Double Down

There is absolutely no way the Republicans can claim to be fiscal conservatives without lying. The Bush/McSame economic policies are crushing the country under a growing mountain of debt while their buddies in Big Oil and on Wall Street walk away laughing with huge profits, CEO salaries that would feed a small country and increasingly lower taxes. The federal deficit will jump from $161 billion up to $407 billion in only one year, which trumps the record high only outdone by Bush in 2004. What part of wrong direction don't the McSame supporters understand?

The presidential campaign of Sen. Barack Obama (D-Ill.) said the $407 billion deficit for this fiscal year is "more than $1 trillion worse than the budget surplus President Bush promised for 2008 in his first budget."

The Obama campaign charged on its Web site that Sen. John McCain (Ariz.), the Republican presidential candidate, "wants us to think he represents change, but he wants to spend $3.4 trillion more than President Bush on tax cuts, most of which will go to the wealthiest corporations and big oil companies and leave more than 100 million middle-class families without a dime of tax relief." It said Obama "will bring real change by cutting taxes for middle-class families and small businesses, paying for all his proposals to reduce the deficit, and will put America on a path towards fiscal responsibility and a stronger economy."