Romney spokesperson Andrea Saul declined to directly address the findings, arguing that Romney is the only candidate to lay out a realistic budget framework “that will jump-start the American economy and bring tax relief to middle-income Americans.”

Aides to Santorum and Gingrich did not respond to requests for comment.

The report does not include an analysis of President Obama’s latest spending blueprint, which seeks to reduce borrowing by $3 trillion by 2021. Budget Watch plans to analyze Obama’s request in future reports.

The report does not seek to offer support to any candidate, and its authors have gone to significant lengths to give the campaigns and their developing policy ideas the benefit of the doubt. The report offers three scenarios for each candidate: A “low-debt scenario” is based on the most generous assumptions about the ability of proposals to save money or generate revenue. A “high-debt scenario” is much more stringent.

The numbers cited above are taken from the report’s “intermediate-debt scenario.” which “gives credit for non-specified changes to certain parts of the budget,” such as promises to reduce some forms of spending by a certain percentage, even if the candidate has yet to nail down ways of generating the cash.

By Lori Montgomery, Published: February 23 The Washington Post