Senator John McCain, the Republican nominee for president, said he would ‘order the Treasury Department to guarantee 100 percent of all savings for the next six months as president,’ the Associated Press reported on Tuesday.

‘That provision is part of a $52.5 billion plan’ McCain offered to Americans to counter the economic crisis.

McCain told a suburban Philadelphia audience that “the moment requires that government act. And as president I intend to act, quickly and decisively.”

He added that he would eliminate taxes on unemployment benefits and reduce taxes on capital gains, individual retirement accounts and 401(k)’s.

At a campaign rally in Virginia, meanwhile, Senator McCain said: “”>If I’m elected President, I won’t spend nearly a trillion dollars more of your money, on top of the $700 billion we just gave the Treasury Secretary, as Senator Obama proposes. Because he can’t do that without raising your taxes or digging us further into debt. I’m going to make government live on a budget just like you do.”

“I will,” he said, “freeze government spending on all but the most important programs like defense, veterans care, Social Security and health care until we scrub every single government program and get rid of the ones that aren’t working for the American people. And I will veto every single pork barrel bill Congresses passes.”

“If I’m elected President, I won’t raise taxes on small businesses, as Senator Obama proposes, and force them to cut jobs. I will keep small business taxes where they are, help them keep their costs low, and let them spend their earnings to create more jobs,” he went on to say.

McCain’s plans come in response to Barack Obama’s plan, which the Senator from Illinois presented yesterday. That plan was criticized today by fiscal conservatives everywhere, arguing that Obama’s promise to cut taxes was void, because he would do no such thing; rather, his plan would constitute a redistribution of wealth, these commentators pointed out.

Thus far, McCain’s plans sound more fiscally conservative than Obama’s, oriented on general growth rather than redistributing wealth from the rich to the poor. Instead of spending more, McCain pledges to spend less.

American voters now stand before a rather clear choice: more government influence, more government programs, a ridistribution of wealth, higher taxes on the one hand, or smaller government, lower taxes, and a limit to government spending on the other. It will now be up to both candidates to articulate their proposals in the weeks ahead and to defend them.

Finally, similar to Obama’s plan, you can expect several analysis to be published at PoliGazette of John McCain’s economic plans. More on that, then, later this week. One point of criticism now: spending less is indeed necessary in order to balance the budget, but it seems to me that reducing spending for pragmatical reasons and ideological reasons aren’t necessarily the same. I am inclined to believe that McCain may be partially thinking about cutting spending that would actually not make sense from a pragmatic perspective. More on that later.

For now, it is clear that McCain offers American a fiscal conservative administration and plan, whereas Obama proposes a fiscal progressive administration. Americans have a choice.