Posted on 04/15/2008 9:18:38 AM PDT by BJClinton
PITTSBURGH - John McCain called Tuesday for the federal government to free people from paying gasoline taxes this summer and ensure that college students can secure loans this fall, proposals aimed at stemming the public's pain now from the troubled economy.
In the longer-term, the certain Republican presidential nominee said he would double the tax exemption for dependent children and offer people the option of choosing a simpler tax system.
"We know from experience that no serious reform of the current tax code will come out of Congress, so now it is time to turn the decision over to the people," McCain said in a sweeping economic speech at Carnegie Mellon University a week before Pennsylvania's primaries.
To help people weather the downturn immediately, McCain urged Congress to institute a "gas-tax holiday" by suspending the 18.4 cent federal gas tax and 24.4 cent diesel tax from Memorial Day to Labor Day. He also renewed his call for the United States to stop adding to the Strategic Petroleum Reserve and thus lessen to some extent the worldwide demand for oil.
Combined, he said, the two proposals would reduce gas prices, which would have a trickle-down effect, and "help to spread relief across the American economy."
Addressing the feared fallout of the ongoing credit crunch, McCain also said the Education Department should work with the country's governors to make sure that each state's guarantee agency — nonprofits that traditionally back student loans issued by banks — has both the means and the manpower to be the lender-of-last-resort for student loans.
Lawmakers, students and financial experts are worried that the credit crisis might make it more difficult for students and their families to find loans. Nearly two dozen lenders have dropped out of the federally backed student loan program.
Students, McCain said, "should not be denied an education because the recklessness of others has made credit too hard to obtain."
Among other proposals, McCain said he would:
_Require more affluent people — couples making more than $160,000 — enrolled in Medicare to pay a higher premium for their prescription drugs than less-wealthy people.
_Raise the tax exemption for each dependent child from $3,500 to $7,000.
_Offer people the option of choosing a simpler tax system with two tax rates and a standard deduction instead of sticking with the current system.
_Suspend for one year all increases in discretionary spending for agencies other than those that cover the military and veterans while launching an expansive review of the effectiveness of federal programs.
Obama campaign spokesman Bill Burton said McCain's proposals offer "no change from George Bush's failed policies by going full speed ahead with fiscally irresponsible tax cuts for the wealthiest Americans," and amount to "a gift basket of new tax cuts for corporate America at a time when some CEOs are making more in a day than some workers make in a year."
The four-term Arizona senator packaged the fresh proposals with long-standing positions in a wide-ranging economic speech on Tax Day in which he faulted not only Democrats but also fellow Republicans for failing to practice prudent spending and fix pricey entitlement programs.
"In so many ways, we need to make a clean break from the worst excesses of both political parties," McCain said, adding "somewhere along the way, too many Republicans in Congress became indistinguishable from the big-spending Democrats they used to oppose."
He also argued that Democratic rivals Barack Obama and Hillary Rodham Clinton would impose the single largest tax increase since World War II by allowing tax cuts enacted in 2001 and 2003 — and that McCain voted against but now wants to make permanent — to expire.
"Both promise big 'change.' And a trillion dollars in new taxes over the next decade would certainly fit that description," McCain said. Playing on the title of an Obama book, McCain added: "All these tax increases are the fine print under the slogan of 'hope:' They're going to raise your taxes by thousands of dollars per year — and they have the audacity to hope you don't mind."
The speech was part of McCain's ongoing effort to counter the notion — fueled by his own previous comments — that he's not as strong on the economy as he is on other issues. He also sought to fend off criticism from Democrats, including Obama and Clinton, that his small-government, free-market stances don't mesh with people feeling the pinch — particularly those hurting now.
He made his remarks a day after he said he believes the country has already entered a recession, a label the Bush administration has resisted even as a credit crisis, a housing slump, soaring energy costs and rising layoffs combined to soften the economy.
The speech also came the same morning the Labor Department reported another worrisome sign for the economy: Inflation at the wholesale level soared in March at nearly triple the rate that had been expected as the costs of energy and food both climbed rapidly. Oil prices hit a new high, rising over $112 a barrel for the first time.
What next? Will he propose the opening of new oil fields to the oil companies? ANWR?
Pure socialism.
So you oppose cutting or suspending the gas tax???
McCain said he knows very little about how the economy works. If gas prices are truly driven by market pressures, removing the taxes would be expected to have little effect on the price at the pump. And too, even if (and it’s a very big “if”) retailers and wholesalers actually passed the savings toward the consumers, increased demand would drive the cost right back up. It’s an idea not well thought out.
“he would double the tax exemption for dependent children”
That’s not an improvement for me! I’m single, no kids, and self-employed. Guess I’m screwed again! Pay for your own kids!
Oh, it is just the "Principled Conservative Thumb-Suckers" still whining that they didn't get their way in the primaries.
No, I think he just opposes John McCain saying or doing anything that makes sense.
I think much of that tax has been siphoned off to general revenue, which is why our bridges and highways are falling apart.
Carolyn
Yeah, looks like McCain Derangement Syndrome. Leads to conservatives opposing tax cuts.
And none of your customers have kids? Get used to some favoritism towards families. It's a political reality and not that big a deal. I am self-employed without kiddies, but I can see how anything that helps the overall economy helps my customer base which in turn helps me.
It would also allow McCain to separate himself from the GW highpriests.
So McCain wants to institute a process for national referendum? It's bad enough that most of the states allow the fox to tell the chicken what's for dinner, a national referendum system will bring this country down PDQ. This is antithetical to what the republic was built upon, and the founding fathers must be pounding on their coffin lids.
Very true, however, I got the impression from the article that these were 'stop gaps' to relieve tax pressure on tax payers while he works out something more permanent.
My impression could be wrong, but that's what this quote from the article sounds like to me: "In the longer-term, the certain Republican presidential nominee said he would double the tax exemption for dependent children and offer people the option of choosing a simpler tax system."
Today’s not a good day to bug me! I just wrote two more checks! Off to the PO!
It’s my money up until the last minute of the deadline. Now it’s theirs to waste. If they would have stayed within the Constitutional restraints, they wouldn’t need so much, and what’s being discussed wouldn’t be necessary!
It's a step in the wrong direction. It shifts an even higher percentage of the tax burden toward higher income earners.
It's more wealth redistribution.
We need broad based tax cuts, not political pandering through the tax system.
And yes I do have kids and would benefit from an increase in the per-child deduction. It is still a bad way to go about tax relief.
McQueeg knows perfectly well that congress will not suspend the federal gas tax. Good political ploy however.
So you're saying that his political pandering and wealth redistribution is effective, and that your support can be bought at the expense of others?
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