WASHINGTON — A top adviser to Republican Sen. John McCain said Sunday the presidential hopeful is weighing new economic proposals to help the nation weather the financial crisis.
Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., said McCain was considering policy proposals that would cut taxes on investments.
“I think it goes along the lines of now’s the time to lower tax rates for investors, capital gains tax, dividend tax rates, to make sure that we can get the economy jump-started,” Graham said on “Face the Nation” on CBS. “It will be a very comprehensive approach to jump-start the economy by allowing capital to be formed easier in America by lowering taxes.”
In the wake of the U.S. financial crisis, national polls and those in contested states have found McCain trailing his Democratic rival, Sen. Barack Obama, especially on the question of which candidate would be a better steward of the economy.
McCain already has laid out proposals to address the crisis, including a $300 billion plan for the federal government to buy distressed mortgages and renegotiate them at a reduced price.
The Arizona senator has said his plan is necessary to get thousands of bad mortgages off the books in order to stabilize home values and open up credit. But critics said the plan would do little more than reward financial institutions that made the bad loans to in the first place.
On Friday, McCain called for legislation that suspends for one year the requirement that investors age 70 1/2 begin to liquidate their retirement accounts. The Arizona senator said it would be unfair to force seniors to sell their stocks when stock prices have tumbled so severely. Obama aides said the Illinois senator favors a similar effort.
Obama also has offered plans to address the fiscal crisis but nothing as sweeping or controversial as McCain’s mortgage proposal. He announced a $900 million plan to temporarily extend an expiring tax break that lets small businesses write off investments up to $250,000 immediately, rather than over the course of several years.
Aides said Obama also wants to extend the Small Business Administration’s disaster loan program to help businesses that cannot access other sources of capital, as well as eliminate fees on SBA loan guarantees and increase the size of loans that could be covered.
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