Lindsey Graham, the Republican Senator from South Carolina and one of John McCain’s chief surrogates, told CNN today, “I do believe [John McCain] and Governor Palin bring the most hope of changing this place, not Senator Obama and Senator Biden, who have never met a budget they didn’t like.”
Really? Because we’ve had record deficits under the Bush Administration and it was John McCain who voted for the budgets that created them. Here are the facts. Of the five “Bush budgets” — budgets submitted by President Bush to a Republican-controlled Congress, which he could have reasonable faith would pass them intact — John McCain voted for four of them.
Bush submitted budgets to a Republican Congress in 2001, 2003, 2004, 2005, and 2006. John McCain voted yes for all except 2003. Joe Biden voted no for all, and Barack Obama voted no for 2005 and 2006, the budgets in question submitted after he took office.
So, to correct Lindsey Graham, Barack Obama and Joe Biden have met nothing but budgets they don’t like under the Bush Administration. The same cannot be said for John McCain.
