Last year Republicans created a website to criticize Democrat Governor Tom Vilsack’s out-of-state travel. Now, Democrats have created a website to criticize the Republican candidate for governor’s actions in Washington, D.C.
The website’s called “James and the Giant Deficit” — a play on a popular children’s book about a giant peach that kept growing. The Democrats feature a cartoon Jim Nussle sitting at a desk, throwing dollar bills into a can that represents the national debt. There’s a debt “clock” on the site, too, showing how much red ink is accumulating.
Nussle is chairman of the House Budget Committee and is running to become Iowa’s next governor. The Democrats say that after 15 years in congress, Nussle has become a big spender, racking up the nation’s largest-ever deficits. Nussle has said deficit spending was unavoidable after 9/11 because of the nation’s economy tanked and the country went to war.
Democrats say Nussle will have to figure out how to balance budgets if he becomes governor because the state’s constitution prohibits deficit spending. The Democrats’ website is www.nussledeficit.org. The Republicans’ website — www.travelingtom.org — hasn’t been updated since February.