The National Taxpayers Union Foundation has released the findings of a new study on the differences between Pat Toomey and Joe Sestak. The report looks at how each man’s proposed policies would impact the federal budget. While there are many unquantifiable campaign promises, a general portrait emerges:
Joe Sestak’s campaign promises to date would increase annual federal spending by a net of $100.062 billion. Of Sestak’s 48 proposals NTUF identified as affecting federal expenditures, 20 would increase outlays, one would reduce them, and 27 have costs or savings that were impossible to accurately determine.
Pat Toomey’s platform would, in its entirety, produce a net annual savings of $2.509 billion in the federal budget. However, NTUF could only find nine proposals he made with a spending effect: four to raise expenditures, one to lower them, and four without quantifiable estimates of cost or savings.
In an age of potential fiscal armageddon, the first rule of politics seems to be, as in medicine, to do no harm. And in that respect, if this report is any guide, Toomey seems to come out on top.