McCain moves to GOP mainstream on taxes

Donald Lambro:

Sen. John McCain, who has consistently opposed President Bush's tax cuts, recently voted to extend some of them, a move conservatives say is a political flip-flop intended to further his White House ambitions.
The Arizona Republican, who is the early front-runner for his party's presidential nomination in 2008, surprised tax-cut proponents last week when he voted to continue Mr. Bush's tax cuts on capital gains and dividends and other tax breaks in a $70 billion Tax Relief Extension Reconciliation Act.
His vote was a sharp departure from his anti-tax-cut posture. However, he has been aggressively reaching out to the Republican Party's conservative base, particularly economic conservatives who fear that as president, he would oppose further tax reductions and might even roll back some of the Bush cuts to shrink budget deficits.
While supply-side tax cutters say they welcomed his latest vote, they thought it was solely for political reasons.
"It's a big flip-flop, but I'm happy he's flopped," said Grover Norquist, president of Americans for Tax Reform.
"It looks like a further morphing of McCain into George W. Bush. He's mailing to his list of campaign contributors, and now he's supporting the tax cuts," said economist Larry Hunter, a longtime Republican tax-cut strategist.

...
This is a critical move for McCain. I am not sure he can win the nomination opposing tax cuts.

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