| | Obama: McCain wants to deregulate healthcare like banking
 In a Sunday speech, Democratic presidential nominee Barack Obama voiced strong disapproval of President Bush's proposal to bail out Wall Street and said he believes his opponent, John McCain, shares responsibility for the economic disaster.
Obama told his audience in Charlotte, NC, voters should not support the $700 billion plan without major reassurances that the burden will not fall heavily on American tax payers. The senator listed six requirements the plan must meet to warrant approval.
"Tax payers shouldn’t be spending a dime to reward CEOs on Wall Street while they’re going out the door," Obama said. "...They [the Bush administration] have run this economy into the ground and we gotta make sure we lift it back up."
Republican presidential candidate John McCain also received chastisement from Obama as part of the problem that led the U.S. economy to a financial meltdown unseen since the Great Depression.
"I do fault the economic philosophy he’s followed during his 26 years in Washington," Obama said. "It’s a philosophy that says it’s OK to turn a blind eye to practices that reward financial manipulation instead of sound business decisions."
Calling a "current" article McCain wrote for Contingencies Magazine the "really scary part," Obama lambasted the Arizona senator for arguing that U.S. health care should be increasingly privatized.
The McCain campaign said Obama was twisting the senator's words, but the article does posit the advantages of opening health care to more competition, The Washington Post reported.
McCain wrote, "Opening up the health insurance market to more vigorous nationwide competition, as we have done over the last decade in banking, would provide more choices of innovative products less burdened by the worst excesses of state-based regulation."
The article also favorably regarded banking deregulation, a policy many experts have pointed to as a cause for recent financial woes.
After trailing behind in polls early last week following a surge of conservative support behind McCain's running mate Gov. Sarah Palin, Obama now leads McCain by five points in national polls.
However, in crucial swing states like Ohio and Florida, McCain retains a lead.
Campaign experts called the economic downturn an election upturn for Obama, who voters view more qualified to deal with economic crises, The Chicago Tribune reported.
But strategists on both sides of the issues agree the debates could swing the election either way.
"The debates are going to be huge," said Ed Goeas, a Republican pollster, who contends that either man could lock in a victory after the final debate in mid-October.
The following is an excerpt from Obama's speech detailing his six demands upon the bailout proposal:
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First, there must be no blank check when American taxpayers are on the hook for this much money.
Second, taxpayers shouldn’t be spending a dime to reward CEOs on Wall Street.
Third, taxpayers should be protected and should be able to recoup this investment.
Fourth, this plan has to help homeowners stay in their homes.
Fifth, this is a global crisis, and the United States must insist that other nations join us in helping secure the financial markets.
Sixth, we need to start putting in place the rules of the road I’ve been calling for for years to prevent this from ever happening again.
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Read the full text of Obama's speech here.
This video is from CNN.com, broadcast September 21, 2008.
Download video via RawReplay.com
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