Both U.S. presidential candidates turned their focus back to America's wobbly economy and ripped the Bush administration as the White House projected the next chief executive would take office facing a staggering $482 billion national budget deficit.
The administration said on Monday the red ink was being driven to the all-time high by the sagging economy and tax rebates to 130 million households in an effort to put a floor under the economic skid. The deficit could climb even higher if the economy performs worse than the White House predicts.
The new deficit projection only underlined the deep troubles facing the American economy, the No. 1 issue with voters who are facing rising mortgage foreclosures, falling home prices, skyrocketing gasoline and energy costs and the loss of nearly 500,000 jobs so far this year.
At a Washington meeting with more than a dozen economic advisers, Democrat Barack Obama said the ballooning debt "was not an accident or a normal part of the business cycle that led us to this situation. There were some irresponsible decisions that were made on Wall Street and in Washington."
Republican John McCain, who is fighting the perception that his election would mean a continuation of the economic policies of a highly unpopular President George W. Bush, blamed wasteful spending by the current White House.
"There is no more striking reminder of the need to reverse the profligate spending that has characterized this administration's fiscal policy," McCain said in a statement issued Monday.
"As president, I have committed to balancing the budget by the end of my first term," McCain said. "Today's news makes that job harder but should not change our resolve to make the tough decisions and the genuine effort to reach across the aisle that are needed to ensure a lasting solution to the spending problem that threatens the very stability of our economy."
Obama didn't name the Bush administration, but his implication was clear.
"We can't afford, I believe, to keep on doing the same things we've been doing," the first-term Illinois senator said. "We have to change course, and we have to take immediate action."
Obama said the economy needs both short- and long-term fixes, including another round of "stimulus" measures from Congress to revive the economy and a longer-term focus on renewable energy to curb high gas prices and on universal health care to trim costs.
Obama has called for an aggressive course from Washington to stimulate the economy, and while he offered few details about his plans, he said the economy would be the focus of much of his attention in the three months until the election.
He warned his economic advisers that the current crunch was "a direct result of putting off tough decisions for too many years. I believe that more action is going to be necessary."
Obama said he would convene his economic advisers routinely through the campaign to get advice. It's also a way of putting the focus on domestic issues, where polls show him running strongly against four-term Arizona Sen. McCain.
"I've laid out an economic strategy in this campaign that I think will provide short-term relief and long-term growth," Obama said. He planned to focus on the economy this week. He also was heading to Missouri and Iowa later in the week, and raising money in Texas before heading to Florida.
On Monday, Obama held an eight-point lead nationally over McCain _ 48 percent to 40 percent _ among registered voters in the presidential race, according to the latest Gallup Poll Daily tracking update. A day earlier, Obama held a nine-point lead in the poll, his largest margin over McCain since Gallup began tracking the general election race in March.
Despite slipping in the poll after Obama's flashy foray overseas last week, McCain stuck with his favorite campaign format, small gatherings where he is at ease with an informal give-and-take with voters.
McCain had lunch with supporters in Bakersfield, California, where he pressed for lifting the quarter-century ban on drilling in U.S. coastal waters as a means of reducing American dependence on imported oil. Obama opposes offshore drilling.
And McCain revealed to reporters that he had a small patch of skin removed from his face and checked for cancer cells as part of a regular checkup with his dermatologist.
"She said that I was doing fine," McCain said at a presidential campaign visit to an oil rig where he spoke briefly about his proposed energy plan. "She took a small little nick from my cheek, as she does regularly, and that will be biopsied just to make sure everything is fine."
The Arizona senator underwent the procedure in Phoenix during a checkup he undergoes every three months. He sported a small bandage on his upper right cheek on his campaign plane but had removed it by the time he spoke with reporters. A small, dark spot stood out on his face.
The fair-skinned Arizona senator, who suffered severe sun damage from his 5 1/2 years in Vietnamese prison camps, gets an in-depth skin cancer check every few months because of a medical history of dangerous melanomas.
McCain said he could get the biopsy results Tuesday.
Meanwhile, a Washington anti-tax group criticized McCain Monday for signaling an openness to a higher payroll tax for the Social Security retirement system, contrary to previous vows not to raise taxes of any kind.
Speaking Sunday on a nationally televised talk show McCain said: "I don't want tax increases. But that doesn't mean that anything is off the table."
The group, called the Club for Growth, said in a letter Monday to the senator, that his words were "shocking because you have been adamant in your opposition to raising taxes under any circumstances."
Both candidates have said Social Security's funding formula needs to be changed to ensure the program's long-term viability.
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