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First, McCain has been on record in recent weeks stating that he would not raise taxes. According to the WSJ article, he's backing off on that just a bit. "Asked in The Wall Street Journal interview to clarify, Sen. McCain softened that stance. 'I'm not making a 'read my lips' statement, in that I will not raise taxes,' he says. 'But I'm not saying I can envision a scenario where I would, OK?'"
It would have been nice to see McCain make reference to the Congress just a bit, since it is Congress, not the President, that has the power raise revenue. The off-hand way in which McCain references the Presidency's supposed power to raise taxes should serve as an indicator that McCain, like Bush and most other presidents of recent memory, adheres to the ridiculous and dangerous doctrine of the "unitary executive."
Apart from that, the thought of raising taxes in a highly inflationary economic environment should give all Americans pause. Inflationary monetary policy works as a tax increase in and of itself, quietly stealing value from every dollar held by Americans.
Increasing taxes on the fiscal side of things just takes yet more money from the pockets of hard-working Americans. Rather than putting the breaks on an inflationary economic catastrophe, tax increases will make it worse.
Senator McCain also advocates further rate cuts by the Federal Reserve. According to the Wall Street Journal article, "Sen. McCain said the Federal Reserve should cut interest rates now to bolster the economy...." That amounts to further inflation of the money supply, the very thing that is undermining the value of the dollar and contributing to the economic problems that are increasingly worrisome.
The only real solutions to the nation's economic woes include cuts in government spending. Here, the WSJ article notes that McCain would seek some spending cuts. But they pale in comparison to the cuts that need to be made. In addition to reigning in earmarks and cutting "underperforming" programs, real, helpful cuts could be made by substantially scaling back military operations overseas.
Right now, such operations stretch thin the military's ability to defend the nation, all while costing billions upon billions of dollars. The nation would be made much more secure by bringing our troops home, and the economic stimulus that would come from having so many of our soldiers back and working productively stateside should not be overlooked. But McCain favors foreign intervention, so cuts overseas are unlikely.
In short, a John McCain presidency is likely to be substantively no better for the economy than a tax and spend Democratic presidency.
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