Look, don't just listen

Now that Idaho's first caucus is over, if you participated as a Republican, how did your candidate do?

We also wonder how much homework you did before voting. Acknowledging that immigration, international tension and other issues are important, the economy in general and the federal debt in particular seem to be the elephants in the room, pun intended.

Newt Gingrich, Ron Paul, Mitt Romney and Rick Santorum all have boasted budget plans that would bust that ol' deficit down to nothing. But is the money where their mouths are?

According to a story published Feb. 24 in the Wall Street Journal, not exactly.

Only Paul's economic plan would actually cut the deficit at all, the story says, based on a detailed study released recently by the nonpartisan Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget. How credible is the committee? Just as an example, one of its members is Alice Rivlin, former head of the Congressional Budget Office. That's credible.

Here's how the four Republican combatants came out, according to the Wall Street Journal story:

• Gingrich fared most poorly. The panel said his promised tax cuts would exceed spending cuts and add $7 trillion to the debt over a two-term presidency, ending in 2021.

• Santorum's campaign pledges would add an estimated $4.5 trillion to the debt through 2021, the panel concluded.

• Romney did a little better; committee members forecast that his proposals, without offsets, would increase the federal debt by $2.6 trillion by 2021.

• Paul's proposals would, in the eyes of the committee, net a $2.2 trillion cut in the federal deficit by 2021.

We're not advocating one candidate over another, but instead, merely reminding voters to go beyond campaign rhetoric to find the best possible information on the candidates. While the Wall Street Journal is concise and informative, better still is the committee report itself, with intricate economic detail on each of the candidates' platforms. You can download the 46-page report at:

http://usbudgetwatch.org/document/primary-numbers-gop-candidates-and-national-debt