FACTBOX: Obama, McCain discuss financial crisis plans
(Reuters) - Barack Obama and John McCain discussed their plans to address the U.S. financial crisis in their final presidential debate on Wednesday, but gave no new details beyond those they released earlier this week.
Under a $700 billion bailout program for Wall Street, the federal government will buy stock in troubled banks and distressed mortgage-backed securities, while widening insurance for bank deposits among other emergency steps.
Arizona Republican Sen. McCain has proposed spending $300 billion of the $700 billion plan on buying shaky mortgages and replacing them with more affordable home loans. He is also calling for $52.5 billion in tax cuts.
Illinois Democratic Sen. Obama has offered a $60 billion package of tax measures, infrastructure spending, loan guarantees for automakers, help for struggling homeowners and a 90-day moratorium on home foreclosures, among other steps.
McCain on financial crisis
"Now, we have allocated $750 billion. Let's take 300 of that billion and go in and buy those home loan mortgages and negotiate with those people in their homes ... so that they can afford to pay the mortgage, stay in their home."
"We ought to put the homeowners first. And I am disappointed that (Treasury) Secretary (Henry) Paulson and others have not made that their first priority."
Obama on financial crisis
"Let's focus on jobs. I want to end the tax breaks for companies that are shipping jobs overseas and provide a tax credit for every company that's creating a job."
"Let's help families right away by providing them a tax cut -- a middle-class tax cut for people making less than $200,000, and let's allow them to access their IRA (retirement) accounts without penalty if they're experiencing a crisis ...
"We've got to help homeowners. That's why we included in the financial package a proposal to get homeowners in a position where they can renegotiate their mortgages.
"I disagree with Senator McCain in how to do it, because the way Senator McCain has designed his plan, it could be a giveaway to banks if we're buying full price for mortgages that now are worth a lot less."
Obama on automakers
"When I talked about the automakers, they are obviously getting hammered right now. They were already having a tough time because of high gas prices. And now with the financial crisis, car dealerships are closing and people can't get car loans. That's why I think it's important for us to get loan guarantees to the automakers, but we do have to hold them responsible as well to start producing the highly fuel-efficient cars of the future."
McCain on health care
"We need to put health care records online ... that will reduce costs. We need to have more community health centers. We need to have walk-in clinics ...
"We should have physical fitness programs and nutrition programs in schools ...
"We -- we need to have -- we need to have employers reward employees who join health clubs and practice wellness and fitness. But I want to give every American family a $5,000 refundable tax credit. Take it and get anywhere in America the health care that you wish."
Obama on health care
"If you've got health insurance through your employer, you can keep your health insurance, keep your choice of doctor, keep your plan.
"The only thing we're going to try to do is lower costs so that those cost savings are passed onto you. And we estimate we can cut the average family's premium by about $2,500 per year.
"If you don't have health insurance, then what we're going to do is to provide you the option of buying into the same kind of federal pool that both Senator McCain and I enjoy as federal employees, which will give you high-quality care ...
"If you've got an employer-based health care plan, you keep it. Now, under Senator McCain's plan there is a strong risk that people would lose their employer-based health care."
(Reporting by Kevin Drawbaugh; Editing by Peter Cooney)
