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SANTA ANA, Calif. (AP) -- Republican John McCain on Tuesday derided government intervention to save and reward banks or small borrowers who behave irresponsibly though he offered few immediate alternatives for fixing the country's growing housing crisis.

''I will consider any and all proposals based on their cost and benefits,'' the certain GOP presidential nominee, who has acknowledged the economy is not his strong suit, told local business leaders south of Los Angeles.

Democrats accused McCain of lacking the skills needed to lead a country on the brink of recession.

''Instead of offering a concrete plan to address the crisis at all levels, McCain promised to take the same hands-off approach that President Bush used to lead us into this crisis,'' Democratic Party Chairman Howard Dean said in a statement.

The housing turmoil has rocked Wall Street and is dominating the presidential race as the nation faces an economic downturn and the Federal Reserve has taken steps to intervene.

Over the past two days, the Fed essentially bailed out the investment house Bear Stearns and announced it has auctioned another $50 billion in short-term loans at an interest rate of 2.615 percent to cash-strapped banks to help them overcome credit problems. Since December, the Fed has provided a total of $260 billion in short-term loans to banks.

On Monday, Democratic presidential candidate Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton proposed several remedies to the home mortgage problems, including aggressive federal intervention to ease the strain on homeowners. Her rival, Barack Obama, also has supported federal involvement, including calling for creating a foreclosure prevention fund to help homeowners.

McCain, in the midst of a weeklong Western fundraising swing, focused on the home-financing crisis at an event in Orange County as he tried to rebut Democratic criticism of his economic credentials -- and draw a sharp contrast with Democrats on federal involvement in the housing crisis.

His pitch, though, offered little in the way of specific proposals to immediately address the crisis, as he stuck with his longtime preference of limited government intervention and letting market forces play out.

Later, McCain took issue with the notion that his solutions were thin, telling reporters: ''I think I've laid out some pretty clear principles, some pretty clear proposals today.''

McCain said he wants to leave the door open to an array of proposals to address the problems and seemed to suggest he might even be open even to solutions that stray from the GOP line.

''I will not play election-year politics with the housing crisis,'' he said, adding he would evaluate all proposals. ''I will not allow dogma to override commonsense.''

But the small-government advocate and four-term Arizona senator also put restrictions on how far he was willing to go.

''I have always been committed to the principle 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,'' McCain said. ''Government assistance to the banking system should be based solely on preventing systemic risk that would endanger the entire financial system and the economy.''

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