Candidates' basic economic ideas unchanged

WASHINGTON, Sept. 23 (UPI) -- Neither major-party presidential candidate altered his economic platform despite an economic landscape with a potential $1 trillion budget deficit next year.

Democratic candidate Barack Obama and Republican John McCain indicated they will not stand in the way of the Bush administration's $700 billion plan to rescue and stabilize U.S. financial markets and offered proposals to the bailout, The Washington Post reported Tuesday. Obama outlined a plan to overhaul federal contracting while McCain proposed a board to monitor the bailout.

Candidates' advisers said they won't mothball their economic platforms despite a predicted jump in the federal deficit. Before the bailout was announced, the Congressional Budget Office estimated the deficit for fiscal 2009 would reach $438 billion.

"This is a major fiscal problem in the short run, but it doesn't alter the long-run fiscal picture," said Jason Furman, Obama's economic policy coordinator. "The biggest challenge we face in our economy over the next year is getting it moving again, creating jobs and relieving the squeeze on families."

McCain's chief economic policy adviser Douglas Holtz-Eakin said: "In terms of the numbers, obviously the landscape has changed. In terms of the (underlying) challenge, no, I don't think there is much change."