US presidential election

The final debate: what they said

Article published on the 2008-10-16 Latest update 2008-10-16 11:49 TU

(Photo: Reuters)

After the third and final debate between John McCain and Barack Obama we look at what the two candidates had to say on George W Bush, education, taxation and running mates.

The current administration

JM: "Senator Obama, I'm not President Bush. If you want to run against President Bush, you should have run four years ago."

BO: "If I occasionally have mistaken your policies for George Bush's policies, it's because on the core economic issues that matter to the American People (...) you have been a vigorous supporter of President Bush."

Running mates

JM: "Americans have gotten to know Sarah Palin. They know that she's a role model to women and other -- and reformers all over America. She's a reformer. (...) She's given money back to the taxpayers. She's cut the size of government."

BO: "(Joe Biden's) consistent pattern throughout his career is to fight for the little guy. That's what he's done when it comes to economic policies that will help working families get a leg up."

The economic crisis

JM: "Now, we have allocated $750 billion. Let's take $300 (billion) of that $750 billion and go in and buy those home loan mortgages and negotiate with those people in their homes, 11 million homes or more, so that they can afford to pay the mortgage, stay in their home."

BO: "I want to end the tax breaks for companies that are shipping jobs overseas and provide a tax credit for every company that's creating a job right here in America. Number two, let's help families right away by providing them a tax cut -- a middle-class tax cut for people making less than $200,000. "

Education

BO: "We can't do it just in the schools. Parents are going to have to show more responsibility. They've got to turn off the TV set, put away the video games, and, finally, start instilling that thirst for knowledge that our students need."

JM: "Choice and competition amongst schools is one of the key elements that's already been proven in places like New Orleans and New York City and other places, where we have charter schools, where we take good teachers and we reward them and promote them."

Taxation

BO: "I want to provide a tax cut for 95 per cent of working Americans, 95 pe rcent. If you make more -- if you make less than a quarter million dollars a year, then you will not see your income tax go up, your capital gains tax go up, your payroll tax. Not one dime. And 95 per cent of working families, 95 per cent of you out there, will get a tax cut."

JM: "Why would you want to increase anybody's taxes right now? Why would you want to do that, anyone, anyone in America, when we have such a tough time, when these small business people, like Joe the plumber, are going to create jobs, unless you take that money from him and spread the wealth around."