The Hill News

Rep. Joe Sestak (D-Pa.) on Saturday fired back at the address delivered this morning by his Republican challenger Pat Toomey who blasted Democrats for exacerbating the deficit.

“Washington spending as a percentage of our country’s economic output has grown by twenty-five percent--practically overnight,” Toomey said, adding, “You know, there’s an old saying, ‘when you’re in a hole, stop digging.’”

The statement prompted Sestak to post a YouTube video where President Bill Clinton uses the same analogy to chastise Republicans for running the country further into the red if they take control of Congress.

“If you vote for these people that are running for office against Joe Sestak â€" they’ll go up there and take the oath of office, they’ll have one hand on the bible and they got a shovel in the other hand,” Clinton said. “They want to start digging again because they have the same ideas.”

Clinton made the statement Tuesday at the high school in Scranton, Pa.

Sestak and Toomey are in a tight race for control of the Senate seat currently occupied by Sen. Arlen Specter (D-Pa.). A recent poll shows Toomey with a narrow 2 point lead, which is in the margin of error.

In a recent townhall meeting the two lawmakers sparred over the deficit in a debate that focused on the fate of tax cuts enacted by President George W. Bush. The measures are slated to expire at the end of the year.

Sestak would like to extend the breaks benefiting the middle class while Toomey argues the economy is too weak to sustain a tax increase and calls for a continuation of all of the tax cuts, which would increase the deficit by several billion dollars.