White House rivals cautiously back rescue plan 29/09/2008 - 07:17:12
Both US presidential candidates gave cautious backing to a newly negotiated $700bn (€484bn) bailout of the hobbled financial industry, while both campaigns also sought to take at least partial credit for the outcome.
The multibillion dollar bailout has become a key issue in the race between Democrat Barack Obama and Republican John McCain.
The men, both US senators, indicated in television interviews that they would reluctantly support the Wall Street bailout deal, which is highly unpopular with voters, when it comes up for a vote in the Senate.
“This is something that all of us will swallow hard and go forward with. The option of doing nothing is simply not an acceptable option,” Mr McCain said.
Mr Obama said he was inclined to back it because he thinks the financial problems have gone beyond Wall Street to affecting everyday consumers.
The plan, held up for days by election-year politics, would give the administration broad power to use billions of taxpayer dollars to purchase devalued mortgage-related assets held by cash-starved financial firms.
The bailout – the largest in US history – was designed to keep the worst financial crisis since the Great Depression of the 1930s from spreading throughout the entire economy.
With worry about the American economy overtaking other issues such as Iraq in the build-up to the November 4 election, the candidates have tried to portray themselves as best able to steer the country through its economic problems.
The longtime Arizona senator has painted himself as a leader who will restore financial oversight to the economy while also slashing wasteful spending and cutting taxes on individuals and businesses, whereas Mr Obama, Mr McCain says, would usher in an era of big government-spending programs.
Mr Obama, a first term senator from Illinois, has tried to link Mr McCain with the unpopular President George Bush’s economic policies and argued Mr McCain backs corporate tax breaks and the lax regulation that have contributed to the Wall Street economic crisis.
Polls suggest the race now slightly tilts Mr Obama’s way, with gains Mr McCain made following the Republican National Convention earlier this month starting to fade and the economy, an issue that does not play to Mr McCain’s foreign policy strengths, emerging as a dominant issue.
The bailout plan almost threatened to derail the first presidential debate held last Friday when Mr McCain said earlier in the week that he was suspending campaigning to return to Washington to deal with the economic crisis and suggested delaying the first debate with Mr Obama until a deal was reached.
Mr McCain made a last-minute change of mind, showing up for the debate in Oxford, Mississippi. His campaign ads also continued to air during the suspension.
True to form after a week of posturing, both campaigns sought to take at least partial credit for the outcome of the financial bailout.
Asked during a television interview, Mr Obama said his Republican rival did not deserve any pats on the back for helping forge the tentative agreement on the Wall Street bailout announced by politicians and the Bush administration.
“Here are the facts: For two weeks I was on the phone everyday with (Treasury) Secretary (Henry) Paulson and the congressional leaders making sure that the principles that have been ultimately adopted were incorporated in the bill,” Mr Obama said.
At a rally in Detroit, Mr Obama predicted quick passage of the measure and said it contained important consumer-friendly provisions he had supported.
He also said Washington had no choice but to act although he said it was an outrage that “we are now being forced to clean up their mess”.
Mr McCain said the latest version of the plan meets his insistence of an oversight body to monitor the treasury secretary and limits the compensation of executives of financial institutions applying for loans.
“Let’s get this deal done, signed by the president, and get moving, because the real effect of this is going to restore some confidence, and get some credit out there, and get the economic system moving again, which is basically in gridlock today,” Mr McCain told ABC television’s This Week.
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Both US presidential candidates gave cautious backing to a newly negotiated $700bn (€484bn) bailout of the hobbled financial industry, while both campaigns also sought to take at least partial credit for the outcome.
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