McCainomics, part 1

Lipstick and pigs aside, the real issues of this election need to be brought to the forefront of the discussion--and to the public's mind. Foreign policy, national security, energy independence, climate change and a myriad of serious issues facing the country all come to mind. And of course, health care and tax policy. As proven over the last couple of weeks the McCain campaign cannot win on the issues and is running on the politics of distraction. What should be important to all Americans are the radical changes that a McCain-Palin administration would bring to the country. Bob Herbert, in today's New York Times addresses the issue of McCain's tax policy and how it would effect, quite disastrously, millions of Americans who have employer based coverage. In short, his proposals would consider these health plans as income and tax employees who have them. This from a man who believes that capital gains taxes should be lowered and those who gain that kind of unearned income should, in effect, pay less than those with earned income (ie. from actual work). Of course, this is all part of a plan to move Americans from employer based health care to the private marketplace which, according to the authors of the study that Herbert cites in his piece would, "tend to raise costs, reduce the generosity of benefits, and leave people with fewer consumer protections."

The simple sound bite of this should be that McCain is going to raise taxes. And of course, the underlying reason for this is his proposed movement to marketplace insurance and a radical change in the insurance system. Certainly, this is change we DON'T need from 'mavericks' who subscribe to the traditional Republican right-wing ideology.