I often argue with a friend of mine who is a McCain supporter about McCain’s ability to bring conservatives who are upset with the catastrophe of the Bush presidency back into the fold.

This clip of McCain on Morning Joe highlights the problem I see for McCain:

Responding to the impassioned plea of an women in the audience for reducing the tax burden McCain says he thinks taxes should be “kept low” and later repeats a number of times that he wants to “keep taxes low.”

But McCain fundamentally misses the point…. taxes aren’t low. Depending on whose statistics you use the average American is paying 30 or 40 percent of their income to the government (a number that doesn’t include the hidden tax of inflation, or the future taxes of deficit spending).

Does McCain really think that paying 30 cents to the government out of every dollar earned is “keeping taxes low”? If he does, he completely misses the point of the lady who confronted him.

Here is her exact quote: “You tax when we’re born. You tax us when we’re dead. You tax us when we sleep. You tax us when we eat. You tax us every which way. Get off of our back!”

Note she isn’t complaining about hypothetical tax hikes that President Obama would impose. She makes it quite clear that she holds McCain personally responsible (hence the use of the word “you,” not “them” or “the Democrats”).

By suggesting that our current tax burden is low, McCain misses one of the driving forces of the conservative movement, and shows why so many fiscal conservatives will never trust him.