The CBO doesn't include debt service in it's estimates, it was asked to do this separately...but to just tack 10 years of interest on to a 3 year spending plan, without calculating benefits (and the CBO has documented dramatic benefits to GDP) is not an analysis of "true cost". Rather it's a just an attempt to make the bill look larger. Ryan tried to do the same thing when he asked the CBO to make believe all the entitlement spending in the stimulus was permanent so he could claim Obama was proposing a 3.5 Trillion dollar package.
So you can either include debt service with all your cost discussions or none.
As for McCain, whether he would have supported the Stimulus bill or not (he didn't even bother to show up for the vote mind you) isn't really relevant.
Quote:
2008 vs. 2009
The CBO reported in October 2009 reasons for the difference between the 2008 and 2009 deficits, which were approximately $460 billion and $1,410 billion, respectively. Key categories of changes included: tax receipt declines of $320 billion due to the effects of the recession and another $100 billion due to tax cuts in the stimulus bill (the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act or ARRA); $245 billion for the Troubled Asset Relief Program (TARP) and other bailout efforts; $100 billion in additional spending for ARRA; and another $185 billion due to increases in primary budget categories such as Medicare, Medicaid, unemployment insurance, Social Security, and Defense – including the war effort in Afghanistan and Iraq. This was the highest budget deficit relative to GDP (9.9%) since 1945.[55] The national debt increased by $1.9 trillion during FY2009, versus the $1.0 trillion increase during 2008.[56]
The Obama Administration also made four significant accounting changes to more accurately report the total spending by the Federal government. The four changes were: 1) accounting for the Wars in Iraq and Afghanistan (”overseas military contingencies”) in the budget rather than through the use of supplemental appropriations; 2) assuming the Alternative Minimum Tax will be indexed for inflation; 3) accounting for the full costs of Medicare reimbursements; and 4) anticipating the inevitable expenditures for natural disaster relief. According to administration officials, these changes will make the debt over ten years look $2.7 trillion larger than it would otherwise appear.[57]
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All things considered, I would assume McCain would have offered additional tax cuts as part of a Stimulus package just as Obama did. This doesn't leave a lot of discretionary or additional entitlement spending on the table that would have been avoided. In fact, assuming McCain's tax cuts would have been more equal across the board the chance of revenues being lower is very high.
If you were to consider a McCain Administration making the same accounting changes as Obama, the likelihood of a McCain 2009 budget deficit actually being larger than Obama is a reasonable proposition.
-spence