The financial crisis has "thrown a wrench" in the plan of US Republican presidential candidate John McCain to balance the budget in his first term, his economic adviser said.
Mr McCain has pledged to reduce government spending and balance the federal budget by 2013 and has insisted that the current financial crisis will not alter his campaign promises.
But, speaking today, Doug Holtz-Eakin said: "The events of the past few months have completely thrown a wrench into that, there's no way round it. He would still like to balance it. It's going to be harder, take longer,"
Mr Holtz-Eakin was speaking at a debate with his Democratic counterpart at Columbia University in New York.
Austan Goolsbee, who advises Democratic candidate Barack Obama, said McCain had consistently called for balancing the budget without explaining how he would do so.
"We have a $500 billion deficit and John McCain's tax plan alone would almost double the deficit," Mr Goolsbee said.
"So even before the financial crisis you had John McCain creating steady state deficits of pushing on $1 trillion. So I keep asking: 'Which $1 trillion of the budget would you cut to balance the budget?'" he said.
Mr Goolsbee said McCain's pledge to eliminate earmark spending would cut at most $18 billion while a proposed McCain spending freeze would save another $12 billion, leaving $970 billion.
Mr Holtz-Eakin said that while cutting earmarks would only save $18 billion, it was vital to do so because "earmarks corrupt the process" and hampered the ability of Congress to deal with larger issues such as Medicare and Social Security.
He also said the best way to balance the budget was to promote economic growth - an aim he said was not furthered by Mr Obama's policies on taxes, health insurance and jobs.
The credit crisis and fears of a looming recession have raised questions about which promises each candidates will be able to keep if elected. Economists point to Mr McCain's tax cuts and Mr Obama's health care reforms as the most expensive pledges, and therefore the most vulnerable.
The Republican senator from Arizona has promised to keep the tax cuts put in place by President George W. Bush and reduce corporate income tax rates to 25 per cent from 35 per cent. His tax plans have been estimated to cost some $400 billion a year, according to the Wall Street Journal.
The Democratic senator from Illinois has promised a major overhaul of the US health insurance system that his campaign estimates will cost $50 billion to $65 billion. He promises to pay for that by rolling back tax cuts on Americans making more than $250,000 a year.
Reuters