My reaction to this is to say...really John McCain? Seriously?

I mean, you had four months of nothing to do after winning the election and you could have developed details and coherent economic plans and you came up with this?

Really McCain? I mean, c'mon, really?

This seems completely reasonable.

Since I've paid for this war, I wanna know:

What have I won?

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.

Yeah, I read that and I said "HUH?!!?"

That 28% that still supports current occupier of the WH will believe McCain, no doubt. You know, the same group who will also believe that Saturn is habitable if Bush/McCain say so.

Not to obsess about this, but even for Republicans, this is a bonehead of a plan to put out there.

The simplistic and moronic reduction of an incredibly complicated set of a events into "When we win, we'll save money, and maybe go to Disneyland, too!" recipe reflects the George W. Bush approach to governing. An approach unencumbered by reality or thought.

hey guess how many reporters are actually going to ask mccain to provide us with details??? like as i specifics?? you know the stuff tht obama has but apparently doesn't because hte press won't report them.

GEEZUZ, mccain's press corp's gotta stop sucking his noodle.

Can't wait to hear the 2013 speech . . .

I never thought I'd say this, but it has become all too obvious that a McCain presidency would be even more disastrous than 4 more years of Bush.

It's really the logical extension of Senator McCain's position as articulated in the 2013 speech.

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.

Q: who buys this shit? Seriously, who really buys this shit?

But if we leave troops in Iraq for 100 years...will it take us a 100 years to reduce the deficit??

I have to agree, I am getting more frightened of a McCain presidency with each passing day - to the point that I would almost rather keep Bush.

Out of all the stupid illogical stuff McCain has come out with, this is getting near the top.
Thankfully, he just hired the guy who helped Guiliani spend a record $40Mil for one delegate so the stupidity is contniuing to be extended to his campaign. Lets hope it is enough to keep him from getting elected.

For someone as determined as McCain to pin all our hopes for the future of this nation on "winning the war", you would think at some point he might actually have to explain what "winning" actually means.

McCain and his wife are estimated to be worth $100 million and ran up $250,000 in 1 month on a credit card? Even at 9% interest, they are giving away $22,500 a month? Please don't let them be in charge of the ecomony! Bush has already wrecked it bad enough!

So, did the genius, crackerjack new staff that McCain hired help him come up with this great plan? I thought that we were supposed to be seeing new, great, scary, competent stuff coming from them. What a joke.

Go get him, Obama.

this person said it best

"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."

The latter sentence does not make fiscal sense.It's not a peace dividend because going to zero cost (hypothetically) in Iraq/Afghanistan doesn't bring in more money. It just means we lose less money each month because it was ALL deficit spending in the first place. How can you set aside all those "victory" savings to reduce a deficit if all that spending was out of the deficit? That would be like charging 10k/month solely on frivilous purchases on credit cards, then saying you'll pay off that balance with the 10k you don't spend on future frivilous purchases.

Maybe McCain can get Dick Cheney to close military bases only in Democratic districts for the Peace Dividend the way he did when he was SecDef for Bush 41.
GOP= Party Over Everything
The Mark of Rove is very evident in McCain's campaign now.

"It's pretty straightforward, as we win, costs will go down with a smaller footprint over time, and those savings will go to deficit reduction. It's really the logical extension of Senator McCain's position as articulated in the 2013 speech. Achieving success in Iraq would obviously lead to reduced expenditures on the effort."

So, let me see if I've got this. You're saying that ENDING THE WAR (which Senator Obama wants to accomplish) would begin to reduce the deficit that was CREATED by the 8 years of Bush's War. Check with your economic advising joker, Mr. McBush. You know, that UBS lobbyist for the wealthy and mortgage crisis creator, Phil Gramm. According to McBush, even if the war ended by 2013, we'll still be hanging around on the 50 or 60 or so bases we'll be building in Irag and Afganistan for you're 50 to 100 years...you know, like you said we we're doing now in South Korea. Where's that money going to come from, Mr. McBush? Oh, wait, wait...from the victory in Irag...in 2013 or 2020 or 2050? Check with your criminal UBS lobbyist, Mr. McBush, but deficit reduction requires ENDING THE WAR, BRINGING THE TROOPS HOMEconcentrating on the economy and the needs of Americans at HOME first. Face it McBush, the more you try not to be another Bushie, the more you are that reincarnation.

Cutting off Blackwater, Halliburton, KBR and the rest of the cost-plus contractors would save money and there's plenty of waste, fraud and abuse to be investigated with them.

Just what the hell is really in that Ensure concoction? And does the FDA/DEA know about it?

I didn't think anything could be dumber than reaganomics. Then I heard of mccainomics which basically boils down to 'we paid for it before we borrowed it!'

I guess he could be saying: we use the money we save by not borrowing more money to pay back the money we borrowed.

Anyway you look at it, we still owe China trillions.

I'm not surprised at this McFuddle plan at all. Based on his experiences it should work out well..

credit card debt..no problem..no interest and fees when Cindy and I get the deal we get from those companies.

Personal property taxes...4 yrs overdue and in default..no penalities or liens....no problem..just send them a check!

reduce the costs of jet fuel and campaign expense rules..hell just use Cindy's plane....

See my plan makes perfect sense..just don't look at it closely!

What a Maroon. Do they pay people to come up with this stuff? I want that job. It's kind of like saying that I saved all this money because the item was on sale. Look, it's marked 50% off, I'm saving money!!! Now if it's something you have to buy than you could make the argument that you are saving money, but if it's not something you need to buy (i.e. the Iraq War) and you're simply buying it because it's on sale......then......That's not saving at all. That's spending...

If this is possible it may explain why I nodded off in Economics class so often...

Go to your local bank. Tell them John McCain sent you. Tell them that you are having a feud with your neighbor, and you want to take out a huge loan; because you want to purchase a bulldozer to level your neighbor's property. Explain to them that as soon as you have completely destroyed your neighbor, you will use the economic dividend, from your victory, to immediately pay of the entire loan and accrued interest.

Brilliant!. That John McCain is an Economics genius. Until they hand him the Nobel prize, treat him to a Guinness. Brilliant!

We're going to take all the money we borrowed from China and then spent to fight the war to pay off all the money we owe China?
Sure.
I wonder if I can get American Express to apply my outstanding balance as a credit?
Maybe that's why Cindy spends so much every month. With McMath, she doesn't have to pay it back. The credit card company does it for her.
McCain makes "trickle-down" economics look like post-calculus statistics.

...And can I just take a moment to recognize the passing of Jessie Helms? He was a hell of a man and lets hope he makes it there!

Can we fast-forward to November already? Statements like McCain's here are killing brain cells all over America.

And like Glenn Greenwald says, this is where David Brooks will make shit up again out of whole thin air.

What to bet!

People here seem to keep equating deficit with debt. McAngry isn't talking about reducing the total debt, which he has no rational plan for either. He's talking about reducing the deficit, or the amount of money spent above our income.

He's basically saying that by "winning" in Iraq and Afghanistan we'll stop spending money there and won't have to borrow any more from the Chinese (deficit reduction). He's said nothing at all about actually paying any of the money already borrowed back (debt reduction). Presumably, our children and grandchildren will take on that responsibility.

His wording is political doublespeak. Calling money not borrowed "savings" is misleading.

I'm confused. I'm not an economist so perhaps I'm missing something but if the war has been entirely financed by deficit spending how will the absence of the war pay down the deficit? It should simply lessen the deficit but do nothing to pay it down.