McCain, Obama raise doubts about bailout plan
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199
By David Espo and Beth Fouhy
Published: September 22, 2008
WASHINGTON (AP) -- Democrat Barack Obama and Republican John McCain raised doubts about the Bush administration's $700 billion bailout and demanded conditions that could snag its quick passage through the highly partisan Congress.
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Less than six weeks remained in the presidential contest as the candidates were preparing for their first debate on Friday, a confrontation on foreign policy and national security. Those issues, despite ongoing wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, have slid to a distant second place behind voter anxiety over the U.S. economy - in the midst of a financial crisis not seen since the 1930s Great Depression.
McCain, who only a week ago said the economy was fundamentally sound, now says the U.S. financial system is facing a major crisis.
Speaking on NBC television, McCain said, "We are in the most serious crisis since World War II."
He also said that despite the ballooning national debt he would not raise taxes if elected president.
Obama and his wife, Michelle, were campaigning in Wisconsin, a battleground state, while McCain planned stops in Pennsylvania, where the race was equally close. He was to be joined there by running mate Sarah Palin, the Alaska governor who has brought new life to the Republican ticket.
The candidates traded charges Sunday, each declaring the other unprepared to handle the U.S. financial meltdown that looms over the next American president. They likewise said there were too few assurances of oversight and guarantees that Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson's unprecedented bailout would assist beleaguered citizens.
McCain cautioned against granting unchecked authority to Paulson, saying he is "greatly concerned that the plan gives a single individual the unprecedented power to spend $1 trillion on the basis of not much more than 'Trust me.'"
In a statement to reporters, McCain urged the creation of a bipartisan oversight board to review the government bailout rather than entrusting Paulson with complete power to craft it. He said the board should be headed by a trusted financial steward like billionaire financier Warren Buffett, and said former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney and New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg should be involved as well. Both Romney and Bloomberg made enormous fortunes in business ventures before entering politics.
"I believe we need a high level of oversight and an oversight board to impose real criteria for those who need help and those who do not and that we have a careful steward of the taxpayer's dollars," McCain said.
Obama ticked off seven conditions that he believed should be imposed on the Paulson proposal, joining some fellow congressional Democrats in raising warning flags and signaling the bailout mechanism might not make it out of the legislature by week's end as demanded by the Bush administration.
Obama said any bailout must include plans to recover the money, and protect working families and big financial institutions and be crafted to prevent such a crisis from happening again.
"This plan can't just be a plan for Wall Street, it has to be a plan for Main Street. We have to come together, as Democrats and Republicans, to pass a stimulus plan that will put money in the pockets of working families, save jobs, and prevent painful budget cuts and tax hikes in our states," Obama said during a campaign stop in North Carolina.
Aides said Obama had spoken with Paulson, Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke, congressional leaders and former President Bill Clinton and Sen. Hillary Clinton in fleshing out his approach to the bailout.
McCain and Obama each had harsh words for their opponent as well.
At a campaign stop in North Carolina, Obama again blamed the crisis on Republican policies he said McCain was committed to continuing.
"We're now seeing the disastrous consequences of this philosophy all around us, on Wall Street as well as Main Street," Obama said. "Yet Sen. McCain, who candidly admitted not long ago that he doesn't know as much about economics as he should, wants to keep going down the same disastrous path."
Obama said the Bush administration's proposal to put a floor under the dangerous U.S. economic slide - one that many are worried could pull down the world economy - carried a "staggering price tag" but no plan to guarantee the "basic principles of transparency, fairness, and reform" to taxpayers who will pay for the huge and unprecedented government bailout.
McCain, at a National Guard convention in Baltimore, Maryland, said Obama was behaving more like a politician than a leader, faulting him for not offering a plan to stabilize financial markets after the crisis in the mortgage industry led to the collapse of two investment banks and the government bailout of housing lenders Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac and insurance giant American International Group, Inc.
"At a time of crisis, when leadership is needed, Senator Obama has not provided it," McCain said. "Whether it's a reversal in war, or an economic emergency, he reacts as a politician and not as a leader, seeking an advantage for himself instead of a solution for his country," McCain said of his Democratic rival.
Obama had previously declined to offer a financial recovery plan, saying he wanted to allow Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson to address the matter without political intrusion. Obama's advisers criticized McCain's proposals as little more than talking points that lacked any meaningful detail.
© 2008 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed. Learn more about our .


8 years of the stinking GOP and,what do we have? A never ending war,an economy that is in the toilet and, a dollar that is worth squat!!! NO THANK YOU!!!
Democrat all the way.
No thank you, vote Democrat!!!
But Obama is an empty vessel. God help us if the most liberal voting US Senator and product of the corrupt Chicago political machine gets elected.
Stop thinking like a bunch of teenage girls swooning
@ a rock concert and do the homework. Obama must not be elected.
Elect John McCain, vote for Barack Obama.
They're all too interested in impressing with their "ride" to go pick up food stamps with it. After all, you don't engage in that kind of very, conspicuous consumption then blow the image since image is the whole point of the silly machine! But, even if such a thing actually happened, better that one contemptible cheater get his stamps than one honest child be malnourished. It is estimated that more than 14 % of Oklahomans are not getting enough food. That's a statistic of which we should be deeply ashamed unless we are doing something, private or public, to change it.
Oklahoman. I can understand his pride. He is an outstanding person. He apparently has no problem with my pride because we get along as well as family! Neither of us has ever accepted a handout from anyone, and God willing, we never will. But I would not hesitate to utilize a free food source if I were starving. In addition to paying taxes, I make substantial contributions to the Regional Food Bank and to the Salvation Army, because I know they both help feed the poor. I am also proud of that!
Welfare... do any of you really know the numbers as far as how many blacks and whites there are on welfare. Speculation makes some of us look like the idots we really are. Get the facts and stop guessing that it is all a "black affair" when it comes to prison and the welfare system.
As far as the race card if we could come together and right some wrongs to people in America we would be a better society. If Australia can ask forgiveness of the Aborignes for the wrongs they have done to their fellow countrymen then I know we can.
i'm an obama fan and am proud to be one. still, this AP article disgusts me in how blatantly it is trying to manipulate the election. "a fading Hillary Rodham Clinton" belongs in an opinion piece, not a syndicated article about an election. there's still a lot of voting to go before that statement can be made
“The only thing we have to fear, is fear itself”. “I have a dream.” “It depends on what the word is, is”. “This is the first time in my life, I have felt proud to be an American” said Obama’s wife. What? She has not been a proud American? Good grief.