Obama attacks McCain's mortgage bailout plan
The Democratic presidential candidate says his opponent's proposal is too generous to lenders. Both campaigns focus on Midwest battleground states.
Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama condemned Republican John McCain's mortgage bailout plan today as the campaigns kept their attention on economics and Midwest battleground states.
Obama turned his attention to Ohio and its 20 electoral votes, which in 2004 went to President Bush. This year's Democratic nominee will hold a rally in Dayton before making appearances in Cincinnati and Portsmouth.
McCain and his running mate, Sarah Palin, will campaign in Waukesha, Wis., this morning in a town hall-style meeting. Wisconsin went for the Democratic nominee, John F. Kerry, in 2004, but the GOP has been pushing hard there this year.
During the presidential debate earlier this week, McCain announced his latest plan to help homeowners by having the government buy up mortgages, renegotiate them at the current value of the property and then issue a longer-term loan at a fixed and cheaper interest rate. The plan was seen as a move by McCain to confront the present economic crisis, which has politically helped Obama widen his lead in most polls.
But McCain's plan has been attacked by the Obama campaign, which argues that it would help institutions without easing the credit and capital crunch at the heart of the current crisis.
In Dayton this morning, the beginning of a two-day tour in Ohio, Obama stepped up his attack on McCain's proposal -- which he said was similar to one he had advanced but was too generous to lenders.
"I proposed it myself because, if it's properly done and limited in scope, such buybacks can be one tool to help innocent homeowners stay in their homes on terms they can afford," Obama said. "But I also said at the time that this should not be a vehicle to reward banks and lending institutions that recklessly wrote bad loans. It should not be a bailout for the high-rolling real estate speculators who took those loans to make a quick buck.
"We have to act to fix our broken economy and restore the credit markets. But taxpayers shouldn't be asked to pick up the tab for the very folks who helped create this crisis.
"Senator McCain actually wants the government to pay the full face value of mortgages on the books, even though they're not worth that much anymore. It's a plan that would guarantee that American taxpayers lose by handing over $300 billion to underwrite the kind of greed and irresponsibility on Wall Street that got us into this mess," Obama charged.
michael.muskal@latimes.com
