Does McCain Speak for McCain

The Tax Policy Center discovered a $2.8 trillion gap between between the various promising John McCain has been making throughout the campaign and what his economic policy advisers have been describing more quietly to expert analysts. Slate reports on McCain's explanation:

“This is parsing words out of campaign appearances to an unreasonable degree,” Holtz-Eakin said. “He has certainly I’m sure said things in town halls” that don’t jibe perfectly with his written plan. But that doesn’t mean it’s official.

Basically, the McCain campaign's position is that their candidate should be allowed to produce one set of "official" numbers for the purposes of expert scrutiny. But when going around the country talking to voters, McCain should be allowed to produce a different set of "unofficial" proposals -- perhaps made with his fingers crossed behind his back -- that are designed to trick voters into believing he means what he says, while really they're just unoffocial proposals he doesn't mean. Or something.

Comments

The McCain campaign appears to be decompensating.

Posted by Joel | July 26, 2008 5:34 PM

I think the words you're looking for are Fuzzy Math.

Posted by southpaw | July 26, 2008 5:36 PM

Oh, and this does give a new and unfamiliar meaing to the phrase "straight talk."

Posted by Joel | July 26, 2008 5:37 PM

You mean, when a politician promises 'a chicken in every pot', he may not mean 'a chicken in every pot'?

OH, NOES~!

Where's my smelling salts....

Posted by David | July 26, 2008 5:41 PM

McCain's thinking is consistent with corporate accounting in America. The accounting that goes into annual reports is far different from the accounting used for tax purposes. The former is designed to maximize profits while the latter is designed to minimize them. Yet they are both "true." Stephen Colbert didn't invent "truthiness," corporate accountants did. And McCain is simply following that grand tradition.

Posted by fostert | July 26, 2008 5:46 PM

$2.8 trillion will buy you a lot of smelling salts.

Posted by southpaw | July 26, 2008 5:48 PM

McCain has no idea what his economic policies are. Just knows he's supposed to mumble something about lower taxes and "pork" from time to time.

Posted by TH | July 26, 2008 5:59 PM

town hall numbers that "don’t jibe perfectly" = off by 2.8 trillion dollars

Posted by joejoejoe | July 26, 2008 6:06 PM

The McCain you see on TV is just an awkward, poorly-informed body double for the Real McCain. The Real McCain is kept in a sensory-immersion tank somewhere near Santa Barbara, where he thinks nothing but straight thoughts and solves all the world's problems every afternoon.

Posted by lampwick | July 26, 2008 6:16 PM

There's a couple of trillion bucks difference between talking and planning. I agree that the McCain campaign is failing hugely. Unfortunately--they get 40% of the vote just by being on the ballot. Dems still need to earn a victory.

The O'Bama campaign is making today a national recruiting day for volunteers for phone-banking, canvassing, etc. Hint. Hint. Hint.

Posted by JohnMcC | July 26, 2008 6:17 PM

All of McCain's campaign is fantasy.

Posted by Miande | July 26, 2008 7:09 PM

I realize that everyone is a genius compared to GWBush, but it may eventually occur to people that John McCain is really pretty dumb, too.

And dishonest.

Posted by McKingford | July 26, 2008 7:13 PM

Fuzzy math? From a politician? Who'da thunk it?

Posted by Real Estate Raj | July 26, 2008 7:26 PM

Fuzzy math? From a politician? Who'da thunk it

Posted by Real Estate Raj | July 26, 2008 7:26 PM

The budget is in crisis now. The deficit currently is running towards a trillion dollars a year. Fiscal 08's will be at least $600 billion, slightly above the $200 billion initial projection.

All the secular forces which finally made the deficit start to fall are now reversing. The price of everything is rising of course and the military is now spending 15% more than planned. The killer however is revenue. The gigantic Wall Street/financial world profits of the last few years have evaporated and with it the resulting taxes paid.

Throw in the kickers like the 'stimulus' package which required borrowing every last penny of the $120 billion sent to you and me and now the fist downpayment of $25 billion for FNM and FRE and the problem grows. Then there is the FDIC. Two more banks were closed this weekend and another $850 million of their cash is gone. Long before the time the bank failures reach triple digits the FDIC will be broke and congress will have to fund the 'insurance'. ($4+ trillion in deposits, $50 billion, maybe, in backing is not insurance, it's a gamblers prayer)

I won't go on. The Treasury is going to have a difficult time finding lenders for this blizzard of new debt, and all the old that is constantly being rolled over. To get the money interest rates are going to rise to levels unimaginable.

Posted by rapier | July 26, 2008 7:49 PM

I didn't think it was possible, but John McCain is running a campaign that's even worse than John Kerry's.

Posted by Tony Adams | July 26, 2008 8:22 PM

"I didn't think it was possible, but John McCain is running a campaign that's even worse than John Kerry's."

Then considering how close McCain is in the polls to Obama, he must be a really good candidate.

