John McCain Gets His Budget Ideas From South Park. Cool!

Mark Thoma has a lengthy and meaty roundup of various appalled reactions to John McCain's half-baked pledge to balance the budget by 2013. He points out that, in April:

Sen. McCain ... backed off his earlier promise to eliminate the budget deficit by the end of his first term and now says it may take two terms.

But the best analysis Thoma found came from somebody who sent this e-mail to Brad DeLong:

You all remember the plan of the Underpants Gnomes from South Park:

1. Collect underpants.
2. ?
3. Profit!

That's the perfect analogy for John McCain's budget policy:

1. Cut taxes and spend more on the military.
2. ?
3. Balanced budget!!