McCain to unveil new economic plans

Politico.com reports that new economic initiatives are going to be rolled out by the McCain campaign shortly:

As part of a plan to reinvigorate his flagging campaign, Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) is considering additional economic measures aimed directly at the middle class that are likely to be rolled out this week, campaign officials said.

Among the measures being considered are tax cuts – perhaps temporary – for capital gains and dividends, the officials said.

“The market’s the focus,” a McCain adviser said. “You want to stop the fleeing.”

That doesn't sound very well targeted towards the middle class to me, since the people who benefit most from cuts in capital gains and dividends tax cuts tend to be in the top 5-10% of the population. But, the story notes that it is not yet at all clear what else may be included in the new proposals:

In a matter of weeks, McCain has gone from being a conventional tax-cutting conservative to a big-government interventionist.

Officials could not say what the package might include because more than 30 ideas have been put in front of McCain during the current crisis, and they said he has to choose what to unveil and when.

“That’s up to McCain,” one official said.

Among the ideas that have been considered are a bigger tax deduction for middle class mortgages, and more a more robust loan program for small businesses. But officials said the front-burner ideas all dealt specifically with markets.

McCain’s new package would amount to a do-over from the hasty introduction of McCain’s mortgage buy-up program, which was widely criticized by conservatives and was seized on by Obama as a fresh target.