At Wednesday night’s debate, Bob Schieffer, like Jim Lehrer and Tom Brokaw before him, tried to egg the candidates on foolishly to cut the budget deficit.

Neither McCain nor Obama responded appropriately, which was to say that cutting government spending is precisely the wrong thing to do when the economy is going down the tubes.

Obama initially said: “What I’ve done throughout this campaign is to propose a net spending cut.” Goaded by Schieffer to be specific, Obama said he “absolutely” was going to need to cut some programs. He added that he was a “strong proponent of pay-as-you-go,” and said, “Every dollar that I’ve proposed, I’ve proposed an additional cut so that it matches.”

Fortunately, he then proceeded to talk about investing in health care, and energy, and college education, and he suggested – but only suggested – that we might need more spending until “we get through this economic crisis.”

But McCain was far worse.

He showed no grasp of the need for a fiscal stimulus.

He called for an “across-the-board spending freeze” and railed against government spending. That’s exactly what Herbert Hoover did, and that’s why we got into the Great Depression in the first place.

”Interest rates are already low. Monetary policy won't help,” as Robert Borosage noted recently on Huffington Post.

“So many economists - even Larry Summers, a devotee of Bob Rubin's emphasis on balanced budgets -- are calling for a fiscal stimulus of 2-3% of GDP -- $300 billion or so. . . . The most effective stimulus would focus on people who need help and investments that would help. Extend unemployment benefits and food stamps, bolster Medicaid. Then, help cities and states avoid cuts and layoffs that will just make things worse. Finally, begin projects on the shelf in areas vital to making our economy more competitive in the long term, starting with a concerted drive for energy independence, investing in green building and renewable energy. . . . This will put people to work and help get our economy back on track.”

But McCain wants none of that. Instead, he said his goal was “eliminating spending.”

To offer that prescription when increasing government spending is the medicine the economy needs is to practice economic quackery.

Obama knows better, but whether he’d act on his knowledge or play to the pundits who are obsessed with balancing the budget is another question.