Obama attacks McCain over floods

AFP, June, 2008

MIAMI (AFP) — White House candidate Barack Obama assailed Republican rival John McCain on Saturday for voting against infrastructure bills that he said could have limited damage in the flood-battered Midwest.

McCain has taken a firm position against earmarks attached to bills in Congress by lawmakers trying to secure federal funding for local projects, a practice critics denounce as "pork spending" that has contributed to a ballooning budget.

But Obama, the presumptive Democratic Party nominee, told a meeting of the US Conference of Mayors in Miami that McCain had opposed projects that would have improved levees in the Midwest.

"Just the other day, Senator McCain traveled to Iowa to express his sympathies for the victims of the recent flooding," Obama said in prepared remarks.

"I'm sure they appreciated the sentiment, but they probably would have appreciated it more if he hadn't voted against funding for levees and flood control ...