Las Vegas Sun

June 3, 2012

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Sun editorial:

McCain the socialist?

Republican nominee once opposed tax cuts because they’d — gasp — benefit the rich

Friday, Oct. 24, 2008 | 2:07 a.m.

If there was one thing John McCain had going for him entering this year’s presidential election, it was his image as a straight shooter, someone who would tell it like it is.

But, as we’ve seen during this election, that image has been torn asunder by his campaign’s ruthless tactics that nonchalantly twist the truth and prey on people’s worst fears.

McCain is desperate to make up ground on Barack Obama, who holds a sizable lead in most respected polls, so now he is saying Obama is furthering a socialist agenda.

In the Republican playbook, the word “socialist” is code for “communist,” and this is nothing short of character assassination on McCain’s part.

What McCain seized on was this recent statement from Obama to the now famous Joe the Plumber: “I think that when you spread the wealth around, it’s good for everybody.”

As is clear, Obama didn’t say he was promoting a socialist agenda. He was talking about tax policy and, specifically, the differences between his tax cut proposals and McCain’s.

Obama’s tax plan would simply ensure that more people of modest means would see greater tax relief — the hardworking men and women who didn’t get the big tax breaks that wealthy Americans and large corporations received during the Bush presidency. Additionally, families that earn more than $250,000 a year, just 5 percent of the population, would pay higher taxes under Obama’s plan.

Now, McCain might try to make Americans think something sinister is going on here, but give us a break. When President Bush’s tax cuts were passed early in his presidency, we didn’t hear wealthier individuals and big corporations argue against them, saying a socialist redistribution of wealth was occurring.

What is interesting is that McCain actually voted against Bush’s tax cuts in 2001. Courtesy of CNN’s Fact Check, here is what McCain said in 2001: “I cannot in good conscience support a tax cut in which so many of the benefits go to the most fortunate among us, at the expense of middle-class Americans who most need tax relief.”

CNN’s Fact Check noted that McCain then voted in 2003 against Bush’s next round of tax cuts; he told a Wall Street Journal reporter at the time the tax cuts were “too tilted to the wealthy.”

Why, if we didn’t know any better, it would seem that McCain could teach Obama a thing or two about class warfare.

This whole argument about socialism is ridiculous.

Does McCain believe we should get rid of Social Security? Should we get rid of Medicare? Those are government programs for which no one can be turned away, so does that mean those who receive such benefits are card-carrying socialists?

All of us are required to pay taxes for roads and schools and for police and fire protection, even if we might not need one of those services. Is that socialism?

McCain, along with Obama, voted for the $700 billion rescue package to address the financial crisis. Does that make McCain a socialist?

For that matter, the federal government provides huge subsidies to oil and gas companies — big Republican campaign contributors, by the way — that aren’t offered to mom and pop businesses. Is that socialism?

Government assistance, apparently, is socialism if you want to extend it to those who are not already getting a cut of the action.

That McCain, in the closing weeks of the campaign, is trying to raise such a laughable issue shows what little he has to offer to the American people.

The economy is a wreck, the public mood is anxious and looking for leadership, and this is what McCain is offering: An attack on Obama because he wants to “spread the wealth” after eight years of a Bush administration that has handsomely benefited the wealthy.

The American people certainly deserved better this election from McCain, someone who still has the audacity to promote himself as a political maverick.

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