McCain's budget plan: not serious. "McCain doesn't have any numbers. None. Not vague numbers of fuzzy math. He just says he's going to do it. Any other candidate would get laughed off the stage with that kind of nonsense."

Comments

[Fec]

I've read a couple of DKos diaries that break it all down. A $175B tax cut and a balanced budget by the end of the first term, miraculously funded by a peace dividend following certain victory in Iraq and Astan.

It's like his health care policy: a fairy tale.

[Graham Shevlin]

Judging by some of the fiscal promises that candidates of both parties end up making come election time, it seems that electorates do believe in the tooth fairy, that there is such a thing as a free lunch, you can have your cake and eat it, that pigs fly, the moon is made of green cheese, and All Taxes Are Bad And If We Pay Less Tax We Can Still Balance The Books Even While I Get My Handouts.
I remember in one of the 1980 Presidential debates, after Ronald Reagan had announced that he was going to cut taxes, increase defense spending and still balance the budget, that John Anderson remarked "the only way that can be done is with mirrors". Anderson was right of course; you cannot make 2+2 = 5 unless you want to try suspending normal math. The sad part of this is that electors have a disturbing tendency to vote for the candidate that tells them that when it comes to income vs. spending 2+2 = 5.
So...while I think that the economics of many candidates' positions are ludicrous, there's a good reason why they create this ludicrous nonsense. Electorates like it. Until enough electors start engaging their critical thinking faculties and actually do some simple math, and adjust their voting preferences accordingly, politicians will continue to utter this sort of (not even) half-baked nonsense.

[justcorbly]

The vast majority of voters don't base their choice on the specific plans of a candidate. They make it based on their gut feeling about which candidate is most likely to do a better job. (Where the voters differ is on the definition of "better".) Even among the minority who make the effort to understand candidates' policy positions, very few will vote for someone whose ideas they like when their gut says no,

I suggest stopping people in the street and asking questions about economics -- like, explain the difference between inflation and recession.

[Danny Wright]

Something that also may be revealing comes from a June 12 WSJ article. It deals with a rather objective assessment of their tax plans -- and it looks like, overall, we all lose with either plan -- massive national debt increase no matter what.

McCain's Tax Plan Favors Wealthiest, Analysis Says
Obama's Skews Benefits to Lower, Middle Classes
By DEBORAH SOLOMON
June 12, 2008; Page A8

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB121319990210164643.html?mod=googlenews_wsj&apl=y&r=333212

[Danny Wright]

My bad -- I should have known better than to think that somehow I was resourceful enough to come up with that link originally on my own -- I asked myself late last night where I saw that article (I scan WSJ online rather cursorily each day.

I first saw it on this blog back in June -- and it had 47 comments, no less.

Apologies. (Perhaps it is still relevant to look back on it in light of recent news.)