Democrats say they're inheriting a financial mess

By James Rosen

McClatchy Newspapers

WASHINGTON - Democrats, who will shape fiscal policies in the new Congress, issued a scathing report Wednesday on the "financial mess" they'll inherit from their Republican counterparts next month.

The Democrats called the budget "the fiscal disaster the Republican Congress is leaving behind," and Republicans sharply rejected their claims - signals that post-election pledges of bipartisan cooperation by leaders of both parties might have been hollow talk.