McCain Defends Decision to Suspend Campaign
(COLUMBUS, OHIO) – Explaining that he suspended his campaign last week "to make sure that the taxpayers" weren't footing the bill for the financial bailout plan being put together in Washington, John McCain defended his decision while accusing Barack Obama of sitting it out.
"Remarkably, some people have criticized my decision, but I will never, ever be a president who sits on the sidelines when this country faces a crisis. I'll never do that. Some of you may have noticed, but it's not my style to simply phone it in," McCain said.
"Sen. Obama took a very different approach to the crisis our country faced. At first he didn't want to get involved. Then he was monitoring the situation. That's not leadership, that's watching from the sidelines."
McCain also accused Obama of wanting to raise taxes on people making less than $42,000 a year, saying Obama lied in last Friday's debate when he said had never voted for a tax increase.
"Sen. Obama is a fan of all that spending because he's always cheering for higher taxes or against tax relief," McCain said. "He never voted to cut your taxes."
Obama's campaign countered that under their tax plan, no one making less than a quarter of a million dollars a year would see a tax hike.
"Senator McCain's angry diatribe today won't make up for his erratic response to the greatest financial crisis of our time. John McCain knows that the budget he's talking about didn't end up raising taxes on a single American," said Obama spokesman Tommy Vietor.
"When Sen. Obama is president, no family making less than $250,000 will see their taxes increase, and 95 percent of all workers and their families will get a tax cut."