The deficits of the past 8 years are based on two things: tax cuts that were not offset by spending cuts, and spending increases

I think fluctuations in the national income that gets taxed has a lot to do with it as well. Clinton benefited from a good economy to allow him to balance budgets more easily. One can argue that Clinton helped produce that economy, and that Bush helped produce this one, but there are too many factors involved for me to take a position on that. With a surge in economic growth, perhaps we could balance the budget at existing tax rates. And perhaps a tax increase would make that surge even more unlikely. In fact, there is no doubt we could balance the budget with lower tax rates, if we just spent less. Unfortunately, it is hard to convince Americans that they would benefit from spending cuts, because their experience has been that the benefits flow whether they pay for them or not. If the government stopped by our door every month to collect the Iraq payment, we would have been out of there before the invasion even started. Same for countless other programs.

You have waved away the effects of better economic performance on government revenues and, to a lesser extent, expenditures. A return to the growth rates of most of the last 8 years by itself will cut the deficit by more than half.

THEN you can start counting up savings from reducing discretionary spending or reforming entitlements.

So bringing an end (let's be honest, a reduction, not an end) to a massive government program we never needed in the first place counts as a "savings" that McCain gets to take credit for??? Yeah, whatever.

Yeah, I remember the 'Peace Dividend' that Bush 41 got after the Berlin Wall came down. Every politician in Washington was drooling to find something to spend that on - when it fact, that 'savings' was just an end to massive deficit spending under Reagan/Bush (or could have been if Congress had left it alone).

There is no way to cut enough 'waste' out of the system to made a dent in the deficit. If you think Congress is going to cut Social Security and Medicare benefits, then you forget that the largest and most consistent block of voters in America is those over 60.

To balance the budget, you HAVE to raise taxes. And why NOT raise them to 1998 levels? The economy was strong, we have unprecedented GDP growth, and I don't recall tons of rich people complaining that they weren't getting richer fast enough.

I think we have the best argument yet for drilling in ANWR, people.

I think the Executive Order that Pres.GHW Bush signed banning drilling on the continental shelf has something to do with this. Bush the lesser has had 7+ years to make this go away with the stroke of a pen. I don't remember McCain calling for him to do so. Are GHW & GW these envior-freaks who have halted exploitation of ANWAR? So it would seem...

Second thought;
Wasnt that massive cut about the time that Prudhoe really came online? I think we have the best argument yet for drilling in ANWR, people.

Third thought: Why not actually check whether the drop in oil prices corresponds to the opening of Prudhoe Bay, _before_ attributing a past outcome to a policy you support?

all the growth cycles that have come since the 70's have involved a precipitous drop in oil prices.

Good point.
And I'm already on record as saying that will be happening

.

Second thought;
Wasnt that massive cut about the time that Prudhoe really came online? I think we have the best argument yet for drilling in ANWR, people.

savings from victory in the Iraq and Afghanistan operations

So bringing an end (let's be honest, a reduction, not an end) to a massive government program we never needed in the first place counts as a "savings" that McCain gets to take credit for??? Yeah, whatever. The idea that "victory" there will "save" us money, I'll listen to that when those oil royalty checks we were supposed to get pass the $1 trillion mark.

Sounds like when Democrats whine about the Bush tax cut "giveaways" to the rich -- you know, the ones where we "give" them "back" some of their own money that we hadn't even taken yet.

I appreciate McCain's interest in reducing domestic government waste, it is almost enough to make me want to vote for him, and I still may. But then he gets started talking on his own big government pet projects beyond our borders. If we're going to waste money let's at least do it at home and where the only people we piss off is ourselves.

Seriously, somebody needs to get Dave Ramsey to the CBO, stat.

McCain is promising to follow essentially the same policies Bush promised to follow and expects to get the opposite results.

But don't worry, the republicans keep warning us that if we elect a democrat president this trend will reverse.