WASHINGTON -- John McCain is trying to shift the 2008 economic debate to an issue where Republicans historically have had an edge over Democrats: taxes.

In a television ad that began airing Thursday, the McCain presidential campaign warned that Americans can expect "painful income taxes" if Barack Obama, the Democratic presidential nominee, wins the White House. In Cedar Rapids, Iowa, Sen. McCain pounced on comments by Sen. Obama's running mate, Delaware Sen. Joe Biden, on a morning news show that paying higher taxes is "patriotic."

"Raising taxes in a tough economy isn't patriotic," Sen. McCain scoffed. "It's not a badge of honor. It's just plain dumb."


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But Republicans have reason to hope a sharpened focus on taxes specifically will help Sen. McCain. That is because Sen. Obama is trying to do what no national politician has done since Ronald Reagan transformed the tax debate in 1980: win on a platform that includes significant tax increases.

Under the Obama plan, tax rates for couples making more than $250,000 a year would go up, as would their taxes on capital gains and corporate dividends. Sen. Obama says he would keep the taxes the same for those making less than $250,000 and propose additional cuts for lower-income families. Among other things, he proposes new initiatives to promote savings and ease the tax burden of working seniors.

In recent decades, raising any taxes on any households hasn't been a winner. Democrat Walter Mondale lost to Mr. Reagan in a landslide in 1984 after promising tax increases. Republican President George H.W. Bush broke the "no new taxes" pledge he made in his 1988 campaign, and paid for it at the polls when he sought re-election in 1992. Bill Clinton won that campaign promising tax cuts for the middle class. He ended up pushing tax increases on the rich and his party subsequently lost control of Congress, in part over pubic discontent on the issue. John Kerry had a tax plan similar to Sen. Obama's -- raising taxes on the rich, cutting them for others -- in his losing 2004 challenge to George W. Bush.

But the economy is now weak, even after Mr. Bush's tax cuts, and polls show voters giving the current administration poor marks for its handling of the economy. The Obama campaign is betting that, under those conditions, voters may be more willing to accept some tax increases.

Austan Goolsbee, a senior Obama adviser, said the Democrat's plan is a direct challenge to the "philosophy" behind Mr. Bush's across-the-board tax cuts, which assumed the U.S. economy, broadly, would benefit as tax rates were lowered across all income spectrums. In hindsight, Mr. Goolsbee says, "that philosophy is a job killer, not a job creator."

Mr. Goolsbee said Sen. Obama would let taxes on the wealthy rise only to Clinton-era levels, a time of prosperity for the country. He said the senator believes tax cuts should be targeted at "working people, who are the ones who are struggling."

Republicans are hoping that the old antitax strain remains strong this year. Sen. McCain is pushing for a permanent extension of the tax cuts enacted by Mr. Bush, which are set to expire at the end of 2010. Among other things, the plan would keep the top income-tax rate, paid by the wealthiest Americans, at 35%. Absent an extension, the top rate would rise to 39.6%. Sen. McCain is also pushing a new tax benefit for middle-class families, promising to double the exemption that can be claimed for dependents.

"The reality is raising taxes in a weak economy is a bad idea, and we don't," said McCain campaign policy chief Doug Holtz-Eakin, adding that higher individual rates would hit small businesses particularly hard.

Polls suggest Sen. McCain has room to exploit the issue. Even though Sen. Obama has vowed the middle class will get tax cuts, not tax increases, 49% of voters said they believed their taxes would go up if the Democrat wins, according to the latest New York Times/CBS News survey.

At the McCain rally Thursday in Iowa, Kate Julicher, 25 years old, said she is not persuaded by Sen. Obama's promise to cut taxes for people like her. She doesn't believe he will raise taxes only on couples earning more than $250,000 a year. "I don't believe him," said Ms. Julicher, a software engineer from Cedar Rapids. "I have a feeling that $250,000 limit is going to come down when they realize they need more money to bail out whoever they bail out."

—Laura Meckler contributed to this article.

Write to Greg Hitt at greg.hitt@wsj.com