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Obama, McCain battle over taxes, economy
(Agencies)
Updated: 2008-10-08 11:27 NASHVILLE, Tenn. -- Republican John McCain and Democrat Barack Obama battled over taxes and the best way to help struggling middle-class workers on Tuesday during a sometimes tense presidential debate that highlighted a wide gap in their economic approaches.
With US financial institutions reeling under what Obama called the worst crisis since the Great Depression, the presidential rivals in the November 4 election differed frequently with only rare flashes of the open rancor that has marked their recent rhetoric on the campaign trail. "Americans are angry, they're upset and they're a little fearful," McCain said in the second presidential debate, at Belmont University in Nashville, Tennessee. "We don't have trust and confidence in our institutions." The Arizona senator, criticized for not being responsive on economic issues, was under pressure in the debate to stop his slide in the polls and halt the momentum for Obama that has bloomed during the economic crisis. He proposed a new program, to be run by the Treasury Department, which would buy mortgages from homeowners facing financial problems and replace those mortgages with new, fixed-rate mortgages. His campaign said the program would cost roughly $300 billion. Democrats in Congress have been calling for months for legislation to help families facing home foreclosures. Obama said the financial crisis was aided by deregulation of the financial industry supported by McCain and Republicans. He said middle-class workers, not just Wall Street, needed a rescue package that would include tax cuts. "We are in the worst financial crisis since the Great Depression, and a lot of you I think are worried about your jobs, your pensions, your retirement accounts," he said. McCain portrayed Obama as an eager supporter of higher taxes who was unwilling to buck his own party, but Obama said McCain's policies would help the wealthy and strand workers at the bottom of the economic ladder. "Nailing down Senator Obama's various tax proposals is like nailing Jello to the wall," McCain said. Obama responded with a crack about McCain's campaign bus. "I think the Straight Talk Express lost a wheel on that one," he said, explaining his plan would only tax those making more than $250,000 a year and most small businesses would not be affected. |
