Discussing McCain's Faux Populism with Rachel Maddow

During my trip to Rochester and now New York City, I appeared on Rachel Maddow's MSNBC show to review John McCain's latest economic ideas. You can watch the clip here (and if you like the discussion and appreciate them having on progressive voices like me and others, shoot the show an email at rachel@msnbc.com and let them know):


What we are seeing from McCain is old-school right-wing populism first made famous by Ronald Reagan. Package tax cuts for the wealthy as a gift to regular folks at a time of economic crisis. In the extended entry, I'll break down the key tenets of McCain's plan to see who it really benefits.


Up first is McCain's proposal to slash capital gains tax rates. Let's ignore the fact that the Wall Street meltdown means most Americans right now don't have much capital gains. Let's just look at who a capital gains tax cut benefits: namely, millionaires.