WASHINGTON (AFP) - With recession fears looming large in the US presidential election, Democrat Hillary Clinton is offering a plan to rescue the US economy and woo voters worried about their pocketbooks.
America's wobbly economy has become a top issue of concern among US voters, putting the issue at the forefront of campaign speeches among Repubublican and Democratic hopefuls seeking their parties' respective nominations.
Republicans are campaigning hard in Michigan ahead of the party's primary there on Tuesday, vowing to bring jobs to the state, which is home to a struggling auto industry and the nation's highest unemployment rate.
Democratic contenders, meanwhile, have presented rival plans to halt the decline of the country's mighty economy.
"What people are talking to me about is the economy," Clinton told NBC television on Sunday. "We're slipping toward recession. Some people think we're in recession right now."
"I've proposed a very vigorous package of economic action that I think would ... forestall and mitigate against what is going on in the economy," she said.
The former first lady -- whose husband Bill Clinton's campaign in 1992 had the famous campaign mantra "it's the economy, stupid" -- unveiled Friday a 70 billion-dollar plan aimed at injecting new life into the US economy.
Her proposal includes 30 billion dollars to help states mitigate the impact of foreclosures linked to the mortgage crisis, 25 billion for households struggling to pay heating bills and 10 billion for unemployment assistance.
Her top rival for the nomination, Senator Barack Obama, presented Sunday his own 75 billion dollar plan, which includes tax cuts for low-income Americans as well as help for the unemployed and relief for the housing crisis.
"The time has come to bridge the growing divide between Main Street and Wall Street," Obama said in a statement, adding that his plan would "jumpstart the economy by putting money in the pockets of those who need it most and will spend it quickly."
Clinton's campaign quickly derided Obama's proposal as a meager copy of her plan.
"We are heartened to see that Senator Obama has followed Senator Clinton's lead and announced a stimulus package that borrows heavily from Senator Clinton's, but it nonetheless comes up short," said her economic adviser Gene Sperling in a statement.
Former senator John Edwards, meanwhile, who is running third in the Democratic race, has struck a populist theme calling for an end to tax breaks for the rich.
The rival plans seek to stop the economy from plunging into a recession that has become the top concern among economists.
Senator Clinton's new focus on the economy may draw comparisons to her husband's 1992 campaign, when he ran hard on the issue as the country emerged from a recession.
But if the recession ends in late 2008 as many economists predict, the next US president would be saved from having to implement a rescue plan.
Analysts, who believe a targeted and temporary plan quickly needs to be implemented, will be closely watching President George W. Bush's State of the Union address to Congress on January 28.
Candidates from Bush's Republican party, meanwhile, are preaching classic conservative themes of limited government spending inspired by their icon, the late former president Ronald Reagan.
"The kind of short-term stimulus you need is to present the picture, realistic picture, of an economy that's going to grow," former New York mayor Rudolph Giuliani, whose Republican bid is flagging, said Sunday.
For the Republicans, Michigan is the next big test after Iowa was won by former Arkansas governor Mike Huckabee and Senator John McCain took New Hampshire.
McCain, showing his "straight-talking" candor, told Michigan rallies that some lost jobs would never return.
But with polls showing the state's race resting on a knife's edge, Romney retorted: "I will not rest, as president, until Michigan's economy has turned the corner and is growing again."
Romney, a successful and wealthy businessman fighting to save his campaign in Michigan, has proposed "rolling back tax rates across the board."
Huckabee, for his part, wants to "completely eliminate all federal income and payroll taxes" and called for training programs for the unemployed as well as free trade deals.
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