On CBS’ Face the Nation yesterday, host Bob Schieffer asked McCain economic adviser Carly Fiorina how the newly announced projection of “a $480 billion deficit” would affect Sen. John McCain’s (R-AZ) economic plans. “The deficit is a huge problem,” admitted Fiorina.
Fiorina then claimed that “McCain has consistently said that he will make sure that we balance the budget by 2013.” Watch it:
In reality, McCain and his campaign have been anything but consistent in his promise to balance the budget:
February 15, 2008: At a campaign rally in Wisconsin, McCain “promised he’d offer a balanced budget by the end of his first term.”
April 15, 2008: In a news conference, McCain said that because “economic conditions are reversed,” he “would have a balanced budget within eight years.”
April 20, 2008: In an interview with ABC’s George Stephanopoulos, McCain first claimed that he hadn’t abandoned his first term pledge, but when pressed, later said “we’re going to be on a path to a balanced budget” by the end of his first term.
July 7, 2008: Releasing his Jobs for America plan, McCain pledged “once again to balance the budget by the end of his first term in 2013.”
July 7, 2008: In a conference call with reporters, McCain’s top economic adviser, Douglas Holtz-Eakin, said that “the senator has always pledged to balance the budget by the end of his second term.”
Apparently Fiorina considers a “consistently” muddled message to be the same as having a consistent message. But as former Senate Majority Leader Tom Daschle said yesterday, the more McCain talks, “the less certain we are about any of the positions he’s taken.”