McCain criticizes Bush’s ‘profligate spending’

Republican presidential candidate John McCain took a shot Monday at the Bush administration for adding to the federal deficit.

The Arizona Republican senator said the administration’s announcement earlier in the day of a projected record $483 billion deficit is a reminder that things need to change.

{mosads}“There is no more striking reminder of the need to reverse the profligate spending that has characterized this administration's fiscal policy,” said McCain in a statement from his campaign.

McCain described the projection for fiscal 2009 as “another reminder of the dire fiscal condition of the federal government.” He said his economic proposals would balance the federal budget by the end of his first term as president, and create more jobs and higher pay for U.S. workers.

He also said his rival for the White House, Sen. Barack Obama (D-Ill.), would raise taxes, but not nearly enough to cover his spending plans or lower the budget deficit.

The Obama campaign countered by saying that a McCain presidency would be an extension of the fiscal irresponsibility of the Bush administration.

“These have been years of unprecedented fiscal irresponsibility. That's an important issue in this election, because Sen. McCain is proposing to continue the same Bush economic policies that put our economy on this dangerous path and that will drive America even deeper into debt,” Jason Furman, Obama’s economic policy director, said in a statement.

The revised number is higher than the $407 billion originally projected by the White House in February this year for the deficit in 2009. It is also higher than the last record deficit recorded: $413 billion in 2004.

In a briefing with reporters Monday, Office of Management and Budget Director Jim Nussle said the deficit projection rose because of new spending by Congress and the administration since February. The economic stimulus package, the farm bill and rising war costs have increased expenditures as an economic slowdown has reduced tax revenues coming into the federal government.