McCain Better Able To Manage Economy

A new Reuters/Zogby poll finds voters see McCain as better for the economy than Hillary or Obama:

McCain was seen as a better steward of the economy than either Democrat despite their repeated criticism of his economic credentials. He led Obama by 3 points and Clinton by 5 points on the question of who would best manage the economy.

The new national poll was conducted April 10-12, before McCain's economic speech on Tuesday, and has a margin of error of 4.3 percent.

In his economic speech, McCain called for the following:

GAS PRICES: A Summer Gas Tax Holiday - suspension of the 18.4 cent federal gas tax and 24.4 cent diesel tax from Memorial Day to Labor Day.

STUDENT LOANS: A Student Loan Continuity Plan - calls on the federal government and the 50 governors to expand the lender-of-last resort capabilities for each state's guarantee agency.

MIDDLE CLASS TAX CUTS: Doubling the Personal Exemption for Dependents - raise the personal exemption for each dependent from $3,500 to $7,000.

A SIMPLER TAX CODE: An Alternative New and Simpler Tax System - give America a choice, all who wish can stay under the current system, but everyone else could choose a less complicated system with two tax rates and a generous standard deduction.

ALTERNATIVE MINIMUM TAX ELIMINATION: Phase out the Alternative Minimum Tax(AMT) - saving an average of $2,700 for a middle class family with children.

GOVERNMENT SPENDING: A One-Year Spending Pause - discretionary spending pause that should be used for a top-to-bottom review of the effectiveness of federal programs.

MEDICARE GROWTH: A reduction in the large subsidies in the Medicare drug program - limit Medicare prescription drug benefits to those who need them.

James Pethokoukis summed it up well -- one part Ronald Reagan (cut taxes, cut spending), one part Mike Huckabee (help for workers; Main Street is as important as Wall Street), and one part Teddy Roosevelt (criticism of "reckless CEOs and speculators").

Sounds good to me.