Tax Advocacy Group Applauds McCain's Anti-Tax Stance

by Mike Godfrey, Tax-News.com, Washington

05 August 2008

Americans for Tax Reform (ATR), the low tax pressure group, has applauded presumptive Republican presidential nominee Sen. John McCain for his repeated promises to protect taxpayers by opposing any future tax increases.

According to ATR, McCain provided his clearest indication yet that he would oppose any efforts to raise US taxes during a town hall-style meeting in Aurora, Colorado on 29th July.

“I want to look you in the eye: I will not raise your taxes nor support a tax increase. I will not do it," McCain told the gathering.

“I am opposed to raising taxes on Social Security. I want to fix the system without raising taxes," he added.

ATR also points to four other instances when McCain promised to "unequivocally" oppose any tax increase, including a televised interview in February where he put the case for business, as well as personal, tax relief.

"I could see an argument if our economy continues to deteriorate for lower interest rates, lower tax rates and certainly decreasing corporate tax rates, which are the second-highest in the world, giving people the ability to write off depreciation in a year, elimination of the AMT. There’s a lot of things that I would think we should to relieve that burden, including, obviously, as we all know, simplification of the tax code," McCain told George Stephanopoulos on the This Week show.

McCain also indicated during an interview with CBS in the same month that, as President, he would be prepared to veto any legislation proposed under a Democrat-controlled Congress that would raise taxes.

"I think if we’re going to be in some shaky times, and by the way I believe the fundamentals of America’s economy are still strong, then the worst thing you can do is increase taxes at that time," McCain argued.

In his tax and economic policy plan, laid out on tax filing deadline day on 15th April, McCain emphasized that he would fight to permanently retain tax cuts passed under the Bush administration - despite opposing much of the legislation when it was first proposed.

Another key element of McCain's tax strategy is his proposal to cut the federal rate of corporate tax to 25% from its current level of 35%, in doing so aligning it with the average corporate tax rate levied in America's main trading partners.

Under other pro-innovation measures, McCain would also seek to ban internet taxes (an issue he has unsuccessfully championed in the Senate), block new taxes on the use of cellular phones, and establish a permanent tax credit equal to 10% of wages spent on research and development.

He has also spoken of making the US tax code "vastly less complicated" with the introduction of two tax rates and a generous standard deduction within a 'parallel' tax system, although critics of this plan argue that it is neither feasible nor 'simple.'

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