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FACTBOX-U.S. candidates spar over economy, taxes in debate

16 Oct 2008 03:31:44 GMT
Source: Reuters

Oct 15 (Reuters) - U.S. presidential candidates Democrat Barack Obama and Republican John McCain met for the third and final debate of the 2008 campaign on Wednesday just three weeks ahead of the Nov. 4 election.

They sparred over a range of domestic issues. Here are some of their comments:

TAX CUTS:

McCain: "Fifty percent of small business income taxes are paid by small businesses. That's 16 million jobs in America. And what you (Sen. Obama) want to do to Joe the plumber and millions more like him is have their taxes increased and not be able to realize the American dream of owning their own business."

Obama: "What I want to do is to make sure that the plumber, the nurse, the firefighter, the teacher, the young entrepreneur who doesn't yet have money, I want to give them a tax break now."

BUDGET CUTTING:

McCain: "What would I cut? I would have, first of all, across-the-board spending freeze, OK? Some people say that's a hatchet. That's a hatchet, and then I would get out a scalpel, OK?"

Obama: "We need to eliminate a whole host of programs that don't work. And I want to go through the federal budget line by line, page by page, programs that don't work, we should cut. Programs that we need, we should make them work better."

HEALTH CARE:

McCain: "Senator Obama wants to set up health care bureaucracies, take over the health care of America through -- as he said, his object is a single payer system. If you like that, you'll love Canada and England."

Obama: "This (Obama's health care plan) will cost some money on the front end, but over the long term this is the only way that not only are we going to make families healthy, but it's also how we're going to save the federal budget, because we can't afford these escalating costs."

ABORTION DEBATE

McCain: "I would consider anyone (for federal judgeships) in their qualifications. I do not believe that someone who has supported Roe v. Wade that would be part of those qualifications. But I certainly would not impose any litmus test."

Obama: "I would not provide a litmus test (for federal judges). But I am somebody who believes that Roe versus Wade was rightly decided. I think that abortion is a very difficult issue and it is a moral issue and one that I think good people on both sides can disagree on."

EDUCATION:

McCain: "It's (education) the civil rights issue of the 21st century. There's no doubt that we have achieved equal access to schools in America after a long and difficult and terrible struggle. But what is the advantage in a low income area of sending a child to a failed school and that being your only choice?"

Obama: "We've got to get our education system right. Now, typically, what's happened is that there's been a debate between more money or reform, and I think we need both."

BUSH LEGACY:

McCain: "Senator Obama, I am not President Bush. If you wanted to run against President Bush, you should have run four years ago. I'm going to give a new direction to this economy in this country."

Obama: "Now, you've shown independence -- commendable independence, on some key issues like torture, for example, and I give you enormous credit for that. But when it comes to economic policies, essentially what you're proposing is eight more years of the same thing."

(Writing by JoAnne Allen, editing by David Alexander)

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