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McCain, Obama: We are running out of time
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NEW YORK CITY  -  Presidential hopefuls John McCain and Barack Obama set aside politics Thursday and talked about pressing issues such as climate change, poverty, health and education at the Fourth Clinton Global Initiative Thursday, Sept. 25.

There was, however, one major problem that they united to discuss in greater detail: the country’s burgeoning financial crisis.

With an extreme sense of urgency, Sen, John McCain told attendees that America’s financial woes are getting deeper and that time is running out.

"The times are too serious to put our campaign on hold, or to ignore the full range of issues that the next president will face. I do not believe that the plan on the table will pass as it currently stands, and obviously we are running out of time," McCain said, adding that he was set to go to Washington to meet with President George W. Bush and congressional leaders.

McCain opened the plenary session for the initiative’s annual meeting. Initially, the plenary was supposed to tackle integrated solutions on the global problems of water, food and energy but the focus shifted a bit because of the current fi nancial crisis.

"The world is having various problems but here in America, we have a crisis of our own that began in the fi nancial center of this city, not too far away from where we are today," McCain said.

Sen. Barack Obama closed the plenary with a speech he delivered via satellite. He echoed McCain’s call for the immediate fi nding of solutions to solve this deepening problem.

"You are meeting at a time of great turmoil for the American economy. We are now confronted with a fi nancial crisis as serious as any we have faced since the Great Depression. Action must be taken to restore confi dence in our economy," Obama said.

"It's outrageous that we fi nd ourselves in a position where taxpayers must bear the burden for the greed and irresponsibility of Wall Street and Washington. But we also know that a failure to act would have grave consequences for the jobs, and savings, and retirement of the American people," he added.

Obama also called for the creation of an independent and bipartisan board "to provide oversight and accountability for how and where this money is spent at every step of the way" and it was imperative for both the Republicans and Democrats to come up with bipartisan efforts.

"Now is the time to come together, Democrats and Republicans, in the spirit of cooperation on behalf of the American people," he said..

Obama also pushed for the ordinary citizens, the taxpayers, whom he said need to be treated as investors. "Americans must not pay a single dime to reward the same Wall Street CEOs whose greed and irresponsibility got us into this mess," he added.

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