Mitt Romney would extend all the Bush tax cuts and cut trillions more besides — eliminating taxes on investment income for most Americans, reducing the corporate tax, getting rid of the inheritance tax and more. How would he afford this? Please don’t ask.

President Obama wants to rebuild our infrastructure, and never mind raising the gasoline tax to do so. He would pay by redirecting money that we would have borrowed for foreign wars, if the wars had continued, and instead borrow it for roads. This is what passes for fiscal prudence these days.

Of course, all the candidates still claim to care about debt, and Rick Santorum seems to mean it. But you can see the diminished intensity of the issue by comparing the past two State of the Union addresses.