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 Obama criticizes McCain on taxes
CHICAGO (AP) -- Democratic Sen. Barack Obama says Sen. John McCain reversed his position on President Bush's deep tax cuts in order to win the Republican presidential nomination, one of his sharpest criticisms yet of the Arizona senator he hopes to face this fall.
Criticizing GOP efforts to extend major tax cuts from Bush's first term and to eliminate the estate tax, Obama said: "These are all steps that John McCain rightly said were irresponsible when they first came up."
"He made a decision to reverse himself on that," Obama told reporters Thursday as he flew from Chicago to Washington for a series of Senate votes on budget issues.
"That was how, I guess, you got your ticket punched to be the Republican nominee," he said of McCain. "But he was right then, and he's wrong now."
McCain has said he supports extending the tax cuts, which he initially voted against, because the economy is struggling and tax reductions offer some stimulus.
"Well, it's very clear that I voted to make those tax cuts permanent several times," McCain said as he flew to Washington. "Senator Obama has stated very clearly his desire to increase Americans' taxes. That'll be one of the great debates we have if he is the nominee of his party."
Obama has proposed an array of subsidies for higher education, health care and other costs hitting middle-class families. He said he believes he can pay for such plans by closing tax loopholes, placing a new tax on carbon emissions, phasing out the Iraq war and ending the Bush tax cuts for the nation's highest earners.
The Senate version of the budget plan, which would drop many of the Bush tax cuts, passed early Friday on a 51-44 vote, largely along party lines. Obama voted for the budget, McCain opposed the plan.
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Apparent fraud costs GOP group heavily
WASHINGTON (AP) -The committee in charge of running House Republican campaigns said Thursday that a former treasurer "deceived and betrayed" the group, which is missing hundreds of thousands of dollars
-- and possibly more -- due to fraudulent acts conducted over the past several years.
The National Republican Congressional Committee told federal authorities that it overstated the amount of cash it held at the end of 2006 by nearly $1 million. A year later, the committee's annual report to the Federal Election Commission
-- which again was handled by the ex-treasurer -- overstated the actual funds on hand by $740,000.
Republican officials said the former employee, Chris Ward, apparently "made several hundred thousand dollars in unauthorized transfers of NRCC funds to outside committees whose bank accounts he had access to" over several years. Most, if not all, of the smaller accounts were associated with GOP candidates or groups.
Ward, 39, "also appears to have made subsequent transfers of several hundred thousand dollars in funds from those outside committees to what appear to be his personal and business bank accounts," the NRCC said in a statement, which accompanied a briefing to reporters.
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 The statement said Ward covered his actions in part by submitting "bogus audit reports" to the NRCC's banks and/or leadership for five consecutive years starting in 2002. The fabricated audits looked authentic, and appeared to be signed by legitimate accounting firms, party spokesmen said.
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Obama, Clinton to debate in Philadelphia
WASHINGTON (AP) -- Democratic Sens. Barack Obama and Hillary Rodham Clinton plan to debate in Philadelphia next month before Pennsylvania's primary, their presidential campaigns said Thursday.
ABC News will host the debate on a date still to be determined. Pennsylvania voters go to the polls April 22 for the primary, a contest with 158 delegates at stake.
Obama also has agreed to a matchup on April 19 hosted by CBS News in North Carolina, his campaign said. North Carolina has 115 delegates up for grabs in its May 6 primary. CBS News said it was awaiting word on whether Clinton would participate.
The contenders have debated 20 times during the presidential campaign.
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THE DEMOCRATS
Hillary Rodham Clinton holds events in Pittsburgh. Barack Obama is in Chicago.
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THE REPUBLICANS
John McCain holds a town hall meeting in Springfield, Pa.
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QUOTE OF THE DAY: "The best option is whatever we can get the candidates to agree with, which puts a vote back in the hands of the people of Florida and Michigan. And that's going to be not so easy to do," Democratic National Committee Chairman Howard Dean said about efforts to seat the two states' delegates at the party's national convention.
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STAT OF THE DAY:
Votes cast in the Michigan Democratic primary: 593,837.
An unofficial total of votes in the Florida Democratic primary, with some absentee ballots still outstanding: 1,684,390.
[Associated
Press]
Compiled by Ann Sanner and Ronald Powers.
Copyright 2008 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This
material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or
redistributed.
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