WASHINGTON: 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.
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 US economy, which is 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 US financial system is facing a major crisis. But he cautioned against giving too much power to Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson.
“Never before in the history of our nation has so much power and money been concentrated in the hands of one person. This arrangement makes me deeply uncomfortable,” McCain told an Irish-American group in Pennsylvania, a key battleground state. “We will not solve a problem caused by poor oversight with a plan that has no oversight.” McCain praised Paulson and said he had spoken to him several times over the weekend. But the Republican candidate nonetheless called for a bipartisan oversight board for the proposed bailout, to be headed by Warren Buffet or another broadly respected business leader.
Obama and his wife, Michelle, were campaigning in Wisconsin, a battleground state, while McCain planned stops in Pennsylvania, where the race was equally close.
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.
