JOHN MCCAIN’S CAMPAIGN has begun to roll out his newly repackaged economic program, and the early headlines have been all about federal spending. “McCain Reverts to Balanced Budget Pledge,” the New York Times reported, and the quote most often pulled out of McCain’s remarks had to do with his “stem to stern review” of government excess and waste.

The plan itself is largely unchanged from prior iterations: veto earmarks, freeze discretionary spending, cut corporate tax rates, phase out the alternative minimum tax, increase the dependent exemption, create an optional simplified tax structure, promote free trade, and reform health care and entitlements. But the emphasis on spending, which was the campaign’s own doing as much as that of the press, misses the key to voters’ concerns about the economy, and to the way McCain’s economic message can address those concerns.