Calling this the "biggest financial crisis of our lifetime," Republican presidential candidate John McCain today urged action to restore confidence in the system, one day after Congress defeated a $700 billion Wall Street bailout plan on a 228-205 vote.

"Inaction is not an option," McCain said repeatedly to more than 300 Iowa business executives, workers and Republican leaders who gathered at EFCO in Des Moines for a roundtable discussion. "The dire consequences of inaction are far more damaging to the economic security of American families."

McCain surrounded himself with six Iowa business executives who helped tell the story of how the nation's economic crisis is impacting their companies.

Their stories helped to back up McCain's assertion that there are franchisees who currently can't borrow, contractors not getting remodeling work, equipment makers losing sales, restaurants going out of business and students unable to get loans.

"One of the reasons why Congress failed to act is because it hasn't really sunk in that the people who are hurting and are being hurt are Main Street families, small businesses – those kinds of people that are the engine of our economy," McCain said. "There is a perception out there that this is just something for Wall Street."

• See photos from McCain's visit
• Audio of McCain's prepared comments on the economic crisis
• Audio of McCain and Anderson Erickson Dairy CEO Miriam Erickson Brown
• Audio of McCain and Hy-Vee chairman and CEO Richard "Ric" Jurgens. Also includes McCain's comments on ethanol and an exchange between McCain and Aviva North America chief executive Tom Godlasky.
• Audio of Principal CEO Larry Zimpleman and McCain
• Audio of Casey's General Store founder Don Lamberti, McCain and EFCO President and CEO Albert Jennings
• Audio of McCain's closing comments

Labels: audio, John McCain, photos