McCain floats tax plan to ease market losses

Republican John McCain yesterday proposed a $52.5 billion package of tax cuts aimed at cushioning the blow of stock-market losses for senior citizens, helping the unemployed and encouraging investment.

"What we need to see now is swift and bold action to lead this country in a new direction," McCain told about 1,000 at Montgomery County Community College in Blue Bell. He pledged "tax cuts that are directed specifically to create jobs and protect your life savings."

The proposals come as McCain tries to make up ground he has lost to Democrat Barack Obama in state and national polls during the economic turmoil of the last few weeks.

The two rivals for the presidency are scheduled to debate for the third and final time tonight at Hofstra University in Hempstead, N.Y.

McCain's "trickle-down, ideological recipes won't strengthen our economy and grow our middle class," Obama spokesman Bill Burton responded. Obama had no public campaign events and was hunkered down in Ohio preparing for the debate.

As McCain worked Philadelphia's suburbs, running mate Sarah Palin campaigned in Scranton, welcomed by several thousand sign-waving supporters at a rally in the Riverfront Sports Complex.

Palin said McCain is a "tough man" who offers "not just a plan, but a call for action" for downtrodden areas such as Pennsylvania's coal country.

She went after Obama on the economy, foreign policy and energy exploration, but she avoided her consorting-with-terrorists rhetoric, which has stirred angry emotions elsewhere.

The appearance was Palin's first in Northeast Pennsylvania, the hotly contested, socially conservative region where her opponent, Joseph R. Biden Jr., grew up and where Hillary Rodham Clinton trounced Obama by a 3-1 ratio in the Democratic primary.

Despite a double-digit Obama lead in statewide polls, Republicans say they are faring well in that part of the state.

The 11th District seat held by Rep. Paul Kanjorski, for instance, is one of the few where political experts believe an incumbent Democratic congressman could lose.

Palin said Americans were angry about Wall Street greed, Washington's insider culture, and what she called "the unconscionable voter fraud that is going on in this state and beyond."

She was referring to accusations that the activist group ACORN has turned in thousands of bogus voter-registration forms to aid Democrats.

Playing deftly to a raucous crowd waving signs bearing slogans such as "Choosy Moms Choose Life" and "Pro-Lifers for Sarah," Palin spoke of her infant son, Trig, who has Down syndrome, without ever mentioning the word abortion.

"These children are not a problem, they are a priority," Palin said, "and we need to show them a good-hearted America" that is measured by "how we defend those who are least able to speak for themselves."

Palin said she was initially afraid of rearing a special-needs child but concluded that "every child has something to contribute to the world if we give them a chance. . . . There are the world's standards of protection, and then there are God's, and these are the final measure."

That resonated with Brooklyn-born Ray Holderman, 74. He said he was labeled retarded as a child because he had dyslexia but went on to become a construction supervisor in charge of millions of dollars in projects.

"The Lord created life in his image," said Holderman, now of Lord's Valley, Pa. "If we murder it through abortion, we will suffer what we are going through today."

Georganna Corey, 56, an administrative assistant from Lake Ariel, Pa., said Palin's allure drew Corey to a political rally for the first time in her life.

"I believe we need big change - big change from what we've had the last eight years, and a different change from what the Democrats are proposing," said Corey, adding that she was relieved that Palin's message steered clear of personal attacks.

Democrat Biden campaigned yesterday in Warren, Ohio, at the start of a two-day bus tour of the state. He accused McCain of offering "nothing new."

Among McCain's proposals:

Senior citizens would be taxed at the lowest, 10 percent, rate on the first $50,000 they withdraw from IRAs and 401(k) retirement accounts.

Those who sell stocks at a loss would be able to increase their income-tax deductions from a maximum of $3,000 to $15,000 for the next two tax years.

Capital-gains taxes would be cut in half, from 15 percent to 7.5 percent, for two years to encourage savings and investment.

Income taxes on unemployment benefits would be waived for those who make less than $100,000.

McCain reiterated his plan to have the government buy and renegotiate mortgages for people who owe more than their homes are worth. He also defended his long-standing proposal to lower the corporate income tax rate as the best way to create jobs.

Using parts of the new stump speech he unveiled Monday, McCain eschewed the harsh personal attacks on Obama that his campaign has pursued for the last month. Instead, he criticized his opponent's fiscal proposals as misguided and his record as thin.

McCain also vowed to "fight" for the middle class if he is elected, uttering the word - or a form of it - 15 times during his 23-minute speech.

"I know what fear feels like. It's a thief in the night who robs your strength," McCain said. "I know what hopelessness feels like. It's an enemy who defeats your will. . . . I'm an American. And I choose to fight."

Before McCain spoke in Blue Bell, President Bush announced a $250 billion plan to pump money into the economy by having the government buy stock in private banks.

McCain said that the government should only invest in private firms for a limited time, divesting after the companies are reformed and restructured.

John McCain:

Eliminate taxes on unemployment benefits for those who make

less than $100,000.

Have the Treasury Department guarantee 100 percent of all savings for six months.

Lower the tax rate

on retirement-fund withdrawals to the lowest rate, 10 percent, on the first $50,000 withdrawn.

Cut the capital-gains tax rate in half, to 7.5 percent, for two years.

For losses on stock sales, increase income-tax deductions from a maximum of $3,000 to $15,000 for the next two tax years.

Price tag: $52.5 billion over two years.

Barack Obama:

Suspend the tax on unemployment benefits.

Extend unemployment benefits.

A 90-day moratorium on home foreclosures

at some banks.

A $3,000 tax credit for each additional full-time job a business creates through 2010.

Allow people to withdraw up to

15 percent of their retirement funds, to a maximum of $10,000, without any penalty

this year and next.

Price tag: $60 billion over two years.

- Associated Press

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