http://www.tampabay.com/news/perspective/article771618.ece...
The sad truth of the last two two-term Republican presidents is that their economic premise, the key part of their economic game plan, simply has not done what it's supposed to do.
That is, cutting taxes, especially on upper-income Americans, does not generate so much economic activity that it replaces all the lost IRS take and then some. At least those have been the results so far. When Ronald Reagan lowered taxes, personal income tax revenue stagnated from 1982 to 1984. Now, you may say that revenue rose sharply after that. So maybe that was a mixed result.
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The question is simply this: Do we want to step up to the plate like responsible people — I hate to say this, but the last responsible people who actually did this were named Bill and Bob (Clinton and Rubin) — and shoulder our responsibilities? Or do we just kick the can down the road a bit and leave the mess for our children and their children?
And if we do raise taxes, should people who are barely getting by pay them or should people who are getting by very nicely pay them?
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Somehow, Republicans (and I am a Republican) have forgotten this basic lesson of adulthood. Maybe McCain is grown up enough to remind us of the real urgency of personal and national responsibility. Or maybe not.