Obama may scale back promisesBy MIKE ALLEN | 9/23/08
Sen. Barack Obama (D-Ill.) said in an interview aired Tuesday that the cost of the mortgage bailout plan
may have to rein in his ambitious plans for health care, energy, education and infrastructure.
Obama's comments reflect the possible new constraints on the next president's ability to expand or start programs or cut taxes. The series of government financial bailouts over this month could cost more than $1 trillion.
Obama told NBC?s Matt Lauer on the ?Today? show that he doesn?t expect the plan to cost the full $700 billion right away, and all the money won?t be lost. But he said
?Does that mean that I can do everything that I've called for in this campaign right away?? Obama said. ?Probably not. I think we're going to have to phase it in. And a lot of it's going to depend on what our tax revenues look like.?
Obama, interviewed by Lauer on Monday in Green Bay, Wis., attacked Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) for initially opposing the federal government?s intervention to save insurance giant AIG.
?I think what has been clear during this entire past 10 days is John McCain has not had clarity and a grasp on the situation,? Obama.
But Lauer pointed out that Obama?s running mate, Sen. Joe Biden (D-Del.), had initially said the exact same thing ? on ?Today,? no less.
?I think that in that situation, I think Joe should have waited, as well,? Obama said.
It?s very rare for one ticket mate to publicly second-guess the other. But on the ?CBS Evening News? on Monday, Biden had chastised his own campaign for a TV ad portraying McCain as a computer illiterate. Biden backed off his criticism of the ad in a statement the campaign released three hours later.
On Sunday, in an interview with CNBC?s John Harwood, Obama had suggested he would not have to make changes in his spending plans.
?My health care plan is paid for,? Obama said. ?And I continue to believe that rolling back the Bush tax cuts on the
wealthiest Americans makes sense. They are still going to be wealthy after those are rolled back. I still believe that it is important for us to make college more affordable. And I think it's important that all those things are paid for in light of this huge additional potential expense.?
Also interviewed Sunday by Harwood, McCain said he believes he can still balance the budget in his first term. ?I believe we can still balance the budget,? he said, citing ?restraint of spending ? and the recovery of our economy.?
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