Obama's plan to help victims of financial crisis

Speaking in Toledo Monday, Senator Barack Obama laid out steps to help employers, automakers, homeowners, the unemployed, and state and local governments. A refreshing approach compared to the prevailing top-down measures that continue to come from the Bush administration's Treasury Department.

The International Herald Tribune reports that Obama, "proposed giving employers a $3,000 tax credit for each new hire to encourage job creation. He said he would seek to allow Americans of all ages to borrow from retirement savings without a tax penalty; to eliminate income taxes on unemployment benefits; and to double, to $50 billion, the government's loan guarantees for automakers.

Obama also called on the Treasury and the Federal Reserve to create a mechanism to lend money to cities and states with fiscal problems, and to expand the government guarantees for financial institutions to encourage a return to more normal lending. He also proposed a 90-day moratorium on most home foreclosures; it would require financial institutions that take government help to agree not to act against homeowners who are trying to make payments, even if not the full amounts."