After accusing Sen. Barack Obama (D-IL) of redistributing the wealth of the richest tax payers and handing out “welfare” to the poor, Sen. John McCain (R-AZ) today attacked his opponent for not giving enough money to the unemployed:

Just yesterday, we received news that jobless claims have increased by 15,000. And yet, just this week, Senator Obama announced that his plan would have a work requirement, meaning that those who are unemployed will receive no help under the Obama plan, while Senator Obama’s tax increases would put even more people out of work

But as Obama economic adviser Austan Goolsbee explained, even though 98 percent of Obama’s tax credits were previously tied to work, the final work requirement was added to address the McCain campaign’s “welfare” charge. Watch a compilation:

The McCain campaign is trying to have it both ways, criticizing Obama for redistributing the wealth to lethargic couch potatoes, on one hand, and then complaining that the unemployed “will receive no help under the Obama plan,” after Obama tweaked his proposal to reflect their criticism.

McCain’s own plan would do little to help workers. In a statement this week on the increase in jobless claims, McCain said “today, we learned that another 478,000 Americans claimed unemployment benefits this week. Times are tough, and we need immediate action to take this economy in a new direction.”

However, an analysis by the Center for American Progress Action Fund, finds that McCain’s plan for job creation “would create only about ƒƒ450,000 jobs in 2009, at a cost of $280 billion.” Meanwhile, “the United States needs to generate 1.5 million jobs a year just to keep up with the new ƒƒworkers entering the labor force.”

So while it is a good thing that McCain is suddenly expressing such worry for the unemployed, his economic plan won’t do much to put Americans back to work.

Digg It!

Today, during an interview on Fox News, Sen. Joe Lieberman (I-CT) said that while he has at times “voted to raise taxes on the wealthiest Americans,” he currently agrees with the tax plan of Sen. John McCain (R-AZ) and opposes higher tax rates for the wealthy.

He explained that by proposing a more progressive tax system, Sen. Barack Obama (D-IL) is “misreading” the situation of middle-class workers like “Joe the Plumber.” Lieberman claimed that, with the two presidential tax plans, “the American story” is “on the line.” Watch it:

However, it is Lieberman who is “misreading” this entire situation. First, as Lieberman concedes, Joe the Plumber is “not a rich guy,” and thus would receive a larger tax cut under Obama’s tax plan than under McCain’s.

And since Lieberman is so concerned with Americans who are “trying to make [their] way up” and “want to be rich,” it is worth pointing out that income inequality threatens economic mobility. America’s income concentration is at its highest level since 1928, and “36 percent of children born to parents in the bottom wealth quintile remain in the bottom as adults.” Meanwhile, just “7 percent of children born to parents in the bottom wealth quintile make it to the top quintile in adulthood.”

The American public actually “rejects the conservative approach to taxes” and favors a more progressive system:

Data from the latest Pew Research poll shows that only 25 percent of the public agrees with the centerpiece of the conservative tax program: making all of the Bush tax cuts permanent. In contrast, 62 percent want to either repeal tax cuts for the wealthy while keeping the rest of the cuts (37 percent) or repeal all of the tax cuts (25 percent).

If Lieberman wants “the American story” to come true for middle- and low-income workers, he should be supporting a progressive tax system.