McCain Emerges as Master Economic Flip-Flopper

By Gene Sperling

June 6, 2008

Back in 2005, a friend asked if I should be careful about praising John McCain for his votes against George W. Bush's upper-income tax cuts in 2001 and 2003. After all, he warned, he might become the next Republican presidential nominee.

My reply was, suppose McCain maintained his position that, as he put it in 2001: "I cannot in good conscience support a tax cut in which so many of the benefits go to the most fortunate among us, at the expense of middle-class Americans who most need tax relief.''