The Wonk Room

Cavuto On Holtz-Eakin’s Budget Double Talk: ‘I’m Begging You To Stop’

On Thursday during an interview on Fox News, Neal Cavuto took McCain Senior Economic Adviser Douglas Holtz-Eakin to task for dodging simple questions on McCain’s economic plan:

CAVUTO: We have a candidate who claims that his opponent, his Democratic opponent, is a tax-hiker. Yet, we have a candidate, in your guy, John McCain, who cannot account for his spending with the aggressive tax cuts he`s planning. Which goes? Which is real?

Watch it:

Cavuto is right. On issue after issue, McCain’s campaign is trying to have it both ways:

– McCain wants “everything on the table” to fix social security, but says any slight tax increases on the rich are “out of the question.”

– McCain’s health care plan is either a budget busting expenditure or a tax hike on the middle class, but his campaign insists it’s neither.

– McCain’s tax cuts for corporations and the wealthy would blow a hole in the deficit, but McCain promises to balance the budget by 2013.

As Douglas Holtz-Eakin went on the attack instead of explaining his candidate’s plan, Cavuto shouted “I’m begging you to stop.” We know how you feel, Neal.