Yesterday, the House of Representatives passed a landmark bill that would “empower the Food and Drug Administration to regulate the tobacco industry” and allow regulators to demand the “elimination of other hazardous ingredients in cigarettes.”

The bill, which provoked a veto-threat from the White House, mirrors a failed 1998 proposal spearheaded by Sen. John McCain (R-AZ). McCain’s bill sought to give the federal government unprecedented oversight over the tobacco industry and led many Republicans to caricature the legislation as a “very liberal, big government, big bureaucracy, not a Republican bill.”

McCain responded by pledging to “never” give up on the effort — promising to “hold tobacco companies liable for their efforts to endanger children” — and publicly praising the regulatory nature of the legislation:

Nicotine and tobacco products will now be subject to broad regulatory and oversight by the Food and Drug Administration and the industry will be required to pay over $500 billion to settle claims and fund vital anti-smoking and related health care initiatives…Second, our goal is to insure that nicotine and tobacco products are regulated by the FDA to protect public health. [News Conference, 3/20/1998]

But McCain may now be backing away from his pledge to regulate the industry. While still officially a sponsor of the Senate version of the latest tobacco bill, McCain has suggested that he “won’t commit to voting for it until he sees the final legislation” and regularly belittles government regulation on the campaign trail:

- Again, we get back to Senator Obama believes that big government is the answer — government is the answer. He’ll raise your taxes. He will increase regulation. [Town Hall, 7/10/2008]

- So I think it really has to do — the fundamental difference is our view of the role of government in America. Everything he has supported is bigger government, more regulation, higher taxes, et cetera. And I am a very proud conservative that believes in less government, in our nation’s security, and lower taxes, and a government that basically only intervenes in people’s lives when every other avenue has been exhausted. [Town Hall, 7/7/2008]

- I was one of many newly elected members who claimed with pride to be disciples of Ronald Reagan. I am as proud of that distinction today as I was then… I think all Reagan Republicans would describe the core values of a conservative as…opposition to unnecessary government regulation; and lastly, and very importantly, belief that the government that governs best governs least. [Reagan Library, 6/23/2006]

Our guest bloggers are James Kvaal and Robert Gordon, Senior Fellows at the Center for American Progress Action Fund.

Sen. John McCain had a read-my-lips moment on taxes yesterday, telling a town hall meeting that “I want to look you in the eye: I will not raise your taxes nor support a tax increase. I will not do it.”

Of course, only three days earlier, McCain said that higher taxes were “on the table” to solve Social Security. And he seemed to say the same to a group of donors last night. ThinkProgress has more of McCain’s muddled history on Social Security taxes.

Here’s another place where John McCain may be willing to raise your taxes: to pay for his enormous health care plan.

McCain has proposed new health insurance tax credits, which his campaign estimates to cost $3.6 trillion over the decade. He says he pays for it by taxing workers’ health benefits, which are largely tax-free today. McCain aides say the plan has no net cost and left it out of their budget plan.

McCain’s numbers add up only by raising taxes on middle-class families. To raise $3.6 trillion by taxing health benefits, you need both income and payroll taxes. But that means an $1,100 tax increase on a typical married couple earning $60,000 in 2013.

Alternatively, McCain could avoid tax increases by applying only income taxes – but not payroll taxes – to health benefits. And this is what his spokesman told the Daily Tax Report he does. But income taxes alone fall $1.3 trillion short of paying for his tax credits.

McCain aides say they pay for their health care plan without raising middle-class taxes, but that’s not possible. So which is it? Do they raise taxes on ordinary families by more than a thousand dollars or add $1.3 trillion to the deficit? It may be the biggest unanswered question in the candidates’ fiscal policies.