Analyst: Obama, Clinton Budgets Don't Add Up

Dan Clifton over at Strategas Research crunches the numbers on the Clinton and Obama economic and budget plans and squeezes out a lot of red ink:

Our review of spending and tax proposals show Democratic candidates are seeking to make their proposals "paid for" in a budget neutral manner. Hence, the candidates are ignoring the fact that they will be facing possibly a $500bn budget deficit upon entering office. The net effect of this is that most of the spending plans being promised will be scuttled for only the highest priorities.... We pulled the major tax proposals and matched the number to the proposed spending. If Clinton was able to enact all of her promises, the deficit would increase by more than $100bn and Obama by $175bn. We were generous by assuming troop withdrawal will occur immediately, the tax cut repeal is retroactive, [ignoring] automatic entitlement spending, and the AMT and the spending proposals were not even close. Governing will be very different than campaigning.

My take: The news could be even worse since the higher tax rates could retard economic growth and lead to lower government revenues. This could be 1993 all over again, where Bill Clinton scrapped his Putting People First agenda in favor of budget cutting.