Unaffordable promises are a dishonest way to campaign

Supporters of Herbert Hoover’s 1928 campaign for president ran newspaper ads with the headline, “A Chicken for Every Pot.”

An impractical campaign pledge, though maybe it helped: Hoover won the election. But he then presided over the start of the Great Depression in 1929, when many could afford neither a chicken nor a pot.

Almost 100 years later, political campaigns are still promising a better life for voters, though the price tag has risen far above the cost of a chicken, or a pot, or even an entire new kitchen.

In rare cases, the country can afford such political bribery.

Such as the South...