Progress Illinois

Yesterday, John McCain came out and proposed to balance the federal budget by the end of his first term. Today, the Chicago Tribune editorial board lapped it up:

Since winning the nomination, Obama reportedly has been moving toward the middle of the political spectrum. But on the budget, he still sounds left of center, with no interest in eliminating deficit spending.

So it was heartening to hear that at least John McCain is determined to restore fiscal discipline—and not in eight years, as he had previously suggested, but in four. On Monday, he released a plan that explains how he will manage the economy and says flatly, "John McCain will balance the budget by the end of his first term."

The board tempers their excitement with the acknowledgment that McCain has laid out virtually no plan for how to reach this budgetary bliss. Perhaps that's because it's politically unfeasible, a rather important point the Tribune considers only after heralding McCain's announcement.

In a post we highlighted in the Early Bird, the Center for American Progress' Wonk Room suggests that McCain will face a deficit of $700 billion, thanks to his extension and augmentation of Bush's expiring tax cuts. A "generous estimate" of the savings from McCain’s proposed spending freeze would be $50 billion, leaving a budget hole of $650 billion, a whopping total that could not even be erased by eliminating 10 whole cabinet agencies (Agriculture, Commerce, Education, Energy, HUD, Interior, DOJ, Labor, Transportation, Treasury and the EPA).

That leaves only two options: ending the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, which he won't do and can't say how much the savings will be anyway, or gutting Social Security, one of the most popular social programs in American history. McCain's proposal-- without saying as much -- amounts to a privatizion of the program. But a Democratic Congress will never allow it. So where to get the money? Ezra Klein says it's time the press asks the right questions:

If you are going to balance the budget by doing something to entitlement programs, you are going to do one of two things: Raise the payroll tax, or cut the programs. In other words, the accurate headline for this piece would read "McCain Promises to Cut Social Security And Medicare Or Drastically Raise The Payroll Tax." If enough pieces like that were written, McCain would have to explain which of those he intends to do. As of yet, he's been able to dodge the question, saying repeatedly that he'll "talk" to Congress. But Congress won't cut Social Security or Medicare. So is McCain promising a massive payroll tax increase? Or is he just spouting platitudes?

It's likely the latter, which makes the Tribune's excitement over nothing -- and their criticism of Barack Obama for not promising a balanced budget -- so silly. If the Tribune is worried about "fiscal irresponsibility," maybe they could stop championing a war that costs this country $12 billion per month.