Voters Give Romney Advantage on the Deficit The latest Washington Post/ABC News national poll and New York Times/CBS News/Quinnipiac swing state poll both give President Obama the edge on health care, helping the middle class, Medicare and handling international crises. And they both show either a tight race or a slight advantage for the president on taxes and energy issues. But on the federal budget deficit, voters trust Mitt Romney. In the Post poll, "dealing with the federal budget deficit" is the only one of eight categories in which Mr. Romney gets higher marks among registered voters (47 percent to 44 percent) and "likely" voters (51-43). The Times poll shows that likely voters in Colorado, Virginia and Wisconsin think Mr. Romney would do a better job on the budget deficit by large margins: 14 points in Colorado, 8 in Virginia and 12 in Wisconsin. These results are neither surprising nor rational. They're not surprising because Republicans have spent the last four years painting Mr. Obama as weak on the deficit. They're not rational in the sense that voters obviously haven't picked up on an obvious pattern: Republican nominees talk a good game on the deficit, but end up increasing it (think of the Reagan, Bush and Bush administrations). Moreover, voters who are paying close attention should know that Mr. Romney actually has no plan to lower the deficit. He just says he does. What he has is a plan to lower tax rates by 20 percent, eliminate the Alternative Minimum Tax, and repeal the estate tax. He claims he'll make up for the lost revenue by closing loopholes, but hasn't specified which ones, and every independent study has come to the conclusion that his proposal will increase the deficit-unless a President Romney ends up increasing taxes on the middle class. He also has a plan to slash the budget, voucherize Medicare and turn Medicaid over to the states, where it will certainly wither. Anyone who thinks such austerity measures will shrink the deficit and grow the economy should take a look at Europe, which has been experimenting with austerity for the last few years. Portugal, for instance, saw its debt-to-GDP ratio rise after imposing steep budget cuts. Mr. Obama is partly to blame for Mr. Romney's dominance on the deficit issue. He has failed to counter, and to a certain extent bought into the notion that reducing the deficit is the be-all and end-all of federal policy during hard times. The most important thing to do now, as it has been for the last three years, is to create jobs and salvage the housing market. The government needs to spend money to stimulate the economy, not shut down. Such measures won't erase the deficit. But that's OK.