Senator Barack Obama is a either a naïf or a ninny.

Based on his tax proposals, the key to any economic program, the nincompoop out-points the naïf.

Here’s why: Obama proposes to raise taxes in a recession, making himself Herbert Hoover II.

Obama’s economic program won’t promote growth. Campaign twaddle about “fairness” and “spreading the wealth” are instead intended to buy votes with taxpayer dollars by creating new constituencies or subsidizing old ones. That’s the real point of federally funded pre-school, universal but “voluntary” healthcare, and a “refundable tax credit” for “needy” college students.

Senator John McCain is forthright when he says he doesn’t know much about the economy. But he has a record as a free-trader and has consistently opposed subsidies and trade barriers.

During the primaries, Obama talked about renegotiating NAFTA. Privately, his campaign assured Canada, our largest trading partner, that he didn’t mean it. Hallelujah: It was just Bubba bait, not “change you can believe in.”

Obama promises tax cuts for 95% of all Americans. But how does that work when the bottom 30% or so of wage earners don’t pay federal income taxes? No income taxes to refund? No problem because a tax credit (targeted, of course) will do. File this under “redistribute the wealth.”

Obama would slap a 6.2% payroll tax on incomes above $250,000, a killer for the nation’s 26 million small business owners, who generally pay individual taxes.

VP candidate Joe Biden uttered an inconvenient truth when he said the tax-cut threshold would be lowered to $150,000. Still, Obama’s current tax plans won’t cover his proposed spending increases. That means he’ll raise taxes on the middle class.