John McCain is full of shit

When I took math classes, all of my teachers require that I show my work to prove that I knew what I was doing. I suggest the media hold McCain to the same standard but I won’t be holding my breath.

Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) plans to promise on Monday that he will balance the federal budget by the end of his first term by curbing wasteful spending and overhauling entitlement programs, including Social Security, his advisers told Politico. The vow to take on Social Security puts McCain in a political danger zone that thwarted President Bush after he named it the top domestic priority of his second term.

McCain is making the pledge at the beginning of a week when both presidential candidates plan to devote their events to the economy, the top issue in poll after poll as voters struggle to keep their jobs and fill their gas tanks. “In the long-term, the only way to keep the budget balanced is successful reform of the large spending pressures in Social Security, Medicare, and Medicaid,” the McCain campaign says in a policy paper to be released Monday.

“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 [emphasis mine].”

Leaving aside his plan to slash social programs while at the same time preserving the Bush tax cuts for the wealthiest Americans (like the McCains), what the fuck is this nonsense about “savings from victory in Iraq and Afghanistan”? Seriously, what the fucking fuck? The current budget deficit is like $400 billion per year. We are financing both wars by borrowing huge sums, mostly from Japan and China. We can’t save money that we don’t actually have. If John McCain doesn’t get that, he is not qualified to balance a checkbook much less be President.