McCain's Deficit Reduction Proposal -- Adopt Obama's Iraq Plan

The McCain campaign just put out a policy plan that says "John McCain will balance the budget by the end of his first term." This declaration leads to the obvious question -- How? The CBO projects a $443 billion deficit in 2013 if Bush's tax cuts are extended as McCain calls for -- and on top of this McCain calls for additional tax cuts.

McCain says he will pay for this by cutting Social Security, Medicaid and Medicare, and he would bring troops back from Iraq and Afghanistan... Yes you read that right. McCain's plan to decrease the deficit is to bring the troops home. McCain's economic policy paper explains that:

The McCain administration would reserve all savings from victory in the Iraq and Afghanistan operations in the fight against Islamic extremists for reducing the deficit. Since all their costs were financed with deficit spending, all their savings must go to deficit reduction.

This is a pretty bold statement from a campaign that in the last five days has called Barack Obama a flip flopper for saying he might "revise" his Iraq tactics. Now McCain is implying that he will bring a large portion of our troops home quickly enough to pay down the deficit?

Let's get this straight.

A major plank of John McCain's economic plan to reduce the deficit is based on substantially decreasing America's financial commitments to Iraq and Afghanistan, which can only occur by significantly reducing the U.S. force presence in Iraq. Additionally, in order to meet the target of eliminating the deficit by 2013, troop levels would have to be substantially lowered in Iraq fairly early on in the McCain administration in order to have any impact on the deficit prior to 2013.

McCain's economic plan actually sheds some real light on John McCain's undefined Iraq position. (Note to the press: John McCain has never laid out a specific plan or strategy for bringing U.S. troops home from Iraq, nor has he ever defined what he means by "victory.") But now that we know that the McCain campaign's economic forecasting and planning are based on having substantially fewer troops in Iraq, it is clear that John McCain's Iraq plan is actually -- according to the implications of his economic policy proposal -- a copy of Barack Obama's Iraq plan, which calls for a responsible deliberate withdrawal. Since adopting Obama's plan would be the only way to achieve significant savings to pay down the deficit by 2013.

If this is not McCain's Iraq plan -- then his campaign essentially put out an economic policy plan that has no basis in reality and his pledge to eliminate the deficit is purely a cynical pledge to get elected. Either way he should be called out on this.

Thus far the press have treated McCain as the candidate with policy expertise and have ignored the fact that he has almost no policy specifics. Many of his policy proposals, especially on foreign policy, are incomplete, incoherent, and contradictory.  He needs to clarify not just how his numbers add up, but how many troops he plans on withdrawing, as well as his definition of victory is in Iraq. It is past time for some reporters to start asking these questions. I mean this guy is running for president.

Comments

[Cilantro33309]

My friends, let me lie to you. I plan to use your children, your grandchildren, we call "troops" and their future to get myself elected. After all, my getting elected president is more important. Furthermore, I am going to pretend to intend to bring them home in order to pay down the deficit. In fact, no such thing will happen, because as anyone can easily tell you, failing to overspend does not pay anything, it just fails to create more debt, and I have no intention of pulling out of any war. I am your new "war president", your new "decider".

Thank you, my friends. McCain/Romney '08!

[mollyjackson]

After 143 days of work experience, Obama believed he was ready to be Commander In Chief, Leader of the Free World, and fill the shoes of Abraham Lincoln, FDR, JFK and Ronald Reagan. 143 days -- I keep leftovers in my refrigerator longer than that. In contrast, John McCain's 26 years in Congress, 22 years of military service including 1,966 days in captivity as a POW in Hanoi now seem more impressive than ever.

[Argoth]

First, after 143 days in the refrigerator you will have living, breathing organisms growing out of your leftovers. I would hope you would not eat something like that for your own safety.

Second, I am assuming that you pulled 143 days out of....thin air? Give Obama more credit than that. Sure McCain has had more experience including military experience, but he is also OLDER then Obama. Don't forget that experience matters little when your judgement is bad or you have no concrete policy positions.

[KenGirard]

How many days do you have to do something to start seeing that there could be bettter ways to do it?
Or do you just keep doing something over and over, hoping that the resualts will be different?

