THE BURNED OVER DISTRICT

The various party hacks and stooges cheerleading for the old fart as he reveals his "Money for Everybody" economic plan? Or the economists and analysts who know how numbers really work? Bloomberg reports on what both sides are saying and it should be easy to guess who knows whereof they speak.

McCain's proposal, outlined April 15, would extend President George W. Bush's tax cuts, reduce the top corporate rate, repeal the alternative minimum tax and double exemptions for dependents. Price: $3.3 trillion by the end of a President McCain's second term in 2017, according to figures from his campaign and the Treasury.

The Arizona senator said that would be offset by eliminating pork-barrel spending, freezing a portion of the budget, and Medicare savings. He could cut the budget by $100 billion a year ``in a New York minute,'' he said in a Bloomberg Television interview yesterday.

``The huge imbalance'' in McCain's plan ``is that the tax cuts are specific and large and the spending cuts are small and vague,'' said Robert Bixby, executive director of the Washington- based Concord Coalition, a nonpartisan group that advocates budget restraint.

Once, McCain was a deficit hawk, Bixby said, but ``strange things happen when people run for president.''

Tax Cuts

Extending Bush's tax cuts would cost $1.5 trillion through the end of a hypothetical second McCain term, according to Treasury Department figures. His proposal to reduce the corporate tax rate to 25 percent would cost $100 billion a year, McCain's campaign estimates. Doubling the exemption for dependents to $7,000 a year would cost another $65 billion annually and the AMT repeal adds another $60 billion a year, his campaign said.

McCain released tax returns today that showed he paid $5,413 in AMT in 2007 and $6,979 in 2006.

McCain's spending cuts, combined with increased revenue from economic growth, total $1.5 trillion over eight years, leaving a $1.8 trillion net increase to the national debt.

``This is really a massive increase in the deficit,'' said Joel Slemrod, an economist specializing in tax policy at the University of Michigan.

Can you see the differences between the old fart and our current Dear Leader? No, perhaps if you put on the magic Republican glasses you could see better.

``The numbers add up,'' former Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney said in an interview.

To help pay for the tax cuts, Holtz-Eakin said he would save $30 billion a year by eliminating so-called ``rifle shot'' provisions. Those include items such as tax breaks for small insurance companies.

A Treasury Department report Holtz-Eakin cited as the source of his estimate states $27 billion could be raised by eliminating narrowly used tax preferences spread over a decade, not a single year.

There now, you see how easy it is. If you still have trouble seeing it, just click the heels of your ruby red slippers three times and repeat after me, "The Republicans are good with money".