The candidates for the Buckeye State Senate seat being left open by Republican George V. Voinovich appear certain to infect voters with Deficit Attention Disorder.
Former Bush OMB Director Rob Portman meeting with reporters today. (CQ/Jonathan Allen)
As soon as former
Bush Budget Director Rob Portman made clear he would run for the seat, it was equally clear that Democrats would try to
tie him to Bush's economy and deficits. But a further downturn in the economy, rising unemployment and skyrocketing deficits may have turned the issue into a winner -- or at least less of a loser -- for Portman.
"Some of my political advisers say 'You're talking too much about the deficit,'" Portman said at a meeting with reporters in Washington on Wednesday morning. But the projected FY 2010 deficit, at $1.8 trillion, is far greater than anything that Portman oversaw.
The former Cincinnati congressman and U.S. trade representative accepts the fiscal 2007 deficit of $161 billion as his, though his year-plus tenure as budget director included part of fiscal 2008 -- the year of the budget he actually presented -- when the government ran a $459 billion deficit.
Either way, Portman's numbers are miniscule measured against even the rosiest projections of the current deficit, and he says Ohio voters don't feel like they're getting much bang for their buck with an unemployment rate nearing 11 percent.
"They see all this spending," Portman said, "and they don't see the results. In fact, they see just the opposite."
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