John McCain has said many times that Teddy Roosevelt - pictured here carved onto Mount Rushmore - is his hero. See here, for instance:
Asked to name a conservative model, he skipped over the suggestions of three names typically associated with the conservative movement - Ronald Reagan, George W. Bush and Barry Goldwater, the founder of the modern-day conservative movement who occupied the Senate seat Mr. McCain holds today - to settle on Theodore Roosevelt.
What did John McCain's hero Teddy Roosevelt advocate? That's right, progressive taxation, also known as "spreading the wealth around," which John McCain has suddenly taken to condemning as somehow socialist or unAmerican or something. In fact, it couldn't be more American than Teddy Roosevelt - one of our greatest presidents by almost all accounts - himself. Here he is in his own words:
...We grudge no man a fortune in civil life if it is honorably obtained and well used. It is not even enough that it should have been gained without doing damage to the community. We should permit it to be gained only so long as the gaining represents benefit to the community. This, I know, implies a policy of a far more active governmental interference with social and economic conditions in this country than we have yet had, but I think we have got to face the fact that such an increase in governmental control is now necessary.No man should receive a dollar unless that dollar has been fairly earned. Every dollar received should represent a dollar's worth of service rendered - not gambling in stocks, but service rendered. The really big fortune, the swollen fortune, by the mere fact of its size, acquires qualities which differentiate it in kind as well as in degree from what is possessed by men of relatively small means. Therefore, I believe in a graduated income tax on big fortunes, and in another tax which is far more easily collected and far more effective - a graduated inheritance tax on big fortunes, properly safeguarded against evasion, and increasing rapidly in amount with the size of the estate.
Now, here's John McCain channeling Teddy Roosevelt on progressive taxation and "spreading the wealth around." (interesting how many of these quotes are from 2000, when McCain was running as the Teddy Roosevelt Progressive Republican against George W. Bush)
* "I don't believe the wealthiest 10% of Americans should get 60% of the tax breaks. I think the lowest 10% should get the breaks...I'm not giving tax cuts for the rich."
* "...I think that it's clear that there's a growing gap between rich and poor in America, the haves and the have-nots...I think that the people who need it most and need the relief most are working middle-income Americans and that's what I want to give to them."
* "We give the millionaire a $2,000 refund. Gov. Bush gives him $50,000."
* "I don't think Bill Gates needs a tax cut. I think you and your parents do."
* "I am disappointed that the Senate Finance Committee preferred instead to cut the top tax rate of 39.6% to 36%, thereby granting generous tax relief to the wealthiest individuals of our country at the expense of lower- and middle-income American taxpayers."
* "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."
* "I am concerned that repeal of the estate tax would provide massive benefits solely to the wealthiest and highest-income taxpayers in the country."
You can't get much clearer than that: in a previous incarnation, before he decided to ditch Teddy Roosevelt and embrace George W. Bush, John McCain believed very strongly in progressive taxation, also known as "spreading the wealth around." The question is, what happened to THAT John McCain, the one who - back in 2000 - appeared to be a Progressive Republican like his hero Teddy Roosevelt? Sadly, that John McCain is long gone, and Teddy Roosevelt is rolling around in his grave at de facto being called a "socialist" by today's Republican Party.
Too much cannot be said against the men of wealth who sacrifice everything to getting wealth. There is not in the world a more ignoble character than the mere money-getting American, insensible to every duty, regardless of every principle, bent only on amassing a fortune, and putting his fortune only to the basest uses -whether these uses be to speculate in stocks and wreck railroads himself, or to allow his son to lead a life of foolish and expensive idleness and gross debauchery, or to purchase some scoundrel of high social position, foreign or native, for his daughter. Such a man is only the more dangerous if he occasionally does some deed like founding a college or endowing a church, which makes those good people who are also foolish forget his real iniquity. These men are equally careless of the working men, whom they oppress, and of the State, whose existence they imperil. There are not very many of them, but there is a very great number of men who approach more or less closely to the type, and, just in so far as they do so approach, they are curses to the country.
MALEFACTORS OF GREAT WEALTH" AND THE PANIC OF 1907.It may well be that the determination of the government (in which, gentlemen, it will not waver) to punish certain malefactors of great wealth, has been responsible for something of the trouble; at least to the extent of having caused these men to combine to bring about as much financial stress as possible, in order to discredit the policy of the government and thereby secure a reversal of that policy, so that they may enjoy unmolested the fruits of their own evil-doing...I regard this contest as one to determine who shall rule this free country-the people through their governmental agents, or a few ruthless and domineering men whose wealth makes them peculiarly formidable because they hide behind the breastworks of corporate organization.
WEALTH--RESPONSIBILITY OFTo whom much has been given, from him much is rightfully expected, and a heavy burden of responsibility rests upon the man of means to justify by his actions the social conditions which have rendered it possible for him or his forefathers to accumulate and to keep the property he enjoys. He is not to be excused if he does not render full measure of service to the State and to the community at large. There are many ways in which this service can be rendered-in art, in literature, in philanthropy, as a statesman, as a soldier-but in some way he is in honor bound to render it, so that benefit may accrue to his brethren who have been less favored by fortune than he has been. In short, he must work, and work not only for himself, but for others. If he does not work, he fails not only in his duty to the rest of the community, but he fails signally in his duty to himself.
We believe in a graduated inheritance tax as a National means of equalizing the obligations of holders of property to Government, and we hereby pledge our party to enact such a Federal law as will tax large inheritances, returning to the States an equitable percentage of all amounts collected.We favor the ratification of the pending amendment to the Constitution giving the Government power to levy an income tax.
We do not object to the concentration of wealth and administration; but we do believe in the distribution of the wealth in profits to the real owners, and in securing to the public the full benefit of the concentrated administration. We believe that with concentration in administration there can come both be advantage of a larger ownership and of a more equitable distribution of profits, and at the same time a better service to the commonwealth. We believe that the administration should be for the benefit of the many; and that greed and rascality, practiced on a large scale, should be punished as relentlessly as if practiced on a small scale. ...
There should be a progressive inheritance tax on large fortunes. ... As far as possible we should lighten the burden of taxation on the small man. We should put a premium upon thrift, hard work, and business energy; but these qualities cease to be the main factors in accumulating a fortune long before that fortune reaches a point where it would be seriously affected by any inheritance tax such as I propose.
McCain apparently intended for the phrase "spread the wealth," which Obama had uttered in his conversation with Wurzelbacher, to strike fear in the hearts of right-thinking Americans. But it's nothing more than an accurate definition of taxation, which most human civilizations have long accepted. I guess McCain was reaching back to the days when the idea of redistributing wealth had socialist connotations, but socialism is dead -- except on Wall Street, where a huge chunk of the nation's financial system is now owned by the federal government.