Sen. Barack Obama (D-Ill.) Speaks in Chillicothe, Ohio

My opponent has a fundamentally different view. Recently, he proposed a plan that would hand over $300 billion to underwrite the kind of greed and irresponsibility on Wall Street that got us into this mess. It punishes taxpayers, rewards banks, and won't solve our housing crisis. At first, he said this spending would come from the rescue package that already passed. But the rescue package included taxpayer protections that prevent exactly this kind of scheme. We are not going to solve the immediate crisis by going back and changing the law we passed last week to push forward a plan that would take months to implement. So I have a different view from Senator McCain. Yes, we need to help innocent homebuyers. That's why I insisted that the rescue package give the Treasury authority to buy and rework mortgages. We have given Treasury a broad menu of options that should be pursued. But we should not put taxpayer money at unnecessary risk. Taxpayers should not have all the downside without any of the upside. That's a principle that I've fought for, that's a principle that I'll maintain, and that's a principle that I'll stand up for as President. That's the choice in this election.

I repeat: we must do more to help innocent homebuyers. I've worked on a series of proposals over the past two years to do that. But we need to do it in a responsible way. That means making sure that we're not overpaying for these mortgages and rewarding the very lenders whose recklessness helped cause this crisis. It means giving taxpayers a share of the benefit when our housing market recovers. And it means cracking down on predatory lenders by treating mortgage fraud like the crime that it is.

We also have to make sure that if the Treasury moves forward with its plan to put more money into struggling banks, taxpayers will be able to get their money back and the CEOs who contributed to this crisis won't get rich at our expense.

Now let's be clear Ohio: the rescue plan that passed Congress last week isn't the end of what we need to do to strengthen this economy. It's only the beginning. Now we need to pass a rescue plan for the middle-class that will provide every family immediate relief to cope with rising food and gas prices, save one million jobs by rebuilding our schools and roads, and help states and cities avoid budget cuts and tax increases. And we should extend expiring unemployment benefits to those Americans who've lost their jobs and can't find new ones. I've been fighting for this plan for months. My opponent has said nothing. And that is the choice in this election.

If we're going to rebuild this economy from the bottom up, it has to start with our small businesses on Main Street -- not just the big banks on Wall Street. Small businesses employ half of the workers in the private sector in this country, and account for the majority of the job growth. But we also know that a credit crunch has dried up capital and put these jobs at risk -- shops can't finance their inventories, and small firms can't make payroll; it's harder to get an idea off the ground, or to provide health care for your employees. If we don't act, we'll be looking at scaled back operations, shuttered shops, and laid off workers.

That's why we need a Small Business Rescue Plan -- so that we're extending our hand to the shops and restaurants; the start-ups and small firms that create jobs and make our economy grow. Main Street needs relief and you need it now. We won't grow government- we'll work within the Small Business Administration to keep folks afloat, while providing tax cuts to lift the tide. It's what we did after 9/11, and we were able to get low cost loans out to tens of thousands of small businesses. That's one of the many steps we can and should take to help stop job losses and turn this economy around.

It starts with a nation-wide program to provide affordable, fixed-rate loans to small businesses across the country. We can run this through the SBA's Disaster Loan Program, which provides loans to small business owners get the help they need to maintain their inventory and meet their payroll. We'll also make it easier for private lenders to make small business loans by expanding the SBA's loan guarantee program. By temporarily eliminating fees for borrowers and lenders, we can unlock the credit that small firms need to move forward, pay their workers, and grow their business.