PERHAPS you will recall a recent political dust-up over a certain proposed gas tax holiday? The issue was highly problematic for Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton, but she didn't warm to the idea until well after Republican presidential nominee John McCain had made it a key plank in his economic plan for the nation. This would be, you'll recall, the same proposal of which it could be said that no economist was a supporter (well, almost no economist ).

The Wall Street Journal, however, has conducted a survey of economists, asking who they felt was the most fiscally responsible candidate in the race. The results?

Almost half of the economists in the latest Wall Street Journal forecasting survey decided against answering a question on which presidential candidate offers the most responsible fiscal policies. However, Sen. John McCain was the clear favorite of those who answered the question.

An odd choice, one would think. But maybe those economists are focusing on issues other than the gas tax. Of course, just a few weeks ago, the Economist had this to say:

He is asking voters to trust him. He has been a fiscally conservative senator, so he will be a fiscally conservative president. Never mind that, as a candidate, he offers few examples of programmes he would axe. He says he would lower the corporate tax from 35% to 25% and keep the Bush tax cuts, which he once opposed. He says he can do this while still closing the budget deficit within eight years. But because he has so far been afraid to list the deductions he will axe and the loopholes he will close, his plans amount, at best, to half a fiscal policy, and the easy half at that.

The

Tax Policy Center

He proposes to make President Bush’s tax cuts permanent, repeal the AMT, double the dependent exemption, raise the estate tax exemption and lower its rate, make permanent the research credit, and suspend federal gas taxes this summer. He’d also cut the top corporate tax rate from 35 to 25 percent and allow companies to deduct machinery and equipment immediately, rather than amortizing them. He also plans to close corporate tax loopholes worth $30 billion per year.



Even with the loophole closers, these proposals would reduce federal revenues by about $5.7 trillion over ten years if they could be enacted immediately. Under a more realistic assumption that they don’t take effect until October 2009, the cost would be about $5.4 trillion...



Cuts this size would pare government back to levels not seen since the Eisenhower administration. In FY 2012, tax revenues would be reduced by about $550 billion compared with current law (with the tax cuts expired). That is roughly equal to CBO’s baseline projection for all nondefense discretionary spending.

has more:

The comparison with the defence budget is a telling one, given Mr McCain's ambitious foreign policy goals. And, "cuts this size would pare government back to levels not seen since the Eisenhower administration," if and only if Mr McCain is willing to actually pursue such cuts, which are likely to prove politically difficult. If he cannot do this, then his plan spells no end of red ink.

Mr McCain may well have the potential to be a fiscally responsible candidate, but his plans, so far, suggest otherwise. Economists should demand more from the candidate before declaring him the man best suited to craft sound budgets.

(Photo credit: AP)