Andy Sullivan, Reuters, March 11, 2008
WASHINGTON (Reuters) – John McCain’s reputation for “straight talk” has helped him clinch the U.S. Republican presidential nomination but budget experts say his numbers do not add up.
McCain’s promises to reduce wasteful spending if elected president in November would not begin to cover the costs of his proposed tax cuts, analysts say.
He also has not yet explained how he would rein in the health-care and retirement costs expected to swamp the federal budget as some 77 million people retire from the U.S. work force in the coming decades.
On top of that, a President McCain would inherit a $400 billion budget deficit, wars in Iraq and Afghanistan that cost nearly $200 billion per year and a similar bill for interest payments on the $10 trillion national debt.
Many experts said McCain’s proposals would make the fiscal picture worse.
“This is one of the most fiscally irresponsible plans we’ve seen by a presidential candidate in a long time,” said Robert Greenstein, executive director of the liberal Center on Budget and Policy Priorities.
Clinton Comes Back Again, On We Go To Pennsylvania
Once again Democrats must hold their breath until the primary in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania next month to see if they can get a nominee to take on GOP nominee John McCain. Hillary Clinton came away with two important victories last night in Texas and Ohio. While she did not make too much headway in the delegate chase, Clinton’s victories again illuminated the fact that Obama can not win in the big populous states. Not being able to win in the bid ones is troubling for a party looking to make some big red states blue.
Clinton was able to win last night because somebody finally told Marc Penn to shut the fuck up, and the campaign went after Obama hard on his ability to be commander in chief. Up until these primaries Clinton played nice with Obama. Now that she has begun to attack his qualifications people are stopping to take a minute before drinking the Obama cool aid of hope with no substance. The press that has done nothing but shower love on Obama has suddenly turned on him. Suddenly the mainstream media is asking hard questions of Obama and he is having a tough time answering them. Not a good sign for what promises to be a vicious general election against the GOP.
While it would be great to have a unified Democratic Party right now ready to take on John McCain, it is clear that many Democrats throughout the country are not quite ready to turn the keys to the car over to the new kid. Next stop in seven weeks is Pennsylvania. It will be a grueling time and both Clinton and Obama will have to hit each other hard. This has negatives for it gives McCain ammo, but at the same time we need the toughest candidate to make sure a Democrat enters the White House as president in January 2009.
What Democrats must understand is that unity will come and that no matter who gets the nomination it is paramount that the entire party unite behind our candidate to defeat John McCain.