The Tax Cut Flop

Jonathan Weisman profiles John McCain's tax cut flip-floppery. It seems worth adding a few points here for context. One is that the sum of money involved is enormous -- this isn't some small point of detail, but a fundamental, really large public policy issue. The other is that McCain hasn't made any real effort to explain himself, he's just misportrayed his past position and sent Doug Holt-Eakin out to say things like "He's looking forward, not back." And that's great -- a campaign should focus on the future. But still, we're normally interested in understanding the thinking of our candidates for public office. When a candidate can't explain a change of position, it's usually just that he doesn't really give a damn about the underlying question so figured he should blow with the wind. And so far as that goes, fine -- I don't really care if McCain has flip-flopped on tobacco regulations or not. But what we're seeing here is that McCain takes a devil may care attitude to the largest macroeconomic policy decisions the president faces.

This article available online at:

http://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2008/04/the-tax-cut-flop/44541/