The Wonk Room

The McCain Tax Cut Cost-o-Meter

Our guest blogger is Adam Jentleson, the Communications and Outreach Director for the Hyde Park Project at the Center for American Progress Action Fund.

John McCain wants to double the Bush tax cuts. But how does this erstwhile fiscal conservative plan to pay for it? An excellent question – and one his campaign has so far failed to answer.

McCain’s tax plan would cost a whopping $300 billion (to put that in perspective, we spend about $200 billion a year on the war in Iraq). According to our accounting, McCain has so far managed to offset a grand total of $33 billion, or 11% of his tax cut.

As we have chronicled on this blog, the other savings McCain claims are bogus. So where will this former budget hawk come up with the more than $250 billion he needs to pay for his plan?

In an effort to hold McCain accountable, The Wonk Room is introducing the Tax Cut Cost-o-Meter, which documents the gap between McCain’s tax cuts and the offsets he proposes to pay for them.

We’ll be updating our new thermometer as the McCain campaign finds ways to pay for its tax cuts — or doesn’t, as the case may be.