Obama: No blank check with American taxpayers on the hook

By JERUSALEM POST STAFF
At an outdoor rally Sunday in Charlotte, Democratic presidential nominee Barack Obama stayed focused on the turmoil on Wall Street, and laid blame at the feet of Republican policies he said Republican rival John McCain is committed to continuing. "We're now seeing the disastrous consequences of this philosophy all around us, on Wall Street as well as Main Street," Obama said. "Yet Sen. McCain, who candidly admitted not long ago that he doesn't know as much about economics as he should, wants to keep going down the same disastrous path." He criticized a $700 billion proposal by Bush to buy bad mortgage debt in an effort to unfreeze the nation's credit markets, calling it a "concept with a staggering price tag, not a plan." Yet he said the government had little option but to intervene. And Obama said any bailout must include plans to recover that money, and protect working families and big financial institutions, and be crafted in a way to prevent such a crisis from happening again. "Regardless of how we got here, we're here today and the circumstances we face require decisive action because your jobs, your savings and your economy are at risk," Obama said. "There must be no blank check when American taxpayers are on the hook for this much money."