DaytonDailyNews.com

John McCain stumbled two weeks ago when he said "the fundamentals of the economy are sound." Could it be that the day after two of the four major U.S. investment banks evaporated, and on the day of the largest Dow tumble since the Twin Towers fell, even McCain didn't quite believe the rosy rhetoric that his lobbyist advisers wanted from him?

If Americans weren't already worried about their economic futures before last week, they are now.

And if Americans weren't looking for answers on how things got this bad, they certainly are now.

In fact, the roots of today's crisis are decades deep. They reflect a basic elitism that has been built into our economic rules — a philosophy that underpins the Bush administration's economic agenda and has permeated McCain's, as well, for his 26 years in the Senate. These rules favor corporate profits and Wall Street investors over the working people who build our cities, teach our children and nurse our ills.

On one level, people like Phil Gramm, McCain's main economic adviser, have essentially gotten rid of the rules that protected regular banks — and regular people who are their customers — from risky Wall Street financial speculators.

On another level, Bush Republicans built an economy in which working people's productivity has soared, but real wages have dropped. McJobs have become the norm.

How have working people kept afloat? Many of them have mortgaged their homes to the hilt, especially since the new, deregulated Wall Street meant that working people had sudden access to cheap credit. But you can't build a solid economy by lending people money rather than paying them good wages. The bubble had to burst.

And burst it has.

Americans know that what's happening in the economy is very bad for us. We just don't yet know how bad, and we're not quite sure what it will mean at our kitchen table.

Part of just how bad this crisis ends up being for working people will depend on the next leadership Americans choose for our nation.

Our nation needs good jobs — jobs that will put real dollars in people's pockets rather than the Monopoly money they get from living on credit. Where do the candidates stand?

Barack Obama has a concrete economic plan that could turn this country around, and quickly. He is proposing a $50 billion Emergency Economic Plan to invest in new jobs to rebuild our crumbling infrastructure — our broken bridges, roads and schools. He will also invest in developing green energy sources, tapping whole new job markets for the nation.

But McCain doesn't offer a job creation plan. His answer to jobs is "free trade" and leaving the markets deregulated. He has supported every unfair trade bill he could, with complete disregard for the impact on workers' jobs, communities and workers' rights around the globe.

Or take retirement, something that is on many people's minds now. John McCain wants to put a chunk of Social Security into the market, a move that would delight his Wall Street backers. McCain also supports privatizing pension plans, and moving more working people into risky 401(k)s, which would again be the victim of the market's weaknesses.

Obama has promised to shore up, rather than sell out, Social Security and pensions, and would change bankruptcy laws to ensure that if a company goes belly up, its retirees aren't last in the creditor line.

Or how about the health care crisis? McCain wants to add a new tax onto people's employer-provided health care. Those who have insurance through their jobs would now have to pay taxes on that coverage, just as though it is income. This would encourage many people to opt out of those secure plans, and to get cheaper, inferior plans, a move that will be a real boon for the big insurance giants.

Obama addresses the crisis head on. He says he will make available to all Americans the same health plan enjoyed by members of Congress. Everyone will be eligible, and benefits will be comprehensive.

Soon after McCain touted the economy's strength on Sept. 15, he backtracked, saying that he meant that workers are strong, and workers are the fundamentals of the economy. In fact, the way that McCain and George W. Bush's policies and plans treat workers is fundamentally what's wrong with the economy today. That's what has driven our nation's financial system off the rails, and that's why regular people are losing their homes, their savings and their futures.

Working people want the next leader of our nation to understand that America needs security and prosperity, not more risky Wall Street behavior. We're ready to send that message in November, loud and clear, and we won't stumble.

John Sweeney is national president of the AFL-CIO. Joe Rugola is president of the Ohio AFL-CIO.