For McCain, change begins with a 'No'

Adam Aigner-Treworgy NBC/National Journal Reporter

HARRISBURG, Pa. - In an election where so many voters are hungry for "change," both candidates are trying to position themselves as the one who can deliver it in Washington. Barack Obama has made famous the tagline "change we can believe in." The first word in one of John McCain's oft-used campaign slogans is "reform," and in recent weeks on the stump he has begun emphasizing his reputation as a "maverick."

But reading between the lines this week, voters may have gotten a glimpse of who the real reformer is. Although the public back-and-forth between McCain and Obama has focused mostly on energy, residing at the root of the candidates' political attacks may be a fundamental difference in their style of governance.

This most recent debate started around the time McCain released an ad stating that Obama would support an "energy tax" if elected president. This point came from an interview that the Illinois senator did with the San Antonio Express-News in which he was asked about increasing taxes on wind power to fund education. "What we ought to tax is dirty energy like coal and, to a lesser extent, natural gas," Obama said, but such a tax is not actually a part of his economic proposals.

Both candidates support a form of cap-and-trade in which polluters are allowed to emit only a certain amount of greenhouse gases but can purchase extra pollution credits from less-polluting companies. Because "dirty energy" producers would likely be forced to purchase additional credits, a cap-and-trade system could in some ways be seen as an "energy tax" -- but then both Obama and McCain would be in favor of it. The only difference between them would be how high the cap and how expensive the credit.

Obama responded to McCain's attack with an ad of his own alleging that the Arizona senator was "in the pocket" of the big oil companies and "wants to give them another four billion in tax breaks." Although this is technically true, these tax breaks would come from a significant cut in the corporate tax rate across the board, which McCain argues would help spur growth and increase employment levels.

Video McCain condemns Obama energy plan Aug. 7: John McCain attacks Barack Obama energy plan, saying the Democratic presidential candidate's tire gauge proposal "sounds more like a PSA." MSNBC

The apparent hypocrisy of Obama's commercial was certainly not lost on the McCain campaign, which quickly pointed out that Obama had supported the last round of tax breaks for big oil companies contained in the so-called Bush-Cheney energy bill. According to an article in the Washington Post written at the time of bill's passage, the Energy Policy Act of 2005 included "an estimated $85 billion worth of subsidies and tax breaks for most forms of energy -- including oil and gas," renewable energies and nuclear power.

McCain refused to support the president's bill, and at the time said his opposition was due to the large number of funding packages targeted at special interests -- specifically Big Oil. He even mused to his colleagues in Congress at the time: "I wonder what it's going take to make the case for fiscal sanity here?"

Although Obama voted for the bill, he too remarked that he felt the bill was misguided, saying in his speech on the Senate floor that he voted for the bill "reluctantly," calling it "a step forward," but "not a very big step."

So while both senators saw major problems with the 2005 energy bill, Obama decided that the good aspects of the bill outweighed the bad, whereas McCain determined that voting against the good parts of the bill was necessary to send a message about pork barrel projects, which he has consistently criticized.

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