RALEIGH – Today on the campaign trail, John McCain promised to help law enforcement officials combat crime, help retrain displaced workers, and end the long lines at the Veterans Administration facilities.

But as is so often the case with John McCain, his rhetoric just doesn’t match his record. Just last night when he had the opportunity to vote on those very issues in the Senate, John McCain once again put his campaign ahead of North Carolina’s families for his own political gain.

Yesterday, after voting to extend Bush’s tax cuts for the wealthy, John McCain headed out to a $1,000 a plate fundraiser in Philadelphia. McCain ducked out long enough to miss important votes on amendments that fund many of the priorities he talks about on the campaign stump.

Republican State Auditor Les Merritt’s partisan bandwagon has hit the road – literally.

Mr. Merritt’s flawed review of the state transportation department ignores the reality of increased construction costs and population growth.

Meanwhile Mr. Merritt’s fee to state agencies has ballooned from $55 to $85 an hour while the budget approved by his department continues to grow.

“We know why it costs more to build roads,” said NCDP Chair Jerry Meek. “Why does it cost more for Les Merritt to run his office?”

According to the Federal Highway Administration, states across the country are experiencing “unprecedented construction cost increases”.

With rising energy prices and an economy careening toward recession, it simply costs more to build a road than it used to.

Construction material prices rose much faster in 2005 and 2006 than consumer and producer price indices. The availability of key construction materials such as Portland cement, copper, gypsum and PVC pipe became an issue in many parts of the country.

President Bush, please take Dick Cheney with you when you leave the White House.

Cloaked in secrecy, Vice President Dick Cheney met today in a closed meeting with the Charlotte Chamber of Commerce.

“While we might not know what they talked about, the evidence is clear that the Bush-Cheney economic policies have failed North Carolina,” said NCDP Chair Jerry Meek.

“A recession is looming and it costs more to put fill our gas tanks, heat our homes, and pay for health care when illness strikes,” Meek said.

In 2001, gas was $1.37 per gallon. Now it costs $3.09 per gallon. Americans could heat their homes for as low as $1.40 per gallon. Now it costs $3.39.

Health care insurance premium costs for families have doubled from $6,230 in 2001 to $12,106 per household today.

“North Carolinians work hard to secure a better future for their children and grandchildren,” Meek said. “But the Bush-Cheney Administration has diminished that with irresponsible policies and an unquenchable thirst for debt.”

David Edwards and Greg Wasserstrom

Senator Jim Webb (D-VA) went on the offensive over the delay of supplemental funding for the war in Iraq, dismissing recent comments by President Bush saying delays in funding puts troops in harms way as "fear tactics." Appearing on the program Meet The Press, Webb also suggested that the issue at the heart of the current fight over war funding is how long American troops will be deployed in Iraq.

"The problem with the administration's approach to [war funding] is that they constantly use fear tactics," Webb said, citing the President Bush and Congressional Republicans defeat of his amendment to give troops longer breaks between deployments. "If President Bush had said to do it they'd be saluting and doing it."

Like a ticking time bomb, the national debt is an explosion waiting to happen. It's expanding by about $1.4 billion a day — or nearly $1 million a minute.

What's that mean to you?

It means almost $30,000 in debt for each man, woman, child and infant in the United States.

Even if you've escaped the recent housing and credit crunches and are coping with rising fuel prices, you may still be headed for economic misery, along with the rest of the country. That's because the government is fast straining resources needed to meet interest payments on the national debt, which stands at a mind-numbing $9.13 trillion.

And like homeowners who took out adjustable-rate mortgages, the government faces the prospect of seeing this debt — now at relatively low interest rates — rolling over to higher rates, multiplying the financial pain.

So long as somebody is willing to keep loaning the U.S. government money, the debt is largely out of sight, out of mind.

North Carolina Democratic Party Chair Jerry Meek issued the following statement in response to President Bush's threat to veto funding important to the American people while at the same time asking for a blank check for his war of choice in Iraq:

"After seven years President Bush still hasn't figured out that he serves the American people, not a partisan agenda. The President's threat today to veto Democratic funding bills that address the American people's priorities is not only misguided, it's hypocritical. It's President Bush who signed $3 trillion in new spending his Republican Congress gave him, and it's President Bush who wants a blank check for his failed policies in Iraq.

President Bush doesn't understand the realities on the ground in North Carolina anymore than he understands the realities on the ground in Iraq. Voting for a new direction on the war in Iraq, voting to give low income kids health care coverage, and voting to care for our brave veterans is not wasted time for North Carolinians; it's what we voted for.

North Carolina Democratic Party Chair Jerry Meek made the following statement about the state budget the General Assembly passed this week and Gov. Mike Easley signed into law today:

“This is a comprehensive budget that helps working families, small businesses and communities,” said NCDP Chair Jerry Meek.“It offers reading help to eighth-graders, tax credits for low-income families, and changes the tax code so that small businesses can immediately claim tax credits on property equipment rather than spreading them out over several years. From high-wage earners to low-income families, North Carolinians across the spectrum get a tax break."

“In an era where obstructionism and name-calling pass for statesmanship,” Meek said, “this budget shows that Democrats offer practical solutions to problems people face today.”

U.S. Representative Mike McIntyre today voted to strengthen our military and provide an historic new commitment of resources for America's veterans.

The Military Construction & Veterans Affairs Appropriations bill was approved and includes record-funding for veterans' health care, support for military facilities and new measures to hold the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs accountable.

U.S. Rep. David Price (D-NC) today hailed passage of the Homeland Security Appropriations Act for Fiscal Year 2008 (H.R. 2638), which he authored as chairman of the Appropriations Subcommittee on Homeland Security. The bill, which provides a total of $36.254 billion in discretionary funding for the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), passed in the House by a vote of 268 - 150.

Since he was appointed chairman of the subcommittee, Price has held 20 oversight hearings with DHS officials, outside experts and stakeholders from throughout the country. Price says the subcommittee's extensive investigation of Department activities helped produced a well-informed funding bill.

"The testimony we heard over the last several months helped us identify numerous security vulnerabilities and management problems to which our bill offers thoughtfully considered solutions," Price said.

Barbara Barrett, Washington Correspondent

WASHINGTON - Rep. David Price, a Chapel Hill Democrat, took to the House of Representatives floor Tuesday in what could be his highest-profile work yet in Congress.

Price, the new chairman of the Homeland Security appropriations subcommittee -- one of the most powerful seats in Congress -- is the prime mover behind a $36.3 billion Homeland Security spending bill that hits such hot-button issues as hurricane response and a new border defense system.