Let’s get ready to rumble. Yes ladies and gentleman…progressive taxation is now akin to “robbing a bank.” Straight from Wurzelbacher’s mouth. Amazing.

As the final week of the campaign begins, John McCain appears prepared to ride his economic message through until the end. And that message is simple: lower taxes and less spending, with some banking regulations thrown in for good measure. McCain is careful to point out that his economic policies will differ greatly from those [...]

After reading this anti-Republican rant from David Sirota, I’m going to make a bold suggestion: can we stop talking about which class is stealing which other class’ money and start addressing our tax code without the ideological blinders on? Sirota makes the typical and typically contorted argument that the Republicans have let the rich steal [...]

I’ve been hard on Barack Obama’s tax plan. But I wish John McCain would stop referring to the Obama plan as socialist. It’s not bold enough or broad enough to be considered socialist. You want socialism, check out the $700 billion bank bailout. Of course, both candidates voted for that. McCain, for all his independent [...]

William McGurn of the Wall Street Journal explains the accounting shell game of the Barack Obama tax plan. Here’s how it will work: Under Obama’s tax plan, 44% of Americans will owe no income taxes but many will get a “tax cut” anyway. Meaning they’ll get more back from the IRS than they put in. [...]

The Christian Science Monitor has an interesting article looking at the effect of Colin Powell’s endorsement versus Joe the Plumber’s symbolic resonance. Do people care more about the decision of a statesman or about the concerns of an aspiring small businessman? The CSM article gives both sides of the story. But, as far as I’m [...]

Well, I think we all saw this coming. Looks like after “Barack Obama is a vapid celebrity” lost gas and “Obama is a terrorist’s best friend” turned more people off than it excited, John McCain is reaching for the oldest Republican attack in the book: ”He’ll raise your taxes.” McCain set this up in the [...]

We all know that Barack Obama is promising to cut the taxes of 95% of Americans, right? Well … that depends on what you mean by “tax cut.” The Obama tax plan is an overgrown field of tax credits, not tax cuts. Why is this important? As the Wall Street Journal explained earlier this week, [...]

The Wall Street Journal gives us the conservative doomsday scenario of a Democratic supermajority. The Journal is certainly right that we may be on the verge of liberal hegemony not seen since 1965 and the mid-1930’s. Question is: is the paper right about the damage that control would cause? The Journal warns: In both 1933 [...]

Because, once again, we see a voter that’s apparently voting against their interests. Fact: fewer than 2% of all small businesses would see a tax hike under Obama’s tax plan. Fact: Since Joe apparently makes under $100,000, he would actually see a much bigger tax cut under Obama’s tax plan. Fact: Since Joe apparently didn’t [...]

I think Joe the Plumber is going to be one of those quirky political moments we’ll all remember for years to come. But outside of his name being invoked ad nauseam last night, do the concerns of Joe Wurzelbacher mean anything to this election? I’d say yes. And here’s why: while 95% of Americans may [...]

You’ve just seen the part where Obama talks about spreading the wealth around. What you didn’t see was the entire 5 minute exchange… I wonder if the McCain camp saw the entire clip before he made Joe a star. Also, I wonder who “Joe The Plumber” is voting for.

While McCain is apparently “rebooting” his campaign with little more than a speech claiming he’s an underdog, Obama is proposing new economic plans. From CNN: The Democratic nominee will propose a temporary tax credit for firms that create new jobs in the United States over the next two years, and penalty-free withdrawals from IRAs and [...]

Writing for the Wall Street Journal, William McGurn reminds us what happened the last time a Democrat presidential candidate promised to cut middle-class taxes. That’s right, Bill Clinton forgot his pledge even before taking office and went on to raise taxes on almost everyone. Is there any reason to expect a repeat from a Barack [...]

At this late in the game, revealing something like this could really hurt McCain’s support among the elderly. Because it plays directly into Obama’s message that McCain’s plans would leave people without insurance. And with McCain’s staff agreeing that an average of $130 billion a year would be cut in the next 10 years, I’m [...]

As expected, the bailout bill (with extra sweetener) has passed the Senate. The vote was 74-25 with both John McCain and Barack Obama voting in favor of the plan. The bill the Senate passed is virtually identical to the one the House rejected on Monday. The only real difference is the add-ons. The most directly [...]

First things first…an explanation of what’s going on. Basically, nobody is willing to buy these packages of mortgages. This is why banks are having cash flow problems and not lending money…because they can’t sell these packages and they’re worried they won’t have enough liquid assets. But let’s be clear…a good 80% of these mortgages are [...]

It’s a fair attack on Obama’s economic policies, but with Barack offering his 2 minute commercial on the economy yesterday, I wonder if McCain’s missing an opportunity to answer with something more substantive than the typical “tax and spend” horror stories. After all, the government has literally had to save the fundamental building blocks of [...]

This morning on Good Morning America, Joe Biden said that it’s time for wealthy Americans ”to be patriotic” and pay higher taxes. I was unaware that giving money to the government was a patriotic act. Maybe instead of dreading April 15th, I should hold a barbeque and set off fireworks. Of course, under the proposed [...]

When McCain’s folks can’t even sell their snake oil to Fox News, you know it’s pretty bad whiskey. This has not been a good week for McCain’s reputation as a truth teller. Let’s hope he quits lying.