White House campaigns pounce on economy in peril
WASHINGTON (AFP) — With markets in freefall worldwide, economic perils consumed White House contenders Tuesday as Democrats vied to wrest the political initiative by clamoring for relief for voters.
"This is a global economic crisis," Democratic hopeful Hillary Clinton warned shortly after the Federal Reserve sprung a surprise rate cut that failed to calm market jitters sparked by fears of a US recession.
She argued the US economy could "very well thrust us into a deep, long recession," and repeated her calls for action on a US mortgage crisis that has rippled worldwide.
At a feisty Democratic debate late Monday, the New York senator and her main rival Barack Obama took time out from sniping at each other to roast President George W. Bush on the economy.
Both portrayed a Bush stimulus plan worth up to 150 billion dollars as too little, too late, and of no benefit to millions of Americans on the bottom rung of the economic ladder.
The White House said it was not predicting a recession in the world's biggest economy but said it was open to a larger stimulus package, with Wall Street already giving its thumbs-down to Bush's plan announced Friday.
The former first lady -- whose husband Bill Clinton campaigned in 1992 on the famous mantra "it's the economy, stupid" -- unveiled Friday her own 70 billion dollar plan aimed at injecting new life into the US economy.
Her proposal includes 30 billion dollars to help states mitigate the impact of foreclosures linked to the mortgage crisis, 25 billion for households struggling to pay heating bills and 10 billion for unemployment assistance.
Obama followed up with a 75 billion dollar plan that includes tax cuts for low-income Americans, as well as help for the unemployed and relief from the housing crisis.
In a speech Tuesday in South Carolina devoted to the economy, Obama kept up his offensive on Bush -- and on Hillary Clinton, whose policies he implied "change with the politics of the moment."
The Illinois senator expressed hope that the Fed's 75-point rate cut would stem the bleeding, but said "the fear remains."
"It's a fear that hasn't just confined itself to those who nervously watch the tickers or scan the headlines of the financial section, but one that I have seen on the faces of working Americans in every corner of this country long before anxiety ever hit Wall Street," Obama said.
Candidates from Bush's Republican party, meanwhile, are preaching the classic conservative themes of low taxes and limited government spending.
"One of the major reasons why we are where we are today is (failure to) restrain the spending," Republican front-runner John McCain said after winning the South Carolina primary on Saturday.
McCain's own stimulus plan is more modest than the Democrats', or than Bush's call for tax rebates for individuals and families. He is calling notably for a cut in the US corporate tax rate from 35 to 25 percent.
The Arizona senator fretted that any stimulus package would get larded with "pork-barrel projects when it goes through Congress."
Former Massachusetts governor Mitt Romney, who made millions in venture capitalism, pointed to his business experience as leaving him best positioned to heal a wounded economy.
"I know how America works because I've spent my life in the real economy," he argued in a new campaign spot, touting tax cuts across the board.
But Christian Weller, associate professor for public affairs at the University of Massachusetts, said voters were hungry for immediate measures to cope with the housing crisis, rising prices and job insecurity.
"The Republicans are probably behind the curve on this," said Weller, who is also a senior fellow at the left-leaning Center for American Progress.
"But the one audience that they're all leaving behind are the fiscal conservatives," he told AFP, noting concerns that stimulus spending now will only add to the mammoth deficit bill faced by generations to come.
