Senator John McCain offered the broadest look yet at his economic policies in a speech on Tuesday in Pittsburgh, outlining a series of tax reductions and backing away from his pledge to balance the budget by the end of his first term.

The speech, delivered on the deadline for filing taxes, afforded the clearest view to date of what McCainomics might look like. There was a dash of populism, as Mr. McCain criticized executive pay and corporate wrongdoing. There was a strong supply-side bent, with Mr. McCain focusing on cutting corporate taxes and making permanent the Bush tax cuts that he once opposed. And there was a decidedly less hawkish note on deficits, as Mr. McCain called for spending cuts but did not mention balancing the federal budget.

So McCain hits most of the notes that Republicans like to hear in economic plans. He also castigates Republicans, but on grounds conservatives will approve: for spending big while controlling Congress. McCain says that the GOP must return to its empowering, small-government roots, and repudiate the free-spending practices of 2001-2006. He repeats his pledge to veto bills with pork and to use the veto for a wide range of other purposes to control spending and growth at the federal level.

He hits a couple of bricks, too, but nothing major. McCain talks about CEO salaries but never addresses federal intervention. McCain wants to revamp unemployment benefits into a retraining program, but that sounds a little odd, assuming that one job loss means that the skill set is no longer viable. Conservatives may have a bigger issue with his approach on mortgages, which makes Uncle Sam a co-signer on a massive refinancing program, replacing unrealistic ARMs with 30-year fixed-rate loans, guaranteed by the American taxpayer. While this program at least targets the right people for a bailout, having a bailout at all only encourages riskier behavior in the future.

Outside of these issues, the overall speech can help conservatives take comfort in a McCain campaign for the White House. It will remind many of the real differences between McCain and either Democrat, and set the stage for an interesting general-election debate.

In a speech billed as the most comprehensive summary of his economic vision to date, John McCain may have played to what the MSM likes to call his "maverick image" -- calling out by name the chief exec of imploding mortgage behemoth Countrywide. But the Washington Post's news story got it about right in writing that "much of what he detailed was a corporate special pleader's dream.

There's not only McCain's support for making Bush's tax cuts permanent. Most outrageous is McCain's plan to cut the corporate income tax rate, from 35 percent to 25 percent. What you won't read in today's coverage of McCain's proposal is that, according to a 2004 Government Accountability Office study, 61% of American corporations, including 39% of large companies, paid no corporate income taxes between 1996 and 2000. Last year, corporations shouldered just 14.4% of the total US tax burden, compared with about 50% in 1940. And McCain wants to give these corporations a break?

Amid record oil and gasoline prices and a faltering economy, Sen. John McCain Tuesday called for a suspension of the federal gas tax as a means of stimulating the economy - a call that was met with skepticism from many experts.

In a wide ranging economic speech at Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh, the presumptive Republican nominee called for a hiatus in the 18.4 cent-a-gallon federal gas tax from Memorial Day until Labor Day - the period when vacationing Americans spend the most time on the road.

The federal government collects about $38 billion a year in gas and diesel taxes, with state and local governments bringing in about $78 billion more, according to the Federal Highway Administration. Most of the money is used to fund highway projects. Suspending the gas tax during the summer would leave a funding gap of about $10 billion.

Analysts criticized the proposal for doing little to either stimulate the economy or lower gas prices, and say it could potentially leave roads in disrepair.

The total cost of the McCain plan: Up to $9 billion and 300,000 highway jobs.

According to a report in The New York Times, it makes much more sense to offer low-income Americans rebates for gas, because it will be cheaper and target the people who really need it. Even if gas prices fall 18 cents over the summer, the fuel-related problems facing the U.S. is not about to change, and will likely only get worse each year. For once, American drivers need to start thinking seriously about the future rather than simply kicking the can down the road.