Elections Today
- Pennsylvania
Recent Projections
| State | Candidate | Delegates |
|---|---|---|
 Donald Trump | ||
Pennsylvania |  Joe Biden |
McCain adds to economic plan
WASHINGTON -- Republican presidential nominee John McCain pitched new tax breaks and other incentives Tuesday to help investors and senior citizens.
Democratic rival Barack Obama's campaign criticized those proposals for being too limited and benefiting the wealthy.
Adding to his previously announced economic plans, McCain proposed to cut the capital gains tax in half, suspend rules that force seniors to sell stocks from 401(k)s or Individual Retirement Accounts (IRAs), and tax withdrawals from those accounts at 10% instead of at varying rates.
On a day when the federal government announced ownership stakes in banks, McCain said he would order the Treasury Department to guarantee all savings accounts for six months.
The Arizona senator also proposed eliminating taxes on unemployment benefits. "It is unclear to me why the government taxes money it has just sent you," he said at a rally in a Philadelphia suburb.
These proposals are on top of McCain's plan to extend President Bush's tax cuts, which are set to expire in 2010.
McCain, sounding a theme he is likely to echo in tonight's third and final presidential debate, told the crowd that Obama is not prepared for the economic challenges facing the nation. "Perhaps never before in history have the American people been asked to risk so much based on so little," he said. Obama did not campaign Tuesday.
Obama's campaign said McCain's targeted tax cuts don't affect nearly enough people, leaving out up to 101 million families and benefiting higher earners. "Sen. McCain also shows how little he understands the economy by offering lower capital gains rates in a year in which people don't have an awful lot of capital gains," said Obama spokesman Bill Burton.
Monday, Obama unveiled plans for tax breaks to businesses that create jobs, tax cuts for individuals and families, and withdrawals without penalties from 401(k)s and IRAs for two years. McCain criticized the plan on retirement savings as "an invitation to capital flight, and therefore to continued instability in the market."
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