Fiscal Responsibility Among Presidential Candidates

Here is a short piece by Byron York in the National Review Online’s Corner:

Going through the presidential candidates’ financial reports, it’s interesting to see how top Democrats have controlled their spending — fiscal restraint! — while some top Republicans are either living beyond their means or are operating close to the edge. With the exception of Rudy Giuliani, it appears that the Republicans are not as good as Democrats at managing their money.

As of the end of the second quarter of 2007, Hillary Clinton took in $27 million, spent $12 million, and has $45 million in cash on hand, with a total debt of $3 million. Barack Obama took in $33 million, spent $16 million, and has $36 million in cash on hand and a total debt of $922,000. John Edwards took in $9 million, spent $6.3 million, and has $13.3 million in cash on hand with a total debt of $0.

We all know John McCain’s money problems. But Mitt Romney is burning money at a rate very close to 100 percent. Romney took in $21 million, spent $20.5 million, and has $12 million in cash on hand, with a total debt of $9 million. That debt, of course, represents Romney’s personal cash infusions into the campaign, without which he would have run a big deficit in the second quarter and would have ended the period with about $3 million in cash on hand. Giuliani took in $17.5 million, spent $11 million and has $18 million in cash on hand with a total debt of $0.

York is clearly surprised that Rep candidates don’t seem to be fiscally responsible relative to Dem candidates. If he spent a bit of time looking at data, he wouldn’t be.