McCain Takes Stance on U.S. Mortgage Crisis, Urging Plan to Help Homeowners

Mr. McCain, an Arizona Republican, said his plan would apply only to people who have subprime mortgages on their primary residences who could show that they would be able to meet the terms of a new, 30-year fixed-rate mortgage. He also called for the Department of Justice to investigate the lending industry.

Mr. McCain did not mention how much his plan would cost, but his economic advisers were scheduled to brief reporters later in the day.

In both tone and substance, Mr. McCain’s remarks were something of a departure from a speech the senator delivered last month in California in which he warned that “it is not the duty of government to bail out and reward those who act irresponsibly, whether they are big banks or small borrowers,” and noted that there had been “rampant speculation” by both lenders and borrowers who had expected the values of homes to keep rising.

Mrs. Clinton said in a statement that “Senator McCain is apparently of two minds on the housing crisis and neither seems to know how to steward the economy effectively.”

“Just two weeks ago,” her statement continued, “Senator McCain said he’d rather do nothing than something about the housing crisis and attacked my plan with tired right-wing talking points. Today, it looks like he’s proposing a warmed-over, half-hearted version of the very plan he criticized, to help families restructure mortgages to save homes and keep housing prices from falling further.”

And Senator Barack Obama — who was outlining his own proposal for a $30 billion economic stimulus package that included the creation of a $10 billion foreclosure prevention fund and $10 billion in relief for the state and local governments hardest hit by the crisis — said he was glad that Mr. McCain had “finally decided to offer a plan.”

“Better late than never,” Mr. Obama said in prepared remarks he planned to deliver in Gary, Ind. “But don’t expect any real answers. Don’t expect it to actually help struggling families. Because Senator McCain’s solution to the housing crisis seems a lot like the George Bush solution of sitting by and hoping it passes while families face foreclosure and watch the value of their homes erode. The American people can’t afford this kind of do-nothing approach. They need help immediately.”