Nancy Pfotenhauer, a senior economic adviser to Sen. John McCain (R-AZ), is the former top lobbyist for Koch Industries, the right-wing corporate polluter. Her current husband, Kurt Pfotenhauer, is the CEO and top lobbyist of the American Land Title Association, “the national trade association and voice of the abstract and title insurance industry.” Until this year, Kurt was the senior vice president and top lobbyist of the Mortgage Bankers Association (MBA), “the national association representing the real estate finance industry.”

Pfotenhauer, like his wife, is part of Washington’s revolving-door lobbyist culture. Prior to joining MBA in May 2002, Pfotenhauer was chief of staff to Sen. Gordon Smith (R-OR) for five years (in 2006, Smith received $14,000 in campaign contributions from the MBA PAC). Previously, Pfotenhauer was a lobbyist for United Parcel Service (UPS) for five years, and before that was chief of staff to Rep. Denny Smith (R-OR).

Kurt Pfotenhauer’s past and present clients are, of course, the real estate finance corporations that are at the center of the present financial crisis. Their predatory and deceptive lending practices in pursuit of irrational profit margins — in concert with hedge funds and investment banks who blew up toxic mortgages into towers of unregulated debt — have threatened the fiscal underpinnings of the global economy.

For years, they worked in concert with the Bush administration to block, weaken, and delay regulatory reform by Congress, such as the Predatory Mortgage Lending Practices Reduction Act of 2007, which died in the Senate. Last year, Pfotenhauer testified before Congress against the Emergency Home Ownership and Mortgage Equity Protection Act, a bill that would have allowed judges to restructure toxic mortgages to allow people to keep their homes — and would have helped prevent the current financial meltdown and bailouts. Read more

Today, during an interview with Neil Cavuto, Sen. John McCain’s (R-AZ) economic adviser Nancy Pfotenhauer claimed that McCain will balance the budget “by the end of the first term,” and that she’s “not even sure real cuts would ever be required.” Watch it:

A Center for American Progress Action Fund analysis calculated that McCain’s plan, complete with its doubling of Bush’s tax cuts for corporations and the wealthy, will create a budget deficit of $505 billion in 2009. McCain has claimed that he will balance the budget by eliminating earmarks and cutting $160 billion in discretionary spending.

However, “eliminating every congressional earmark in the federal budget would save an estimated $18 billion a year,” or about 4% of the federal deficit, and McCain can’t explain where the rest of his cuts would come from. George Stephanopolous pointed out that in order to cut the $160 billion he cites, McCain “would have to cut 30% from every single program, including education and veterans benefits.”

As the Wonk Room has noted, McCain could cut ten cabinet agencies and still not balance the budget, and his own estimates require a 30% cut in every federal program. Thus, its hard to imagine how he could balance the budget with no “real cuts” at all.

Yesterday, McCain spokeswoman and pollution lobbyist Nancy Pfotenhauer was challenged by MSNBC’s Chris Matthews on Sen. John McCain’s (R-AZ) incoherent claim that the “fundamentals of the economy are strong.” Matthews wanted to know whose economy McCain was talking about:

MATTHEWS: But if you look at all the fundamentals in the employment rate, the debt, the deficit, the price of things, why do you say it’s fundamentally sound? Why is it? It looks to me like it’s getting worse.

PFOTENHAUER: First of all, the problems that you identify are real, and they’re challenges that Sen. McCain talks about every single day on the campaign trail, Chris.

Watch it:

In fact, neither McCain nor his party talks about the fundamentals of the economy with any regularity. A review of the over 38,000 words in the three days of prepared speeches at the Republican National Convention discovers near-complete silence about those economic fundamentals:

DEBT: 0
DEFICIT: 0
UNEMPLOYMENT: 1
INFLATION: 1
PRICES: 16

Sen. McCain, in a 3,976-word speech, mentioned high oil prices once. He did not mention the $9.7 trillion national debt, the $500 billion national trade deficit, the 6.1 percent unemployment rate, or the 5.37 percent inflation rate.

The only mention of “unemployment” comes from multimillionaire investment banker Mitt Romney, who claimed that “higher taxes, bigger government, and less trade” would lead to “moribund growth and double-digit unemployment,” supposedly “the same path Europe took.” The only mention of “inflation” also came from multimillionaire investment banker Mitt Romney: “Is government spending – excluding inflation – liberal or conservative if it doubles since 1980? — It’s liberal!” Read more

Today, during an appearance on Fox News, McCain adviser Nancy Pfotenhauer dismissed the Tax Policy Center’s conclusion that Sen. John McCain’s (R-AZ) tax plan would increase the deficit. Pfotenhauer argued that the center was a “liberal think tank” that did not analyze “the spending side” of McCain’s plan:

[We'll] keep the growth rate in federal spending to about 2.4 percent. I love Austin’s statement that we are going to somehow balloon the deficit. First, the Tax Policy Center is a liberal think tank run by former Clinton-ites and Jason Furman worked there up until about two months ago. But set that aside. They don’t look at the spending side, they only look at the tax side.

Watch it:

But even conservative economists who have looked at the “spending side” of the senator’s plan, believe that his proposal would only add to the deficit:

- “The spending cuts are far too vague to be counted on for significant savings and, even if they were more specific, I can’t see how they would come close to offsetting the level of tax cuts he recommends.” [Robert L. Bixby, executive director of the Concord Coalition]

- “[But] I am worried that continuing the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan will tear apart our social fabric and defeat any economic proposal to reduce the deficit and stimulate growth. Guns are crowding out butter.” [Michael Connolly, Professor of Economics, University of Miami]

- “He’s not going to balance the budget.” [William Albrecht, professor emeritus at the University of Iowa]

In July, the McCain campaign falsely suggested that 300 economists agreed that the senator’s economic plan could reduce the deficit and balance the budget by 2013. When contacted by reporters many of those economists — Connolly and Albrecht included — actually expressed deep reservations about McCain’ pledge to reduce the deficit.