[Updates below.]

Via Brian Doss of Catallarchy, I hear of Steve Verdon's post highlighting some aspects of his proposed spending policies, something I should have addressed in my two posts against a libertarian vote for Howard Dean.

Mr. Verdon's analysis is pretty generous and makes a significant assumption in Mr. Dean's favor: repealing the Bush tax cuts will eliminate the deficit. He then dives into the policies Dean would enact and totals the cost.

The result, as Mr. Doss puts it:

Hogwash!

Bush is a borrow-and-spend Corporatist statist. Dean is a tax-and-spend socialist. Bush is bad, yes, but I cannot see how to take more of our money and then spend some more on top of that is somehow a better solution. Seriously, when you look at the fine print for Dr. Dean, he's immediately spending the extra revenue from hiking taxes that supposedly would balance the budget while trying to maintain his pose of fiscal responsibility. Hiking taxes AND keeping a deficit is nonsense even to a Keynesian!

I don't want to get too down on libertarians for Dean; I have no doubt that the vast majority of them are sincere, but I also sincerely believe that Dean is absolutely incompatible with even a generous reading of libertarian principles.

UPDATE(6/3/2004 1:13pm)
Can't Cut the Budget; Politicians Will Eat Me!