The International House of Bacon

McCain drives me up a wall. It’s official.

I want to like the guy. I desperately want to like him, I want to support his candidacy, I want to be able to ignore the whole Campaign Finance Reform Act and the Gang of 14 and just dive right in. And when he presents this, I want to stand up and cheer from the rooftops:

* A one-year freeze on the amount of money Congress allocates to discretionary programs.. Imagine if we got that any of the last 8 years. Or during either of the tax cuts.

* An alternative tax system that would consist of just two tax rates and a larger standard deduction than under the current code.. Yes, yes, YES. Further simplification helps everyone - the 2001 cuts did a great job of this, and if you don’t like it, you can stick to the old one!

* A suspension of the federal gas tax from Memorial Day to Labor Day. I’m in favor of scrapping the poor-crunching gas tax altogether, but bully for him for saying what needs to be said on the matter.

* A corporate tax cut. Also not quite far enough, but considering the alternative, again, we need this.

I mean, his plan is far from perfect - any bailout on mortgages is a bad idea - but it’s amazingly, incredibly good for someone who a) admitted to needing to learn about the economy, and b) brought on people who have apparently taught him very well.

But then we get stuff like this:

KUDLOW: Let me begin, in your speech today, and also in recent speeches, you’re really blasting corporate greed and reckless corporate conduct. It sounds a little bit like the business attacks by Senator Clinton and Senator Obama. Can you tell us, what do you mean by these criticisms? What are you driving at?

Sen. McCAIN: I’m driving at the people who get compensation which is not approved of by the stockholders, even a nonbinding fashion. I’m talking about people like Mr. Cayne, who the day–right around the time the government took over Bear Stearns–or bailed out, excuse me, bail–Bear Stearns–who went to the market and got $11 a share rather than $10 a share. I’m talking about people that when their corporation has losses, that they are rewarded with exorbitantly high pay packages. And it gives Wall Street a bad name, Larry. And that’s–and that’s pure and simple. I do not believe in government intervention, I do not believe in government control, I do not believe that. But I do believe we should take steps to increase transparency and also
shareholder input into the compensation of CEOs. After all, that’s who the CEOs work for. And I also think CEOs and chairmen should have–be different people.

…

KUDLOW: When you are criticizing these corporations, I mean, there’s 140 million Americans work for corporations, in rough numbers. Companies are the ones who create jobs in America, they’re the ones who really generate the family incomes, and of course companies need capital investment. Do you ever worry that you’re sending a very tough anti-business message to the firms, to the work force and to investors?

Sen. McCAIN: Larry, in all due respect, don’t you think that when corporate executives take exorbitant pay packages that are not justified by the–by the performance of the corporations that they have stewardship of and millions of–and 250,000 Americans in the last short period of time have lost their jobs, that that gives corporate America a bad name and then increases the
influence of those who are basically anti-business? Don’t you think that is also one of the–one of the spillovers here?

It goes on a bit, and kudos to Kudlow for holding McCain’s feet to the fire a little bit, but this sort of ignorant economic populism is dangerous. It’s inconsistent, it’s ill-thought out, and it’s yet another thing that gives me great, great pause when it comes to this man. I know I’m unlikely to find a candidate to fit my ideological mold perfectly, but I also don’t think that you have to pander to economic idiocy to get votes in this case. It doesn’t benefit his candidacy in any specific way against Obama, which leads me to believe that he actually buys into it, and that’s troublesome.

So I dunno. Consider me more conflicted today than I was on Monday. I don’t know, folks - help!