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I feel like economics, as it's practiced by some folks in politics, is more religion than science. A recent interview I heard with the Heritage Foundation's senior tax policy analyst, Curtis Dubay is informative. When asked if he had any solid proof that raising tax rates is harmful to the economy he said something along the lines of "No, I don't have proof, it's just basic economic theory."
I'm not sure what Dubay's game is (though I could take a guess), but regardless of whether his basic premises are correct, accurately representing reality with them doesn't seem to be too high his list. In his world, theory determines reality, whereas in most science, reality determines theory.
As for math sufficient to describe economic systems accurately, I'm not optimistic. Seems like a classic example of the complex system. I'm not an expert on complex systems, but I've gotten the impression that, while the basic principles of these system can be fairly easily understood, the inner workings can be pretty tricky to make sense of.
For example, evolution is a complex process, and it is relatively easy to understand the basic premises of evolutionary theory. What isn't easy is making accurate evolutionary predictions.
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