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McCain urges broad oversight of massive bailout

WASHINGTON
Mon Sep 22, 2008 10:16am EDT
US Republican presidential nominee Senator John McCain (R-AZ) acknowledges supporters' cheers before he speaks at the Key Air Hangar at the Anoka County Blaine Airport in Blaine, Minnesota, September 19, 2008. REUTERS/Eric Miller

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. Republican presidential candidate John McCain on Sunday called for broad oversight of the Bush administration's $700 billion plan for rescuing Wall Street.

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In an interview on financial cable TV channel CNBC, McCain said responsibility for the bailout should be spread beyond Treasury Henry Paulson.

"I think we need to appoint an oversight board of the most respected people in America, such as maybe Warren Buffett, who's an Obama supporter, Mitt Romney, Mike Bloomberg, so that there can be some kind of oversight of, instead of just putting all this responsibility on a person who may be gone in four months," McCain said.

The Arizona senator also said the bailout should set limits on compensation for chief executives of financial institutions that would be rescued by the federal government.

"No CEO of any corporation or business that is bailed out by us, that is rescued by American tax dollars, should receive any more than the highest paid person in the federal government," McCain said.

Treasury Department staff is working through the weekend with members of Congress and their aides to craft a plan that would absorb bad mortgages and related assets from banks and other institutions to keep the U.S. financial system from collapsing.

(Reporting by JoAnne Allen, editing by Philip Barbara)



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