Obama denounces big corporate pay packages

By Caren Bohan

INDIANAPOLIS (Reuters) - Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama denounced huge pay packages for U.S. corporate chiefs on Friday in a drive to convert middle-class anger about the U.S. economy into votes.

"Some CEOs make more in one day than their workers make in one year," Obama said, jockeying for position against rival Democrat Hillary Clinton in Indiana, which votes on May 6.

Campaigning in Pennsylvania, which votes on April 22, Clinton proposed boosting federal spending to help cities and states fight crime by $4 billion a year, aiming to halve murder rates in America's most dangerous cities.

The New York senator announced the plan in Philadelphia, which has the highest homicide rate among the 10 biggest U.S. cities and is a major battleground in her flagging race for the Democratic presidential nomination.

Obama, who is leading Clinton in national polls, is behind her in Pennsylvania, the next major test for her struggling campaign.

Multimillion-dollar pay practices at the highest levels of corporate America have been an easy target for politicians as Americans reel from the mortgage and credit crises that have the U.S. economy teetering on the brink of an election-year recession.

Clinton and Republican presidential candidate John McCain have also criticized big payouts for chief executive officers who benefit hugely even when their companies are struggling.

"We've seen what happens when CEOs are paid for doing a job no matter how bad a job they're doing. We can't afford to postpone reform any longer," Obama said.