The Wonk Room

Bob Novak, Prince of Populism

Our guest blogger is Robert Gordon, a Senior Fellow at the Center for American Progress Action Fund.

For years, columnist Robert Novak has supported Republican efforts to eliminate the estate tax and “attack double taxation of corporate income.” He has embraced the argument of Social Security privatizers that an unchanged program requires borrowing “as far as the eye can see.”

That was then. In today’s column, Novak pushes Senator John McCain to embrace a cut in the “regressive payroll tax” as “an opportunity to reach out beyond top-bracket taxpayers, big business and high finance.” Social Security now has “enough money” to sustain the cut in revenue.

Has Bob Novak converted to the “populist, class warfare” worldview? Does he now support the CAP tax plan? Senator McCain already has pretty much the agenda that Novak used to support. Sen. McCain is “attacking the double taxation of corporate income” by pushing reductions in corporate taxes. He is supporting Social Security privatization.

Novak probably knows what he is doing. The Bush-McCain-Norquist agenda will not sell come November. So Novak is trying to make space for Senator McCain to change his mind on taxes. Again.