Obama, McCain quarrel over flood prevention programs

The presidential campaigns of Sens. Barack Obama (D-Ill.) and John McCain (R-Ariz.) traded blows Saturday over whether the candidates had done enough in Washington to protect the country from floods.

{mosads}“Both Sen. McCain and I have traveled recently to the areas that have been devastated by floods. And I know that Sen. McCain felt as strongly as I did, feeling enormous sympathy for the victims of the recent flooding,” Obama said in a speech Saturday to the U.S. Conference of Mayors in Miami.

“I’m sure they appreciated the sentiment, but they probably would have appreciated it even more if Sen. McCain hadn’t opposed legislation to fund levees and flood control programs, which he considers pork,” Obama added, referring to the Water Resources Development Act.

The McCain campaign quickly shot back. Tucker Bounds, a spokesman for the GOP standard-bearer, stated that Obama’s remarks were unfounded and said they would not go unanswered in future weeks.

He added that it was the Illinois senator who opposed an amendment that would have allowed the Army Corps of Engineers to prioritize projects, such as levees, after being vetted by an independent commission. That measure was introduced by Sen. Russ Feinstein (D-Wis.). It was defeated when 69 senators, including Obama, voted against it.

“It is beyond the pale that Barack Obama would attack John McCain for actually trying to fix the problem and change the way Washington works,” Bounds said in a statement. “Barack Obama’s willingness to continue the status quo pork-barrel politics in Washington, and then engage in political attacks that entirely disregard the facts, once again fundamentally shows that he's nothing more than a typical politician.”

The McCain camp also said that the senator’s opposition to the Water Resources Development Act was based on the “outrageous cost” of the measure and his belief that it would “drastically increase the backlog of Army Corps of Engineers construction projects while doing nothing to modernize the system for funding these projects.”