Spreading the Wealth Around

Charles Babbington has an excellent AP piece noting that John McCain’s newfound notion that progressive income taxes are socialism runs contrary to American history:

John McCain is pouncing on Barack Obama’s call for shifting more wealth from richer Americans to poorer ones, likening it to socialism. His remarks win applause at campaign events. But they ignore the nation’s long tradition of redistributing huge amounts of wealth through tax-and-spending policies.

Placing a heavier burden on the wealthy has been a cornerstone of the federal income tax since its inception in 1913. [...] As for the claim that Obama might turn the Internal Revenue Service into a “giant welfare agency,” liberal groups note that the number of Americans on welfare fell by more than 60 percent after a 1996 overhaul of the program approved by President Clinton.

For several years, a strong economy and social safety net programs helped many families avoid poverty. However, the liberal Center for Budget and Policy Priorities says the recent economic downturn “has coincided with a sharp increase in food prices, which has exacerbated hardship for many low-income families who also face high gas prices (and will face high home heating bills this fall and winter).”

Of course, one might further note that John McCain himself supports progressive income taxes. Back during 2001-2003, he sounded like a downright liberal, worrying about the inegalitarian implications of the Bush administration tax policies that he now supporters. But even in his current right-wing phase McCain isn’t supporting a flat tax or Chambliss/Huckabee-style “fair tax” nonsense.