In baseball, do you send in the new rookie who is batting .500, or the guy who has been around forever and is hitting .230?

When you are going on a trip across the country do you jump in the brand new fuel efficent car, or do you take the '47 Packard?

My grandfather had lots of experience, but I wouldn't let him tell me how to find things on the internet or how to work on a modern car.

[TN60]

It is painfully factual that the PRESS is not going to hold McCain accountable on anything, from his stupid economic plan to accepting public financing while the RNC, 527s, religious nut jobs, swiftboaters and the NRA will spend millions on ads on his behalf !!

It is up to us to call, by name, all the liars who perpetuate these lies and I will start with Andrea Mitchell, Joe Scarborough and the other spinners at MSNBC who have kept the Obama "refine" message as a flip-flop going for 5 fays now. How about the AP reporters?

What is victory in Iraq, Mr. McCain? Are you going to concede Afghanistan to Bin Laden?

How long does it take to build these so called nuclear plants, Mr. McCain? What do you plan to do with the waste, Mr. McCain? Yucca Mtn., perhaps?

How long does it take from the time you start the drilling for oil everywhere in the US to consumption, Mr. McCain? Do you plan to demand that car manufacturers increase fuel efficent cars?

Are you going to keep taxing the middle class to death while giving big tax breaks to corporations? You said that you will cut Medicare, Medicad and Social Security benefits. How much dog food do you expect the poor and elderly of this country to eat so your lobbyist buddies and big Oil makes billions of dollars?

Good luck, Mr. McCain. Ever heard of the French Revelution?

[crusty]

I still can't comprehend how, if we are paying for the incursions into Iraq and Afghanistan with deficit spending, ending those incursions will lower the deficit. Stop increasing it, perhaps; but not lower it! Voodoo economics all over again!

[FullChat]

Hey Crusty, don't try to apply logic to McCain's financial programs. It'll give you a headache!

[axt113]

Well duh, of course McCain is flipping over to Obama's plan, its the only intelligent plan, but the MSM won't say a word about it

[XME]

Yup...all they talked about ALL weekend was Obama's SUPPOSED flip-flop about "refining" his plan. The media is such a joke.

[mgray34]

Now I have seen it all!!! Can you say..."dou­ble-standa­rd?" I can only come to one conclusion about the MSM. It is not fair and balanced. I sure hope that the educated out number the non educated out there because if enough people listen to this garbage without doing their own research, the MSM will influence this election. How much you wanna bet that the MSM don't discuss McSmoke and Mirror's voodoo economic plan? If this was Obama pushing this plan he would be tarred and feathered with questions about his policies, his judgement, how he plans on paying for it, which would lead to questions about his inexperience etc. and so on.

[Marlyn]

FUNNY!

[DrFitz]

'But now that we know that the McCain campaign's economic forecasting and planning are based on having substantially fewer troops in Iraq, it is clear that John McCain's Iraq plan is actually -- according to the implications of his economic policy proposal -- a copy of Barack Obama's Iraq plan, which calls for a responsible deliberate withdrawal. Since adopting Obama's plan would be the only way to achieve significant savings to pay down the deficit by 2013."

The press has spent the past week+ harping on Obama shifts. This is the Mother of all admissions that it was actually Barack that was right about Iraq all along. Imitation is truly the best form of flattery. Let's fire up those plagiarism accusations. But I guess Fox will find another speech containg "a" "that" and "from" or whatever is what that Barack "lifted' from Cuomo and run with that again.

[tvmaker]

Thanks for paying attention Max! McCain and a lazy MSM have beaten Barack Obama over the head since last Thursday about a falsely perceived Iraq policy change. Anyone who's actually paying attention clearly knows the difference. Obama's surrogates shoud aggressively jump all over this and "call McCain out on this" . McCain constantly attacked Romney for a suggestion of "setting a timeline in Iraq". Now that he has turned around and set a timeline for withdrawal, a steady drumbeat to drive this home to the MSM just might be just the kind of thing that could cause McCain to publicly reveal his "Dr. Jekyll" side. He's been dying to get out.