McCain at Aurora town hall: 'I will not raise your taxes'

In a statement reminiscent of President George H.W. Bush's infamous "read my lips" pledge in 1988, John McCain told workers at an Aurora manufacturing company Wednesday that, "I want to look you in the eye - I will not raise your taxes nor support a tax increase."

The presumptive Republican presidential nominee spoke before about 300 workers at the Wagner Equipment Company, striking a theme of transcending partisan politics and dismissing presumptive Democratic opponent Barack Obama as "another politician in Washington who puts self-interest and political expediency ahead  of problem solving."

Colorado Democrats, though, said Obama would lower taxes on the middle class and claimed McCain's economic plan would mostly benefit the wealthiest Americans. 

McCain's statement that he would not raise taxes came a day after the influential anti-tax group Club for Growth called for such a commitment from the senator from Arizona. The group said McCain had been offering "a mixed message" about where he stands on taxes.

"I'm going to keep current tax rates low -- not because I want to make the rich richer, because it keeps jobs in America and creates new ones," McCain said Wednesday.

"Senator Obama," McCain offered in contrast, "says he's going to change Washington, but his solution is to simply make government bigger and raise your taxes to pay for it."

In both his speech and subsequent "town hall" Q&A, McCain repeatedly portrayed himself as someone who's long be able to "reach across the aisle" and offered examples of how he's bucked the Republican Party and President Bush on issues such as military spending.

"I understand who I work for," McCain said.  "I don't work for a party, I don't work for the- a president, I don't work for a special interest and I don't work for myself. I work for you and the country that we love."

In contrast, McCain said Obama, "on issues big and small, what he says and what he does are often two different things," McCain said. "Senator Obama doesn't have the strength to speak openly and directly about how he will address the serious challenges confronting America. How will he be strong enough to really change Washington?

Before McCain's speech, Colorado Democrats offered a view of McCain quite different from the maverick image the 71-year-old painted of himself in his speech.

"Right now, the direction that Senator McCain is proposing -- it's the same old story," said state Rep. Nancy Todd (D-Aurora). "It's the same direction we've gone for the last eight years. Our country cannot afford that."

"It is a time to look at things in a different way we have to start solving our problems in a new and different and creative way," Todd continued. "When you're 70 years old, you don't have the tendency to look as forward as you do. I know that when I meet with my young constituents and young students that are planning for the future , they have new and different ideas, and we need to listen to that and we need to be moving in that direction."

State Rep. Morgan Carroll (D-Aurora) touted Obama's economic plan, saying it would offer "targeted tax cuts to the middle class" and reduce the capital gains tax for small business owners.

"McCain's plan," Carroll said, "includes more - multi-millions and millions of dollars going to the wealthiest corporations in America.

"That is not an economic recovery plan," Carroll said. "We cannot do more of the same as far as multi-billion-dollar handouts to people who do not need it."

McCain's town hall Wednsday was part of his third visit to the Denver area this month; last Friday he spoke to Latino military veterans, and he held a town hall at the Denver Center for the Performing Arts on July 8.