FREELAND, Mich. — With pressure mounting on Congress to pass a $700 billion bailout of financial firms, Senator John McCain struck a more urgent tone Tuesday on the need to act quickly, but he and Senator Barack Obama insisted on conditions that had to be met in the final plan.
“Further inaction is simply not an option,” Mr. McCain said at a hastily called news conference, his first in six weeks, in Freeland, Mich., a suburb of Saginaw. “We must pass legislation to address this crisis. If we don’t, credit will dry up, with devastating consequences for our economy. People will no longer be able to buy homes and their life savings will be at stake. Businesses will not have enough money to pay their employees.”
Conservatives in Congress have raised mounting alarms about the costs of the plan, but lawmakers are facing pleas from the White House to act swiftly to prevent economic calamity.
Mr. Obama, at his own swiftly assembled news conference in Clearwater, Fla., was more critical than Mr. McCain of the bailout plan, and in both his tone and remarks sought to come across as the leader of the opposition party at a time of national crisis. Although he was in large part reiterating the concerns that Congressional Democrats have been expressing to reporters and at hearings in Washington, his goal was to encompass the various Democratic messages in one voice that would be a counterweight to the Republican position coming from the Bush administration.
“The president’s stubborn inflexibility is both unacceptable and disturbingly familiar,” Mr. Obama said, referring to Mr. Bush’s comments in recent days that Congress approve the administration’s bailout plan as presented. “This is not the time for my way or the highway.”
Mr. Obama added: “It is wholly unreasonable to expect American taxpayers would or should hand this administration, or any administration, a $700 billion blank check with absolutely no oversight. The American people have every right to certain protections and assurances from Washington.”
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Sept 23, 2008
FREELAND, Mich. — With pressure mounting on Congress to pass a $700 billion bailout of financial firms, Senator John McCain struck a more urgent tone Tuesday on the need to act quickly, but he and Senator Barack Obama insisted on conditions that had to be met in the final plan.
“Further inaction is simply not an option,” Mr. McCain said at a hastily called news conference, his first in six weeks, in Freeland, Mich., a suburb of Saginaw. “We must pass legislation to address this crisis. If we don’t, credit will dry up, with devastating consequences for our economy. People will no longer be able to buy homes and their life savings will be at stake. Businesses will not have enough money to pay their employees.”
Conservatives in Congress have raised mounting alarms about the costs of the plan, but lawmakers are facing pleas from the White House to act swiftly to prevent economic calamity.
Mr. Obama, at his own swiftly assembled news conference in Clearwater, Fla., was more critical than Mr. McCain of the bailout plan, and in both his tone and remarks sought to come across as the leader of the opposition party at a time of national crisis. Although he was in large part reiterating the concerns that Congressional Democrats have been expressing to reporters and at hearings in Washington, his goal was to encompass the various Democratic messages in one voice that would be a counterweight to the Republican position coming from the Bush administration.
“The president’s stubborn inflexibility is both unacceptable and disturbingly familiar,” Mr. Obama said, referring to Mr. Bush’s comments in recent days that Congress approve the administration’s bailout plan as presented. “This is not the time for my way or the highway.”
Mr. Obama added: “It is wholly unreasonable to expect American taxpayers would or should hand this administration, or any administration, a $700 billion blank check with absolutely no oversight. The American people have every right to certain protections and assurances from Washington.”
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