Obama, McCain pitch economic plans

The Labor Department reported Friday that consumer prices rose by 0.6 percent last month — the biggest one-month increase in inflation since last November — pushed up by surging gasoline costs. After adjusting for inflation, weekly earnings for nonsupervisory workers were down 1.2 percent in May, compared to a year ago, the department said in a separate report.

With the unemployment rate in May jumping to 5.5 percent, McCain said Friday he would support extending jobless assistance and said he was willing to discuss other short-term measures to boost the economy. "I think we should explore a number of options," he told reporters following a town hall meeting in Pemberton, New Jersey.

McCain argued for continuing Bush's tax cuts, most of which are set to expire in 2010. Failure to extend them, he said, would result in tax increases.

Obama has proposed tax cuts for low- and middle-income taxpayers, but would restore pre-Bush tax rates to the wealthiest Americans.

An independent, liberal-leaning think tank, the Tax Policy Center, issued an analysis of the candidates' tax plans that concluded that McCain's would primarily benefit very high income taxpayers, while Obama's would increase taxes for the wealthiest.

McCain said that in extending Bush's reductions, he would spur economic activity that would actually raise government revenue.

The Tax Policy Center concluded that Obama's would offer much larger tax breaks to low- and middle-income taxpayers than McCain would.

Meanwhile, shock rippled through the American political world Friday as one of its most prominent journalists, NBC television's Tim Russert, died suddenly of a heart attack Friday at age 58. Russert had covered the election intently and was the network's Washington bureau chief. Obama said he was "grief-stricken" and McCain praised him as "a man of honesty and integrity."

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