Face it: Ted Cruz is as far from the Republican mainstream as Donald Trump is

There’s a reason most Republican governors, senators and congressmen haven’t endorsed either Trump or Cruz. For the establishment GOP, both are nightmares, because each appeals to small but vocal factions of the party. Most probably neither could be elected, and, if one was, he likely couldn’t govern.

Which, of course, is why the party’s establishment is clinging to the idea of a deadlocked convention that would ultimately spurn both Trump and Cruz and nominate a more palatable (but far from invincible) mainstream candidate, possibly Paul Ryan, John Kasich, Mitt Romney or Marco Rubio.

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Most Republicans want a smaller government, but Cruz’s budget plans go much further than the budgets approved by the Republicans in the House and Senate. Despite Cruz’s professed concern about the federal debt, the deficits would explode if his plans were adopted.

Even the most favorable analysis suggests that his flat-tax reform plan would starve the government of revenue, adding at least $3 trillion and as much as $21 trillion to the debt over 10 years. He hasn’t called for nearly enough spending cuts to balance the budget, even though he says he’s in favor of a constitutional requirement that the budget be balanced. By one account, to get to a balanced budget, Cruz’s tax plan would require spending to be cut in half, or for the economy to grow four times faster over the next decade. Neither is going to happen.