Bogus Claims in Boca

It's not clear where McCain is getting the $35 billion figure (the campaign hasn't yet responded to our request for more information), or whether he means $35 billion in each of two consecutive years or a total of $35 billion in a two-year period. But that's more pork than the watchdog group Citizens Against Government Waste has diagnosed in the budget for any one year of the Bush presidency, and it's less than the total for any two years. The highest amount the group has calculated is $29 billion in 2006, and the smallest two-year sum was $38.6 billion in 2001 and 2002.

Even if we assume $35 billion in pork, however, McCain must be defining "child" rather narrowly. According to the 2000 Census, there are about 72.3 million people under the age of 18 in the United States. Dividing $35 billion among them would work out to about $484 each. Even if you counted only children under the age of 9, you'd be giving tax credits for 39.7 million individuals, for a total of about $882 per child – still short of $1,000. To apportion $35 million in thousand-dollar chunks, you'd have to leave out some elementary-schoolers. We think that's a pretty loose definition of "child."

FairTax Fairy Tales
In a lengthy exchange with McCain and moderator Russert, Huckabee promised that the FairTax would do everything short of taking out your trash. We decided to settle for examining a few of the highlights:

Huckabee: It actually untaxes the poor, untaxes the elderly. It makes sure that we don't end up paying taxes on groceries and medicine and the basic necessities of life. And for each third of the economy, there is a benefit, about a 14 percent benefit for those at the bottom; those in the middle, about a 7 percent; even those at the very top end of the economy end up with about a 5 percent benefit. … Everybody gets in the economy – no more underground economy. Drug dealers, prostitutes, pimps, gamblers, non-Republicans – (laughter) – all of those people out there will be paying taxes. Nobody's working under the table.

As we wrote earlier, those earning less than about $25,000 per year will be better off under the FairTax. But it's not necessarily true that the plan would untax the elderly. Retirees who are living on money they have saved – money that was taxed when they earned it – will still have to pay the consumption tax, meaning that, in effect, many seniors will be taxed twice.

Moreover, Huckabee's claim that everyone will pay less is a fantasy. The FairTax claims to be revenue neutral. That means that it has to collect the same $2.4 trillion that the current system collects. And remember that the FairTax replaces corporate income and payroll taxes. That means that individuals have to pony up to replace those in addition to replacing the sums collected via personal income and payroll taxes. So Huckabee is suggesting that the FairTax will generate exactly the same revenue while collecting nothing from corporations and still costing everyone less than they are currently paying. We certainly hope Huckabee has a barrel of magic pixie dust buried somewhere.