TOLEDO, OHIO — While Wall Street seemed to begin regaining its footing Monday, Barack Obama visited this Rust Belt city to propose new ways to help those struggling on Main Street.
The Democratic presidential nominee called on Congress and the Bush administration to cushion the economy's blows by approving measures to help businesses create jobs, allow families to dip into retirement savings, delay home foreclosures and stabilize state and local government budgets.
"We need to pass an economic rescue plan for the middle class, and we need to do it not five years from now, not next year -- we need to do it right now," he told 3,000 supporters in a convention center in this northwest Ohio city.
Skeptics said the plan had popular short-term appeal but would have little impact on the underlying sources of anxiety and instability in the world economy.
"I would hope that both candidates would focus on making sure we have good long-term policies in place, rather than fine-tuning day-to-day concerns," said Lee Ohanian, a professor of economics at UCLA.
Advisors to GOP presidential nominee John McCain said that Obama's broader economic policy is flawed because he is proposing to raise federal taxes on upper-income people. McCain says such a tax hike would kill jobs because it would hit some of the economy's most productive small businesses. Independent analysts have disputed this claim, and Obama has said that his plan would raise taxes on families making more than $250,000 per year.
McCain plans to unveil new economic proposals of his own today in Pennsylvania. Aides did not reveal any details about the scope of those plans.
Obama's campaign said the new recovery package would cost $60 billion over two years, adding to an economic plan he unveiled in August that would cost $115 billion over two years. The new package included these major elements:
* Companies that added jobs this year and next would receive a $3,000 tax credit per new worker.
* Families would be able to withdraw up to 15% from their IRA or 401(k) retirement accounts, up to $10,000, without penalty.
* Families facing foreclosure would get a 90-day reprieve if they were working with finance firms taking part in the $700-billion rescue package Congress passed last month, and if they were making a good-faith effort to pay their mortgages.
* The Federal Reserve and Treasury would create an agency to lend money to states and cities caught in the credit crunch, such as California.