Posted by jonesy | July 26, 2008 8:31 PM

Then considering how close McCain is in the polls to Obama, he must be a really good candidate.

Lemme fix that for you. It would be poll in the singular. You have to use the Quinnipiac (which is an outlier) and forget anything else exists which works for a media that will do anything to make this seem exciting and close but it doesn't have much to do with the real world.

Posted by Ed Marshall | July 26, 2008 8:51 PM

"The budget is in crisis now." says rapier

You're more or less right--very few voters care.

"I think the words you're looking for are Fuzzy Math." says southpaw

Bingo.

Posted by Andruw | July 26, 2008 8:55 PM

So I guess "straight talk" is now just an assertion of heterosexuality.

Posted by DP | July 26, 2008 9:24 PM

I've said this before, but it isn't that McCain is dumb, although that's a legitimate debate. There are plenty of dumb people in the world who manage to surround themselves with smarter people. McCain's problem is that he just doesn't giveafuck. He's intellectually lazy and he's completely addicted to glad-handing. This results in a candidate for President that doesn't prepare, attempts to speak off the cuff almost exclusively, misspeaks constantly, and who's talking points fit into no recognizable narrative. Honestly, John McCain might be the single worst candidate that I've ever seen for President. I now get why so many Republicans dislike him so intensely.

Yet despite all this, by virtue of running against "the black guy", McCain has a built in floor that'll ensure he get a healthy percentage of the popular vote just by showing up, and he's got a print and cable media that'll curiously reluctant to call him out on his mistakes and falsifications.

I don't know how this'll end up, but honestly at this point, I'm very nervous that McCain even has a real shot at becoming our next President.

Posted by dannity | July 26, 2008 9:32 PM

Bush is smarter than McCain, much smarter. McCain's just a bit less pretentious.

Posted by mike | July 26, 2008 9:46 PM

Holes abound in every presidential tax/spending plan, but the error is especially egregious when McCain hammers Obama over the same issue at every economic stop.

http://www.political-buzz.com/

Posted by matt | July 26, 2008 10:09 PM

"The Tax Policy Center discovered a $2.8 trillion gap between between the various promising John McCain has been making throughout the campaign and what his economic policy advisers have been describing more quietly to expert analysts."

Ah.... the hard bigotry of reasonable expectations.

Posted by Independent | July 26, 2008 10:26 PM

The next prez will face a financial firestorm. Neither candidate wants to talk about it. If either candidate actually told the truth about what lies ahead the voters would decapitate him.

Posted by kafka | July 26, 2008 11:23 PM

Granted, all politicians ask voters to buy a pig in a poke to some extent. Still, $2.8 trillion is a mighty price for your average porker.

Posted by morzer | July 27, 2008 12:47 AM

McCain is increasingly showing himself to be a candidate worthy of contempt.

I never thought I'd hate McCain as much as Bush, but now I do, after seeing how he consistently will say or do anything to get elected, and constantly insults the American people.

McCain deserves to lose, and lose big.

Posted by cm | July 27, 2008 12:50 AM

Expect to see this in an Obama campaign ad, or a way for Obama to pivot to the economy. That's an absolutely ridiculous response from the McCain campaign. They MUST think that no one reads their press words.

Posted by Chris | July 27, 2008 1:09 AM

Of course, readers of The Times wouldn't have a clue about this, but they'd be sure that Obama's health care numbers are wildly misstated.

Posted by JohnH | July 27, 2008 8:53 AM

Looks like he's taking a page from Obama's book.

CHANGING HIS MIND WE CAN BELIEVE IN!

Posted by anonymous | July 28, 2008 8:05 AM

it's not like he served 180 days as a Senator and voted "Yes" I'm present most of the time. Nope. nothin like that.

Posted by fran gilman | July 28, 2008 10:02 AM

it's not like he served 180 days as a Senator and voted "Yes" I'm present most of the time. Nope. nothin like that.

Posted by fran gilman | July 28, 2008 10:02 AM

it's not like he served 180 days as a Senator and voted "Yes" I'm present most of the time. Nope. nothin like that.

Posted by fran gilman | July 28, 2008 10:03 AM

Interesting- just 15 mins ago FOX News ran a story about this same report but stated that Obama's plan would create the $2.8 Trillion debt while McCain's would be $4.9 Trillion. Which is it??

Posted by Chill | July 28, 2008 3:53 PM

"The Tax Policy Center discovered a $2.8 trillion gap between between the various promising John McCain has been making throughout the campaign and what his economic policy advisers have been describing more quietly to expert analysts."

Minor correction: the gap is actually $2.5 trillion.

The Tax Policy Center estimated that McCain's plan to reduce corporate taxes would cost an additional $260 billion if the tax cuts were to take place immediately. It made that estimate because doing so "provides a better measure of [the] long term effect on public finances." The $2.8 trillion number is the sum of the $2.5 trillion gap plus the $260 billion.

Posted by Kenneth | July 29, 2008 1:24 AM