This is the Cato Daily Podcast for Friday, October 31st, 2008. I'm

Caleb Brown. Republicans have a spotty record on spending and taxes, but

should the public really trust Democrats more on those issues?

Recent polls indicate that the public is moving toward Democrats on the tax issue.

Cato Institute Senior Fellow Dan Mitchell says neither party deserves the public's trust, faith, or confidence.

Senator McCain has a decent record on spending. He voted against a lot of the big spending Bush

initiatives like the Medicare expansion, the Farm Bill, the Pork-filled

Transportation Bill, but his record on tax policy is a little bit less clear. He had some class warfare arguments against

the tax rate reductions earlier in this decade and he hasn't really grabbed

on to the tax issue in a way that makes people think he really gets it and really understands it.

He has proposed a 10 percentage point reduction of the corporate tax rate, which is certainly welcome,

considering how

uncompetitive America is in that regard.

But there's no big tax reform initiative.

There doesn't seem to be a core that is fundamentally opposed to excessive and punitive taxation.

And in terms of Senator Obama, I'm afraid it's just pure class warfare redistribution approach to tax policy in effect bringing us back to

some of the dismal economic policies of the 1970s.

But Republicans losing their edge on the tax issue, particularly McCain versus Obama, it seems like the public is really ready for the sort of soak the fat boys thinking.

Well, I'm not sure that the American public has been given a choice.

We've had Republican rule for eight years and that's been a profligate big spending anti-free market approach.

So if you're the average American who probably does

still instinctively believe in smaller government and more economic liberty,

...