John McCain

Lots of people in New Hampshire have stories about John McCain from his days of doing town meetings while running in the NH Primary. Here’s my story:

John was doing a town meeting at Plymouth State University, and I went. He called on me to ask a question.

I told him ” I have a small business that employs 5 people. Last year we made $100,000 in profit. Since I’m self employed, I pay both sides of Social Security taxes, about 15%, and 35% income tax on the 100K.

“But, I needed to leave 35K in the business to support our growth. That leaves me with 15K to live on. If my wife didn’t have a good job, I’d be on food stamps!”

He asked my what I want from the government.

I said “I don’t want anything from the government. But it would be better if I were taxed on the money I take from the business, instead of the money the business makes.”

Over the years we have seen the tax law change to allow higher deductions of capital expenses, and that certainly helps. I hope what I said to him that day has encouraged change in the tax law, at least in a small way.

Oh, and one more story. When we took the kids to Capitol in Washington DC, he walked by us, deep in conversation with another person. I said in a fairly loud voice “Give ’em hell, John”. He stopped, smiled, and gave me a little wave.

What a cool guy. He will be missed.