Yesterday, during an event at the Tax Policy Center, Sen. John McCain’s (R-AZ) senior economic adviser Douglas Holtz-Eakin repeated the false claim that McCain’s economic proposal has “no tax cuts anywhere for the wealthy”:

And what Sen. McCain has tried to do is to keep the kinds of taxes that would effect small business where they are…Top rate right now is 35 percent. Under John McCain, 35 percent. Dividends 15 percent, John McCain 15 percent. Capitol gains 15 percent, John McCain 15 percent. No tax cuts anywhere for the wealthy. Instead a tax policy that maintains the ability of small business…to do what they’re doing right now…

Listen:

But the Wonk Room, the Tax Policy Center, and even the National Review argue that McCain’s plan is, in fact, tilted towards the wealthy. The latest Tax Policy analysis concludes:

Senator McCain’s tax cuts would primarily benefit those with very high incomes, almost all of whom would receive large tax cuts that would, on average, raise their after-tax incomes by more than twice the average for all households. Many fewer households at the bottom of the income distribution would get tax cuts and those tax cuts would be small as a share of after-tax income.

Indeed, the report goes on to claim that “McCain’s proposal would make the tax system even more regressive than the system created by the 2001–06 cuts”:

- Households in the top 1 percent of the income distribution would receive average increases in after-tax income of more than 8 percent, in addition to their large benefits under the tax legislation already enacted this decade.

- Households in the middle of the income distribution would receive an additional 1.4 percent increase in after-tax income, on average.

- Those at the bottom would receive tax cuts averaging just 0.6 percent of income.

Thus, if Holtz-Eakin can’t find the tax cuts for the wealthy “anywhere,” he’s not looking hard enough.

In 1955, Emmett Till, a 14-year-old black boy “was beaten and shot to death for allegedly whistling at a white woman in segregated Mississippi. An all-white jury took 67 minutes to acquit two white men of the murder; months later, they admitted the crime and spent the rest of their lives in freedom.”

In an effort to bring Till’s killers to justice, a bipartisan majority in the House passed the Emmett Till Unsolved Crimes Bill, authorizing a “potential $10 million per year to be added to the Department of Justice budget for the purpose of investigating and prosecuting outstanding Civil Rights era crimes.”

Over a year later, Sen. Tom Coburn (R-OK) is still blocking the bill from becoming law:

I agree with the Emmett Till bill, I just think we ought to pay for it. Surely we can find the money. They can say whatever they want to say. They’re playing a game, but they’re very loose with the facts.

But the game is all Coburn’s. The bill, which would cost “less than $1 per American in 2008,” has the support of the Bush administration, the Department of Justice and the majority of Republicans.

According to Sen. Chris Dodd (D-CT), “this legislation does not distribute new funds“:

Instead, it sets a spending ceiling that the Budget Committee and the Appropriations Committee in both the House and the Senate can use as a guide when they develop future federal budget and appropriations measures. In a federal budget that is nearing $3 trillion, the allocations for this bill are not excessive. Republicans and Democrats voted for this bill because they understand that you cannot put a price on justice.

During a “a press conference with Simeon Wright, a cousin of Till” yesterday, Dodd noted that “we honor Emmett Till and all those who sacrificed their lives advancing civil rights. It is disgraceful that it has taken us so long to take this basic step to pursue justice too long delayed. It is incredible that some continue to obstruct these efforts.”

Coburn, unfortunately, stands unashamed.

UPDATE: The press conference for the Emmett Till Bill: