Like many Americans, Sen. John McCain is caught in the vortex of the rapidly downward-spiraling American economy. Like them, he is being pushed in directions he doesn't want to go. McCain's campaign has openly wished that something would "turn the page" away from economic issues. But yesterday, a day after Sen. Barack Obama announced a four-point program to address the nation's economic problems, Sen. McCain, slow to react in the first place but not to be outdone, did likewise.

McCain's set of proposals revolves around - you saw this coming, didn't you? - tax cuts. Tax cuts for capital losses, tax cuts for capital gains, tax cuts for corporations, tax cuts for early withdrawals from retirement accounts. His other major proposals, for mortgage refinancing, cleansing banks of distressed assets, restricting executive compensation, have all been approved by Congress and signed by the President already.

In short, there is little new in what Sen. McCain proposes. What is new is nonsense.

Let's have a look at the battery of tax cuts he proposes. "I will increase the amount of capital losses from $3,000 to $15,000, which can be deducted from your ordinary income in tax years 2008 and 2009," he promises. Can you hear the giant sucking sound? That's the sound of people scared to lose more than the 36 percent they have already lost in the stock market this year sucking money out of the market and, guess what, further depressing stock values. The federal government should be subsidizing that?

OK, now capital gains. Here, McCain proposes cutting the rate 15 to 7.5 percent. "This vital measure will promote buying, raise asset values, help companies and shore up the pension plans for workers and retirees." Well, that's a wonderful idea, though in ordinary times it would be too expensive and fiscally irresponsible to consider. Fortunately, in a year when the market is on track to lose upward of thirty percent, precious few people will have capital gains to speak of. Look at the bright side: the idea won't cost very much. But it won't do much either.

Fine, corporate taxes. Cutting them "from 35 percent - the second-highest in the world - to 25 percent", McCain says, "could create millions of new jobs." In a normally functioning economy with an actual credit market, this might be true. The best that could be said for this idea, under current circumstances, is that it might slow the growing rate of unemployment. But this proposal is actually pretext.

The statistic McCain cites, that our corporate tax rate is the world's second highest, is intellectually dishonest. After accounting for all the corporate tax deductions, deferrals, exemptions, and credits cluttering our tax code, the effective American corporate tax rate is closer to second lowest in the world. In fact, the U.S. is actually a corporate tax haven, with the lowest effective corporate tax rates of almost all the countries that participate in the OECD. But cut we must.

Lastly, the idea of tax cuts for early withdrawals from retirement accounts. This was a plank in Sen. Obama's program, and he credited McCain with the idea. McCain does not quite return the favor. "Under the emergency measure I propose, we will also cut the tax rate for withdrawals from tax-preferred retirement accounts to ten percent," McCain claims. But in the next breath, he stomps on his own idea:

"It is essential that we avoid an exodus of capital from the market. Senator Obama yesterday offered up a proposal that would have the effect of encouraging early withdrawal of funds from 401(k) accounts, by suspending penalties through 2009. This is an invitation to capital flight, and therefore to continued instability in the market, at a moment when exactly the opposite is needed."

McCain can't have it both ways.

There is much more silliness in the McCain proposal. He repeats the tiresome canard that we can save money by eliminating earmarks. When he says "[w]e cannot spend the next four years as we have spent much of the last eight: waiting for our luck to change. The hour is late and our troubles are getting worse. We have to act immediately. We have to change direction now," you wonder, who does he think he's fooling? The nation's investor class - the chief beneficiary of his plan - has not been waiting for their luck to change these past eight years. Most of them couldn't believe their luck.

But one silly aside of his takes the cake: "Investors are always responsible for their investment decisions, but the hard earned savings of Americans should not be penalized by the erratic behavior of politicians."

A man who in a fortnight went from crowing that "the fundamentals of our economy are strong" to halting his campaign, proposing to cancel a presidential debate, and rushing to Washington to disrupt legislative efforts to address the economic crisis, would do well not to mention the "erratic behavior of politicians."