McCain: Bush's "Biggest Mistake" Was To Not Veto Budgets

McCain said he is not at all indifferent - he just has a different message to deliver than do the Democrats.

"I'm the only candidate who has fought against excessive spending," McCain said.

And, he said, if elected president, he would veto any budget bill that lands on his desk "loaded up with earmarks and pork." Earmarks are specific spending items added by Congress.

President Bush made a similar veto pledge in his State of the Union address earlier this month, when he warned the Democratic-controlled Congress not to give him a budget to sign with excessive earmark spending.

But, earlier in his administration, when the Republicans controlled Congress, Bush routinely signed budgets that included pork-barrel projects and earmarked spending.

"That was probably the biggest mistake the Bush administration made," McCain said Tuesday.

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