BernieHund: The Political Watchdog

Something we have not heard in a long time, candidates talking about issues.  Today both Clinton and Obama commented on the economy.

The AP reported

Democratic Sen. Barack Obama urged the government Monday to cut middle class taxes this year to ease the spreading economic crisis, as he and rival Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton criticized President Bush for failing to take the lead in addressing the nation’s economic woes.

Barack Obama suggested that now is the time for middle class tax cuts.  Obama was in Pennsylvania, a state like Ohio that has been particularly hard hit by a loss of jobs and a declining economy.

Our economy is in a shambles,” Obama said at a town hall meeting at a community college near Pittsburgh. “This economy is contracting, it is heading toward recession. We probably already are in one.”

He later said the economic stimulus package signed by Bush needs to be supplemented by enacting this year the tax cuts for middle-income Americans that he had earlier proposed for the first year of the next administration. And he hinted that, if market conditions continue to deteriorate, he might even reconsider his call to roll back Bush tax cuts on capital gains and dividends.

Obama went on to say that he would make no predictions as to what he will do if elected to the office of President as far as the economic situation, realizing how much economic conditions had changed in the past few months.  Wise enough, he said that in ten months we don’t know where the economy will be.

Senator Clinton commented

“I’m not going to second guess the Fed,” Clinton said, either on its steps to consummate the sale of Bear Stearns, on its decision to assume the risk of some of mortgage loans now assumed by JP Morgan Chase or on a decision to cut a key interest rate.

She complained about President Bush’s handling of the problems.

“Now we are in the soup and we better get ourselves out of it before the consequences get drastic,” Clinton said.

Both candidates are consulting with Paulsen, and other Fed officers, conveying their thoughts on the present situation and seeking more knowledge on the steps currently being taken to stop the bleeding.

Obama is co-sponsoring a bill with Senator Chris Dodd that would create incentives for lenders to buy or refinance mortgages that are facing foreclosure.  He added that the bill was not to help those who played the market to keep speculative property mortgages, but was designed to help those who live in their homes.

Well, I am so very pleased to see that if the media isn’t on the same page, at least the candidates are back on the page with the voters.