Top McCain Adviser: ‘I Would Like The Next President Not To Talk About Deficit Reduction’

[RedEarth]

Earlier this year, Sen. John McCain (R-AZ) proposed a deficit-reduction plan in which he would balance the budget by 2012. “hat’s my goal. … It has to be our goal, because we’re mortgaging these young people’s future,” he said in February.

Now, McCain’s advisers are abandoning this tough talk. The New York Times reports that chief economic adviser Douglas Holtz-Eakin said the next president should not even talk about balancing the budget, adopting a “so be it” approach to the costs of the Iraq war and McCain’s corporate tax cuts:

said the benefits of success in Iraq dwarfed the $150 billion annual cost. He also said that if the war and the personal and corporate tax cuts that Mr. McCain advocated added to the federal deficit and debt, so be it.

“I would like the next president not to talk about deficit reduction,” Mr. Holtz-Eakin said at a symposium sponsored by the Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget.

http://thinkprogress.org/2008/04/14/mccain-deficits/

[Olney Blue]

1. WTF? The maverick is selling out hand over fist.

[Catch22Dem]

2. God DAMN that's ballsy!

:wtf:

[Nickster]

3. I'm surprised he didn't take a clue from Dubya. Just put everything off the books and run up overall

debt, then you can still spend tons of money and talk like you're all fiscally responsible.

[Arctic Dave]

4. Fuck the budget says the Comm for a Resposible Federal Budget.

Repugs do breed such fine specimens of absolute stupidity.

[aint_no_life_nowhere]

5. We need to keep that military-industrial gravy train running

If we developed a budget surplus, we might actually have to consider doing something for the common people, like building roads and bridges, better education, environmental protection, R&D to develop alternative energy, improved healthcare delivery, and the like. Amen (so be it)