Last week, NPR did a report on the economic proposals of McCain and Obama. McCain’s centerpiece is tax cuts for the wealthy, while Obama champions a tax cut for the middle class. NPR ignored the fact that McCain is now promoting the same plan that he opposed 8 years ago, and that Bush’s tax cuts for the rich have had none of the promised results, making the economy worse, not better. Instead, NPR decided to focus on the “big ideas” behind the proposals.

What are these big ideas? In NPR’s words, the big idea behind the Obama plan was “fairness”, which could also be called “redistribution” (i.e. socialism). And the big idea behind the McCain plan was “growth”.

Leave it to the US media to get it totally wrong. Luckily for McCain, he can depend on the media to get it wrong again and again.

When gas passes $4/gallon, McCain proposes drilling in environmentally sensitive offshore areas. Never mind that there is so little oil there it will make very little difference in oil prices, and not for at least 10 years, if ever. But thank goodness for the media, who contrast Obama’s concern for the environment (out of touch and elitist) with McCain’s concern for jobs and growth.

If McCain can look good with a proposal that jeopardizes the environment for almost no economic benefit (but benefits oil companies), I suppose that it is only natural that he would get behind tax cut proposals that have have been a dismal failure over the last eight years.

Lastly, where can you read about this? Why in a non-US newspaper, of course.