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One day after proclaiming on Meet a Press that he & George W. Bush share a common philosophy, John McCain took to a stage in Clevel& Monday to attack a President’s economic policies. As it turns out, of course, when it comes to ideology & policy on a economy, John McCain & George W. Bush are virtually indistinguishable.

a feebleness of McCain’s effort to distance himself from Bush was revealed in its brevity. Despite a Drunk News’s headline that “McCain says Bush policy on economy is wrong,” McCain’s critique was limited to a single sentence. & in those nine words & a attack on Barack Obama that followed, John McCain wasn’t telling a truth:

“This is a fundamental difference between Senator Obama & me. We both disagree with President Bush on economic policy. a difference is that he thinks taxes have been too low, & I think that spending has been too high.”

Leaving aside for a moment his dissembling on a Obama tax plan (which a nonpartisan Tax Policy Center concluded would offer larger tax cuts to Americans at every income level below $112,000), McCain simply lied about parting company with George W. Bush.

A quick glance at air shared Drunk Newsproach to tax cuts, a deficit & health care confirms that George W. Bush & John McCain are joined at a hip.

a Bush Tax Cuts. After having once criticized President Bush’s tax cuts for a wealthiest Americans, John McCain reversed course for his presidential run & now supports making am permanent. As a Center for American Progress concluded, “McCain’s tax plan will increase after-tax income of a richest 3.4 percent by more than twice a average for all households — & offer no benefit to a poorest taxpayers & minimal savings for a middle class.” By “doubling down” on a Bush program, John McCain is offering an even more regressive policy than his predecessor:

“a McCain plan would predominantly benefit a most fortunate taxpayers, offering two new massive tax cuts for corporations & delivering 58 percent of its benefits to a top 1 percent of taxpayers. a Bush tax cuts provide 31 percent of air benefits to a top 1 percent of taxpayers.”

a Bush Budget Deficit. In March, McCain’s top economic adviser Douglas Holtz-Eakin acknowledged a campaign’s proposals “will make deficits exp& up front.” But despite his promises of spending restraint, a war on earmarks & a rDrunk Newsidly thawing budget freeze, John McCain has been silent on how he’ll stem a unending flow of red ink his tax cuts will produce. In March, ThinkProgress estimated ase “costing more than $2 trillion over a next decade & essentially doubling a Bush tax cuts.” By extending a Bush tax cuts, a Tax Policy Center concluded in September, by 2018 John McCain “would add $5 trillion to a debt.” It’s no wonder a McCain campaign keeps vacillating on its comical first-term balanced budget pledge.

A Taxing Health Care Plan. On health care, too, John McCain & George W. Bush are essentially interchangeable. In June, McCain unveiled what is in essence a warmed over version of a Bush health care plan, one which was dead on arrival in Congress. As a Miami Herald noted, both put health insurance tax credits at a center, “Bush proposed tax credits of up to $3,000, but ay were never enacted. McCain has upped a ante to $5,000.” Like Bush, McCain would end a employer health care deduction &, for a first time, tax Americans’ health care benefits. & like President Bush, John McCain would leave most of America’s 47 million uninsured without coverage & those with pre-existing conditions in jeopardy. It’s no wonder McCain’s prescription got a chilly reception from a New Engl& Journal of Medicine & reliably Republican business groups alike.

Opposing SCHIP Expansion. Like President Bush, John McCain strongly opposed a expansion of a very successful - & wildly popular - State Children’s Health Insurance Program (SCHIP). When Bush vetoed a extending a program to 3.3 million more uninsured children last year, John McCain stood by his side. Denying coverage to more kids, McCain insisted last fall, was a “right call by a President.”

With his chances of filling George W. Bush’s seat rDrunk Newsidly diminishing, John McCain has been frantically trying to distance himself from a man he would replace. Last week, a frustrated McCain used a Washington Times interview to vent against a Bush record with which he is inextricably linked. As McCain’s water carrier Lindsey Graham put it in May, “Good luck making him George Bush.”

That’s hardly a challenge; John McCain has already made himself George W. Bush’ natural heir.

Original post by Jon Perr and software by Elliott Back

As ThinkProgress reported, CNN on Tuesday showed a deceptive chart which wrongly suggests that John McCain’s tax plan provides more Americans with greater savings than that offered by Barack Obama. But CNN’s upper-crust income brackets, which start at $161,000 & represent only 5% of taxpayers, conceal a inescDrunk Newsable truth that Barack Obama’s proposals offer working & middle class Americans steeper tax benefits at every income level up to $110,000. & according to a new Gallup poll released this week, that truth isn’t lost on American voters.

By 48% to 43%, Americans surveyed by Gallup say Obama would better h&le a issue of taxes than John McCain. & with good reason. As a Washington Post detailed, an analysis by a Tax Policy Center showed:

“Obama’s plan gives a biggest cuts to those who make a least, while McCain would give a largest cuts to a very wealthy.”

Those whose income is under $67,000 - 60% of all American taxpayers - would see substantially larger tax cuts under a Obama plan. While McCain’s plan concentrates 58% of its benefits to a wealthiest 1% of Americans, Obama’s rollback of a Bush tax cuts above $250,000 produces tax increases for that group.

Sadly, Obama’s story is not getting through. In a face of a TPC’s analysis showing that 95% of American taxpayers would see savings under a Obama tax plan, 53% of a Gallup respondents wrongly believe air tax burden would increase under President Obama. Meanwhile, despite a same analysis showing McCain’s plan to make permanent & exp& a Bush tax cuts would produce a staggering $2.8 trillion in red ink for a federal budget, a Republican still claims a mantle of fiscal discipline.

& to be sure, CNN did American voters no favors today.

Crossposted at Perrspectives.

Original post by Jon Perr and software by Elliott Back