April 18 (Bloomberg) -- John McCain distanced himself from President George W. Bush's economic policies, saying Americans are ``hurting badly'' and haven't fared well under this administration.

``Americans are not better off than they were eight years ago,'' McCain said in an interview on Bloomberg Television's ``Political Capital with Al Hunt,'' to be aired today.

McCain, the presumptive Republican nominee for president, fended off Democratic charges that he is simply following Bush's economic policies by pointing out that unlike Bush, he intends to end ``out-of-control spending'' as well as push for big tax cuts.

The Arizona senator said one factor in the ``severe economic difficulties'' Americans face today is the huge increase in deficits and spending under Bush: ``We have to borrow money from China. The dollar weakens.''

McCain, who released his own tax returns today showing income of $405,409, said he has no intention of making his wife's full tax information public. Cindy McCain, who is chairman of Hensley & Co., one of the largest beer distributors in the U.S., has never released her tax returns.

``My wife and I, we have separate incomes, we have a prenuptial agreement, and her business is her business,'' he said. ``I have never been involved in it since before I ran for the Congress of the United States, so I just feel that she has a right to a separate tax return.''

Democratic presidential candidates Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton have both released their joint returns for recent years.

Bush's Record

McCain's assessment of Bush's economic record was harsher than his remarks a day earlier in a Bloomberg Television interview.

``You could make an argument that there's been great progress economically'' while Bush was in office, he said then. ``That's no comfort to families now that are facing these tremendous economic difficulties.''

Obama, 46, pounced on that view. ``Here's what John McCain calls great progress,'' he told a town-hall meeting in Erie, Pennsylvania. ``Eleven million more Americans don't have health care, 2 million more Americans are out of work, millions of families are facing foreclosure.''

On tax policy, McCain insisted in the ``Political Capital'' interview that his tax cuts over eight years, estimated to cost $3.3 trillion, would jump-start the slumping economy.

Cutting Spending

He brushed off criticism that the plan would send the U.S. into ever-deeper debt, saying he would cut pork-barrel spending, overhaul defense procurement and cut subsidies to the sugar industry, ethanol producers and the oil and gas industries.

In an April 15 speech, McCain, 71, proposed making all of Bush's tax cuts permanent, eliminating the alternative minimum tax, and doubling the exemption for children to $7,000 a year. He wants to cut the corporate rate to 25 percent from 35 percent, while allowing bigger exemptions for business investment.

Today, McCain said there would be subsequent initiatives to close tax loopholes.

He criticized Obama's proposals to lift the income cap on Social Security taxes and to boost capital gains taxes, saying that would hurt the ``100 million Americans that have an investment some way or another in the stock market.''

He said that every time capital gains taxes were cut, revenue rose.

``I base my economic policies on my history, experience and knowledge,'' he said, contrasting himself with Obama. He did not mention Hillary Clinton in the 10-minute interview.

The senator, who is known more for his foreign policy expertise than his economics knowledge, has said in the past that his economic education was continuing. Today, he said he has completed the course.

``Listen, I understand economics,'' he said. ``One reason is because they are really based on fundamental values and philosophy.''

To contact the reporters on this story: Alison Fitzgerald e-mail Afitzgerald2@bloomberg.net.

Last Updated: April 18, 2008 15:55 EDT