Obama and McCain square off over economy

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With Americans returning to work after the Independence Day holiday weekend, both candidates turned to the No. 1 issue for voters - the economy - in a bid to win support from people wrestling with home foreclosures, job losses and the soaring cost of gasoline.

In a speech to reporters after mechanical trouble forced his plane to make an unscheduled stop in St. Louis, Obama called for a $50 billion (25.3 billion pound) stimulus package to fight foreclosures and offset high energy prices. He said he would tighten rules for credit card companies and relax bankruptcy laws to help those struggling with debt.

Obama, a Democrat, said Republican McCain, like unpopular President George W. Bush, would favour the wealthy over the middle class if he won the November election.

"He trusts that prosperity will trickle down from corporations and the wealthiest few to everyone else," the Illinois senator said in remarks originally scheduled for delivery in Charlotte, North Carolina. "I believe that it's the hard work of middle-class Americans that fuels this nation's prosperity."

Obama delivered the address in St. Louis because his Midwest Airlines MD-80 made an unscheduled landing there after an emergency evacuation slide deployed inside the plane, U.S. safety investigators and airline officials said. Ordinarily the tail cone pops off and the slide deploys outside the aircraft.

The incident, which occurred as the plane was climbing out of Chicago en route to Charlotte, increased the forces on the controls that work the horizontal flaps atop the plane's tail. That prompted the pilot to divert to St. Louis.

BALANCING THE BUDGET

Brushing up his economic credentials in a speech in Denver, McCain pledged to balance the federal budget, impose fiscal discipline on Washington and modernize how the government does business in order to save billions of dollars.

"I will veto every single bill with wasteful spending," he said.

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