Obama, McCain pitch plans in face of new job losses

Both presidential candidates used Thursday’s news that 62,000 jobs were lost last month to proclaim that they are the right choice to help the economy regain footing.

Illinois Sen. Barack Obama (D) said the jobs report “is a stark reminder that far too many Americans will spend this holiday out of work and struggling to provide for their families because of the failed policies of the last eight years.”

{mosads}The Democratic presidential candidate promised that he would “restore broad-based, bottom-up growth that benefits all Americans.”

“I will provide working families with a middle-class tax cut; fight for affordable health care and college tuition; work to help raise workers' wages, and invest in infrastructure, education and a clean energy future to create millions of new jobs,” he said.

Sen. John McCain also noted that Americans are feeling the pain of a struggling economy and said that “Washington can no longer abdicate its responsibility to act.”

“To get our economy back on track, we must enact a jobs-first economic plan that supports job creation, provide immediate tax relief for families, enact a plan to help those facing foreclosure, lower healthcare costs, invest in innovation, move toward strategic energy independence and open more foreign markets to our goods,” the Arizona Republican said.

Both sought to paint the other party as responsible for the woes.

“The American people are paying the price for the failed economic policies of the past eight years, and we can’t afford four more years of more of the same,” Obama stated. “That is the essential issue of this campaign because Sen. McCain has fully embraced the Bush economic agenda.”

Meantime, McCain hopes to place the blame for high gas prices at the doorstep of a Democratic-led Congress.

“The American people cannot afford an economic agenda that will take our country in the wrong direction and cost jobs,” he said. “At a time when our small businesses need support from Washington, we cannot raise taxes, increase regulation and isolate ourselves from foreign markets. These are the same old siren songs that have failed the American people time and time again.”