help these folks without abandoning his ideology, so he appeals to "I'm helping your kids!". It's the opposite of a third rail. And the reality is, this will help middle-class families and have little to no impact on folks in poverty - while it's great to help middle-class families, and there should be a lot more of that than there is here, we've got a rapidly expanding bottom tier economically, and keeping the conservative blinders on isn't going to make things better for them.
Grandpa McCain's tax policy is immoral. Telling families in poverty that you'll help them by giving tax credits to middle-class families is like telling the failing neighborhood store that you'll help them by shopping at Wal-Mart. It's not just immoral, it's stupid.
{As always, cross-posted to Switzerblog}