This is Senator Barack Obama. This morning, I'd like to talk to you about why America needs to move in a new direction.
In recent days, we've seen two stark examples of exactly what's wrong with Washington, and what's at stake in this election.
First, we learned that the federal budget deficit could reach nearly half a trillion dollars next year.
Eight years after we had a record surplus, we're now faced with record deficits. This mortgaging of our children's future is a direct result of the Bush Administration's dangerously failed fiscal policies.
Instead of helping Americans who are struggling, we've seen loopholes and lavish giveaways for corporations that ship jobs overseas, and tax cut after tax cut for the wealthiest Americans who don't need them and didn't even ask for them.
Now, Senator McCain proposes to continue these costly and unfair Bush tax policies. He would continue to put special interests ahead of Americans who are struggling, while short-changing the investments we need to get our economy moving again.
The second thing we learned this week was that the Iraqi government now has a $79 billion budget surplus thanks to their windfall oil profits. And while this Iraqi money sits in American banks, American taxpayers continue to spend $10 billion a month to defend and rebuild Iraq.
That's right. America faces a huge budget deficit. Iraq has a surplus...
