Atlanta, GA -- “Where does John McCain stand on taxes?,” asks Bob Barr, the Libertarian Party candidate for president.  “He was for higher taxes before he was against them.  But now he seems to be in favor of them again,” notes Barr.
 
“Perhaps Sen. McCain has been in Washington too long to realize, but Americans pay far too much for government.  The Tax Foundation says most of us spend nearly four months working for the government, and that doesn’t include the cost of government borrowing or regulation.  Yet Sen. McCain opposed President George W. Bush’s tax cuts as being unfair.  When he decided to run for president, he decided that he favored making the tax cuts permanent.  Which is the real John McCain?,” Barr asks.
 
Earlier this year Sen. McCain said “no new taxes,” no matter what, but his economic adviser Carly Fiorina recently encouraged the Democrats to be “creative enough” to propose a tax hike on wealthier Americans as part of a Social Security plan.  “McCain’s spokesman then insisted that the candidate believes ‘we can fix Social Security without raising taxes,’ but this weekend Sen. John McCain told ABC News’ George Stephanopoulos that ‘There is nothing I would take off the table’,” notes Barr.  “That language is Washington-speak and is nothing less than an open invitation to the Democrats to propose tax hikes in the context of negotiations concerning the budget or Social Security reform.  We all know how such bipartisan ‘compromises’ end—with spending going up and taxpayers paying more.”
 
“Taxes are too high.  We must reduce the tax burden and make paying taxes less complicated.  To do that we have to cut spending.  We certainly cannot afford more multi-billion dollar bail-outs, like the housing bill just passed by Congress, with the president’s—and Sen. McCain’s—support,” says Barr.  “Real change is never easy to achieve, but it will be impossible unless the next president refuses to support a tax increase, whether in the name of deficit reduction or Social Security reform.”
 
Sen. McCain has styled his campaign “the Straight Talk Express.”  Unfortunately, notes Barr, “the McCain train has run off the rails yet again, as Tax Hike John has taken command.  The American people deserve to know which John McCain they would be voting for in November.  We can’t afford to elect another status quo politician, who thinks America’s basic problem is that Americans pay too little in taxes.”

Barr represented the 7th District of Georgia in the U. S. House of Representatives from 1995 to 2003, where he served as a senior member of the Judiciary Committee, as Vice-Chairman of the Government Reform Committee, and as a member of the Committee on Financial Services. Prior to his congressional career, Barr was appointed by President Reagan to serve as the United States Attorney for the Northern District of Georgia, and also served as an official with the CIA.
 
Since leaving Congress, Barr has been practicing law and has teamed up with groups ranging from the American Civil Liberties Union to the American Conservative Union to actively advocate every American citizen’s right to privacy and other civil liberties guaranteed in the Bill of Rights. Along with this, Bob is committed to helping elect leaders who will strive for smaller government, lower taxes and abundant individual freedom.