The Wonk Room

McCain’s Plan For American Families Is Far From ‘Grand’

In their new book, ‘Grand New Party,’ Ross Douthat and Reihan Salam urge the GOP to refocus on shoring up the economic well-being of the American family.

But in a review of the book in the New Republic, Robert Gordon points out that, while many politicians on the left are already heeding Douthat and Salam’s advice, John McCain certainly isn’t.

One place this is clearly evident is in John McCain’s tax plan, which showers money on corporations and the super-rich while leaving middle class families and their kids high and dry.

According to Tax Policy Center figures, McCain’s plan is worse than his opponent’s for the bottom 80% of American families with children and far, far worse for the bottom 40% of families with children.

As Gordon explains:

McCain has “one break for most families–the expansion of the dependent exemption–but that proposal is worth more than twice as much to a millionaire as to a median family, and because it is not refundable, it is worth nothing to poor families and little to many in the working-class.“

Read Gordon’s full piece here.