Remembering the Poor and Forgetting Them Again
Just last week John McCain announced his economic plan which largely consisted of continuing the Bush tax cuts to the wealthy and going even further by providing massive tax giveaways to some of the largest corporations in the world. McCain even came to Milwaukee to have a closed door meeting with big business elites. Neither at that meeting nor in John McCain’s economic plan could you find a place for the poor. Yet that has not stopped him from having what he calls a ‘forgotten places’ tour this week. Different week, different McCain.
In announcing the tour McCain said that ‘there must be no forgotten places in America’ but his economic policies don’t support that rhetoric. The centerpiece of McCain’s economic plan is almost entirely focused on corporate America and giving them trillions in tax breaks. That along with his flip-flop on the Bush tax cuts for the wealthy will prove costly to our nation’s treasury. Since McCain can’t possibly pay for these giveaways, he has called for a yearlong freeze in federal spending to at least help close some of his proposed budgetary gap. At a time when the cost for everything is continually rising, such a proposal will essentially cut valuable programs that serve the average American and the poor.
Someone should tell John McCain that you can’t remember the poor during a heavily scripted campaign tour but forget them when you are developing budgets and policies that have a negative impact on their lives.