NYT Editorial:

"Senator John McCainÕs speech on taxes last week was widely seen as a stay-the-Bush-course pledge. Not true. Mr. McCain would dig a much deeper hole than even President Bush, exactly what the country does not need. Mr. Bush is already bequeathing his successor a government deep in debt, ill prepared to meet foreseeable challenges Ñ health care, road and bridge repair, alternative energy Ñ let alone emergencies.

Unfortunately, Mr. McCain has reversed his earlier passionate Ñ and correct Ñ opposition to the Bush tax cuts. He now calls for permanently extending them. He also proposes to repeal the alternative minimum tax. Those two proposals alone would reduce tax revenue by $1 trillion over four years.

His speech did not stop there. He proposed doubling the dependent exemption, to $7,000 per child, cutting revenue by $171 billion more over four years. He said the increase was needed to keep up with inflation, but the exemption has been adjusted for inflation every year since 1982. Then thereÕs his idea to suspend the 18.4-cents-a-gallon federal gasoline tax from Memorial Day to Labor Day. That would cost the highway trust fund $10 billion.

Mr. McCainÕs other big proposals Ñ to cut the corporate tax and make the credit for research and development permanent Ñ are fatally flawed by the fact that he offers no feasible way to pay for them. We do not doubt that Mr. McCain would try harder than Mr. Bush to cut spending. But his claim that he would offset hundreds of billions of dollars in new tax cuts by closing loopholes and cutting pork is just not credible. Pork spending, or earmarks, come to some $18 billion a year.

Mr. McCain has admitted that he does not know a lot about economics. But he should have no trouble recognizing political pandering, which is the only explanation for many of his proposals. To be taken seriously, he needs to go back to the drawing board and come up with a plan that shows how he would govern without adding to the fiscal damage of the past eight years...."