It all started today with a disagreement over the 21st Century GI Bill. Now Barack Obama and John McCain have spent the day exchanging insults. This evening the Obama campaign released a statement from their candidate saying that McCain’s endless diatribes and schoolyard taunts do nothing to advance the debate.
Despite the fact that America has faced a looming entitlement crisis for decades, politicians have been short on concrete proposals. Any genuine attempt at entitlement reform would necessitate asking voters to make sacrfices, and most politicians can’t win elections by doing that.
Despite the fact that President Bush has already threatened to veto it, 25 Republicans sided with the Democrats today in passing a war spending bill. By a veto proof vote of 75-22, the Senate agreed to spend an extra $10 billion to strengthen the GI Bill, add 13 weeks of unemployment benefits, and provide heating subsidies to the poor.
There was some good news and some bad news for Barack Obama in the latest Quinnipiac University poll of swing states Florida, Ohio, and Pennsylvania. The good news is that Obama is beating McCain in Pennsylvania. The bad news is that he is losing to McCain in Ohio and Florida, and working class white voters are the difference.
