Lieberman talks home ownership, Kennedy stumps for Lamont

WOLCOTT, Conn. --Saying America's middle class is being squeezed out of home ownership, U.S. Sen. Joe Lieberman proposed a new $2,000 tax credit Wednesday to help first-time buyers meet closing costs and other expenses.

Lieberman faces a tough re-election battle with Ned Lamont, who beat him in an August Democratic primary. Lieberman is running with a new party he formed.

Lieberman, speaking at a Wolcott real estate office, called the proposal the first of several he will announce over the next few weeks in his "American Dream Renewal Plan."

He returned to a campaign theme that emphasizes his 18 years of experience.

"Ned has run a relentlessly negative campaign and done a lot of finger-pointing," Lieberman said. "He is inexperienced and would just add to the partisanship and polarization in Washington that's blocking progress on national challenges like home ownership and health care costs."

Lieberman said his tax-incentive plan for first-time home buyers would cost about $4 billion, which he believes could be covered by reducing tax breaks for people who earn more than $1 million annually.

But Lamont criticized Lieberman's approach in a conference call Wednesday.

"It's more small piecemeal approaches in an economy where we have hundreds of billions dollars of debt," Lamont said. "When it comes to home ownership, I think we ought to be thinking more broadly than these piecemeal type of things."

Massachusetts Sen. Edward Kennedy was in Bridgeport on Wednesday to stump for Lamont and Democrat Diane Farrell, who is challenging U.S. Rep. Chris Shays in Connecticut's 4th District. They appeared at a health care forum.

"We have two winners right here today in Diane and Ned," Kennedy said, adding that both would fight for universal health care. "I've worked with Sen. Lieberman in the past, but the people here in Connecticut have spoken. The Democrats have spoken."