McCain: Follow British example on the budget

The U.S. should follow the British example on debts and deficits, Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) argued Tuesday.

McCain praised the government in the United Kingdom for undertaking an austerity plan that combines hefty spending cuts with some tax hikes to shrink a large national debt.

"That's the way that we need to do it," McCain said of the British example on KFNN radio in Arizona. "Cut spending, cut the size of government."

McCain didn't make any reference to the tax increases that Conservative Prime Minister David Cameron had sought in his budget package, instead focusing his praise on the U.K. plan for its effort to "localize" government.

Cameron was in Washington last week to visit President Obama and congressional leaders, his first official visit to the U.S. as prime minister. McCain had an opportunity to meet with Cameron last Tuesday.

U.S. lawmakers will face their own tough budgetary choices — perhaps some similar to the combination of tax increases and spending cuts the British faced — at the end of this year, when President Obama's fiscal commission makes its recommendations on how to address the long-term budgetary situation in the U.S. Republicans have already warned of tax increases as a result of the commission's findings, while Democrats have warned of cuts to social programs.

House and Senate leaders have pledged to allow a vote on the commission's findings.