Some of the funding for the money borrowed to pay the tax rebates will not come from new taxes but from cuts in government spending. John McCain and other economic ignoramuses notwithstanding, there are only three serious expenditures in the Federal budget -- defense, Social Security, and Medicare. So when the budget goes out of whack in the future to pay for what was borrowed today, what do YOU think is going to get cut?

It ain't just teenagers who will pay for this rebate, it's also the elderly.

What is going to be cut first? The defense budget, of course. The elderly vote disproportionately, so their benefits will remain difficult to tinker with, and large savings are not to be had there anyway - it is expensive to provide this care, and pushing the cost to the private sector won't make it cheaper. There is a limit to further cuts in the social safety net - at some point there will be riots in the streets. And again, even a very basic social safety net such as the US's is expensive: there's not much to be gained there.

But the US can cut its defense budget in half and still be the baddest kid on the block. Now, Obama could never contemplate such a thing - the GOP would rip him to pieces. But McCain has nothing to prove on the military front (in his mind), so he will reduce the defense budget drastically. Think Nixon and China.

endorendil: I think you're absolutely and totally wrong. How is McCain going to cut the defense budget when he has spoken about ENLARGING the armed forces? And since Obama has ALSO said he'd do this, there is no way McCain can back off that position. Plus the Iraq War portion of the defense budget isn't even on-budget, so it CAN'T be reduced, since technically speaking it isn't part of the budget at all. But it's still real money that will have to be repaid until the Iraq War is ended. Which McCain has said he won't do.

The problem with reducing the defense budget is that a huge portion of it is spent on Cold War era toys. Without going into the details, this money means JOBS in hundreds of Congressional districts and all Congresspersons -- in both parties -- are reluctant to cut any of it. If McCain, or Obama for that matter, sent a budget to Congress proposing a drastic cut in defense spending, it would be dead on arrival. The other part of the defense budget is for, you know, national defense. REAL national defense. Can't cut that either. The best a President can hope for is to discontinue some of the more ridiculous weapons procurements.

Finally, McCain has clearly thrown in his lot with the tax-cut wing of the party, which has been beating the drums for privatizing (or ending outright) Social Security for a decade now. Right now SocSec is running a surplus, but some time in the next 10 years it will be paying out more than it's taking in and will begin to draw upon the trust fund, which is in the form of special Treasury bonds. When it draws upon those bonds, of course, that money will have to come from somewhere and that somewhere will have to be either higher taxes and lower benefits. Since the tax cut wing refuses to even consider raising taxes, what do YOU think will happen? The crisis will almost certainly not come during the McCain administration, but unless the tax cut right-wingers are defeated thoroughly, that's what will happen.

President McCain has a whole different set of priorities than candidate McCain, slasher. He can easily cut the defense budget by killing off a number of programs that are, as you say, Cold War toys. Why bother paying for an army that pretends that it needs to be able to take on all the world's national armies, while it ends up losing to rag-tag insurgents?

The supplemental costs should be part of the defense budget - another way to save money. That part can be implemented by the livid Democratic congress.

Tax cuts? Not McCain. He'll reach across the isle, cut defense and trim social security benefits, and RAISE taxes to balance the budget.

Ending social security is a great salon subject, as is privatization. In reality, it's not going to happen until the US is completely, utterly bankrupt.

Well, all of your statements are interesting and I agree we could lose the Cold War toys and never miss them and save a pile. I just don't see McCain doing any of that. He's been a maverick on some issues -- campaign finance and torture -- but on the ones you mention, there's no sign of it.

Still, if he wins, I hope you're right. Me, I'd rather take by chances with Obama.