Republican White House hopeful John McCain on Tuesday insisted he could balance the deficit-plagued US federal budget within four years, despite skepticism from Democrats and some economists.
"We're going to reach restrained spending, we're going to have the economy grow again and increase revenues," McCain said in an interview on CNN.
"The problem is that spending got completely out of control."
McCain was speaking after some non-partisan economists and newspaper analyses suggested it would be difficult for him to live up to his economic plan announced Monday, including an undertaking to balance the budget by 2013.
"There's a whole lot of economists, including Nobel laureates, that agree with my plan," McCain said, citing 300 experts who on Monday endorsed his fiscal proposals.
The New York Times on Tuesday quoted the non-partisan Concord Coalition budget watchdog group as saying that McCain was unlikely to achieve his goal, considering the policies he proposed.
Another nonpartisan group, the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities has estimated that by taking into account an extension of Bush administration tax cuts, additional tax cuts that McCain has proposed and other factors, the US budget deficit would reach 446 billion dollars by 2013.
That is without taking into consideration any spending cuts that McCain might propose.
McCain dismissed such estimates as static numbers that do not take into account his contention that revenues will rise as a result of a strengthening economy and lower taxes.
The Arizona senator is a long-time scourge of bloated government spending, and has angered some fellow members of Congress by exposing millions of dollars financing they secure for pet projects in their districts.
The campaign of Democratic presidential hopeful Barack Obama on Tuesday eagerly seized upon unflattering accounts of McCain's budget plan, on the second day of a week-long duel between the rivals over the economy.
Obama himself was in the southern state of Georgia, unveiling proposals to reform bankruptcy laws, in part to help Americans who are financially crippled healthcare costs brought on by an unexpected illness.
"When it comes to strengthening the safety net for hard-working families, John McCain has been part of the problem, not part of the solution," Obama said, again accusing his rival of wanting to prolong Bush administration economic policies.
"We don't want the same old thing, we want something new."
