Obama, McCain Have Different Ideas About Boosting The Economy
A general-election race for the White House between Democrat Barack Obama and Republican John McCain would feature far different approaches on the U.S. economy.
McCain, for example, supports extending President Bush's cuts and reducing corporate tax rates, while Obama would let Bush's cuts expire for Americans making more than $250,000 annually. He also wants to let the rate reductions on capital gains taxes expire – another item that mainly affects high-income earners.
The two already have clashed over Obama's opposition to McCain's idea of a summer holiday from the federal gasoline tax. Obama called it a political stunt that would provide little help, while McCain said the idea could give a slight boost to struggling families seeking a vacation.
Obama also would renegotiate the North American Free Trade Agreement, blamed by some Democrats and labor unions for costing U.S. jobs. McCain opposes amending the pact and says it has been beneficial.
The Democratic candidate has also called for greater government regulation of the U.S. financial system and proposed a new $30 billion economic stimulus plan to help homeowners. It includes a $10 billion foreclosure prevention fund to help people keep their homes, and another $10 billion for state and local governments hit hardest by housing crisis.
Obama has outlined six "core principles for reform" that would give the Federal Reserve supervisory authority over any financial institution to which it might make credit available and calls for reform and streamlining of financial regulatory agencies.
He also wants to repeal a provision in bankruptcy law so ordinary families can modify terms of home mortgages, and has proposed a 10 percent mortgage tax credit for middle-class Americans.
– By Ed Coury, senior editor and Midwest bureau chief for the Wall Street Journal Radio Network, Dow Jones & Co., and a reporter for WWJ Newsradio 950.
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