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SCRANTON, Pennsylvania: White House contenders Barack
Obama and John McCain focused on the troubled US economy Monday,
expressing doubts about a $700-billion government bailout for
crippled Wall Street and calling for more government oversight of
financial firms.
Democrat Obama said the Bush
administration was saddling taxpayers with a “staggering price
tag” to bail out finance firms but no real plan to fix the economy
and blamed McCain for backing policies that fomented the debt
crisis.
But Republican McCain warned that
the emerging plan gave the government too much power to spend up to
$1 trillion in bailout funds and hit out at the concept of “golden
parachutes” for failed business executives.
The latest sparring over
economics came after the presidential race was transformed by the
financial meltdown, and as the Bush administration and the
Democratic-led Congress jousted over the terms of the rescue plan.
The statements foreshadowed the
likely clashes at Friday night’s presidential debate between the
rivals in Mississippi, ahead of the November 4 election, the first
of three.
Lack of leadership
McCain argued that Obama had
shown a “lack of leadership” on both the financial crisis and
Iraq, putting the needs of his political career ahead of the good of
his country.
He called for an oversight board
made up of figures respected in the business world, such as
billionaire financier Warren Buffett, his Republican primary
opponent Mitt Romney and New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg.
“No CEO of any corporation or
business that is bailed out by us, that is rescued by American tax
dollars, should receive any more than the highest-paid person in the
federal government,” McCain said in an interview on CNBC.
McCain aides said the Republican
would Monday use a town-hall meeting here to warn about giving “a
single individual the unprecedented power to spend a trillion
dollars on the basis of not much more than ‘trust me.’”
The Arizona senator was also set
to warn against offering “golden parachutes” to top executives
of failed finance firms, amid reports some top managers could share
$2.5 billion in bonuses.
Obama’s position
Obama also called for more
independent oversight of the bailout effort.
“I don’t think it can be a
blank check,” he said on CNBC.
“We can set up a system where
there’s an independent overseer, maybe the chairman of the Federal
Reserve Bank and the Democrats and the Republicans each appoint
somebody to oversee the system,” he added.
Earlier, Obama said President
George W. Bush’s administration had so far “only offered a
concept with a staggering price tag, not a plan.”
“This initial outlay of up to
$700 billion is sobering” even if the Treasury recoups its money
over time.
In line with Treasury Secretary
Henry Paulson, Obama said US trading partners must help shoulder the
burden of fixing the “global crisis” sweeping through the
interconnected financial system.
But unlike Paulson and other
Republicans, who called for a simple rescue deal, Obama said the
plan working through Congress must protect hard-pressed voters on
“Main Street” and not just corporate managers and shareholders.
Earlier, on the CBS show 60
Minutes, Obama had argued that McCain had come late to calls for
more regulation in the finance industry.
“The difference is, I think,
that I’ve got a track record of actually believing in this
stuff,” the Democratic candidate said.
Poor performance
But earlier, McCain, 72, accused
Obama, 47, of a lack of leadership on the financial turbulence
wracking US and global markets, equating his performance to his
initial opposition to the “surge” of US troops into Iraq last
year.
“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.
“At a time of crisis, when
leadership is needed, Senator Obama has simply not provided it,”
McCain told the National Guard Association, meeting in Baltimore,
Maryland.
“We saw the same lack of
leadership on Iraq. Because of the sacrifices and perseverance of
all the troops—active-duty, Guard and Reserve—victory in Iraq is
in sight.
--AFP
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