The Democrats would be more believable as deficit hawks if they weren’t so determined to spend as much money as possible. The New York Sun editorializes about Sen. Kerry’s claim that he is running to “bring fiscal sanity back to Washington”:
Mr. Kerry would outspend Mr. Bush on health care, education, and obviously veterans benefits. He would spend $20 billion more on homeland security,and $50 billion more on aid to states. He would spend an additional $14 billion on energy and environmental programs and expand paid volunteer programs with more federal money. According to the Washington Post, which analyzed his plans this week, Mr. Kerry has proposed spending $165 billion more on new programs during his first term than he could save by raising taxes through a repeal of some of the Bush tax cuts and shutting down corporate loopholes.
(Someone should point out to the *Sun,* though, that raising taxes is not the same as saving money.) Here’s Democrat Mickey Kaus on why he thinks Kerry would be ineffectual (which might actually be a good reason to vote for him). And here, from parody site Scrapple Face, is a preview of how the Republicans will go after Kerry:
With John Edwards expected to announce his withdrawal from the presidential race today, the contest for the Democrat nomination narrows to two men–Sen. John Forbes Kerry, D-MA, and Sen. John Forbes Kerry, D-MA.
“I think we’re going to see them go at it hammer and tong until the convention,” said Terry McAuliffe, chairman of the Democrat National Committee. “We couldn’t hope for two men who offer more contrast; the war hero vs. the peace protestor, the wealthy husband of an heiress vs. the assailant of the privileged class. One backed the attack on Iraq, the other opposed it. One voted for the USA Patriot Act, the other denounces it. One supported the president’s ‘No Child Left Behind’ education plan, the other is harshly critical of it.”
Mr. McAuliffe said his main job as party chairman over the next six months is to “keep the two John Kerrys focused on attacking President Bush, rather than sniping at each other over character issues.”