Hillary Clinton on Monday called on President Bush to appoint such people as former Federal Reserve chairmen Alan Greenspan and Paul Volcker and former Treasury Secretary Robert Rubin to an "emergency working group" to try to solve the nation's housing crisis.

The economic policy heavyweights of administrations past would form a non-partisan "emergency working group on foreclosures," and would make recommendations on addressing the current mortgage debacle, which Clinton said is the biggest problem facing the country.

Clinton proposed forming the group as she unveiled her "Day One" economic agenda in a speech in Philadelphia.

"We need a president who is ready on Day One to be commander in chief of our economy," Clinton said, delivering her remarks at the University of Pennsylvania. "If you give me the chance, I will be that president. ...

"I will start by facing our economic situation as it is, not as we hope or wish it would be. That means acknowledging that our economic crisis is, at its core, a housing crisis."

Greenspan, who headed the Fed from 1987 to 2006, has come under fire recently for promoting policies that some believe contributed to the housing crisis. Known for his murky economic speech and deep theoretical knowledge, Greenspan denies the charge.

Greenspan became chairman of the Fed under Ronald Reagan and continued to serve into the George W. Bush administration. Volcker served as Fed chairman under presidents Carter and Reagan. Robert Rubin was treasury secretary in Bill Clinton's administration.

The proposed panel would recommend legislation and other steps to "help re-establish confidence in our economy," Clinton said in prepared remarks for her speech in Philadelphia. She and Barack Obama are campaigning heavily in Pennsylvania, which holds its presidential primary April 22.

"It's the kind of proactive step that would help re-establish confidence in our economy by showing that the president and his administration was taking our economic crisis seriously," Clinton said.

The Obama camp blasted Clinton's plan as nothing more than repackaging of old ideas, saying that Clinton's panel recommendation was strikingly similar to a plan Obama called for last year. Obama campaign staffers also said Clinton's position on the crisis is weakened because she has taken financial contributions from either the financial industry and lobbyists who work for companies linked to the mortgage crisis.

Obama spokesman Bill Burton sent an e-mail to reporters saying that one year ago, Obama asked Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke and Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson "to convene a homeownership preservation summit. Today, Clinton is proposing essentially the same thing."

"One key difference, however, is the diversity and representation that Obama called for - not just some of the same people who helped to create these problems or have a direct financial industry stake in the outcome," Burton said. Obama is on family vacation in the Virgin Islands.

Burton pointed to a paragraph from the letter that said: "I urge you immediately to convene a homeownership preservation summit with leading mortgage lenders, investors, loan servicing organizations, consumer advocates, federal regulators and housing-related agencies to assess options for private sector responses to the challenge."

A second Obama campaign e-mail said Clinton raised $22,000 in contributions from lobbyists for the subprime mortgage industry, citing August figures from the Center for Responsive Politics. The campaign also pointed to her receipt of $56,000 from finance industry political action committees and $72,000 from insurance industry lobbyists.

The Clinton campaign responded by saying Obama's rhetoric is not matching his actions, pointing to reports that while Clinton had received nearly $365,000 from subprime mortgage industry companies -- separate from lobbyist contributions for the companies -- Obama has outstripped her fundraising in that sector, taking in $434,000.

During her speech, Clinton tongue-lashed "unscrupulous" lenders, while proposing greater protections for lenders from possible lawsuits by investors, a version of so-called tort reform more often associated with Republicans than Democrats.

Many lenders are unwilling to undertake "far-reaching restructuring efforts" for fear of being sued by investors who buy mortgages, she said. She said she would introduce legislation to limit the lenders' legal exposure.

Clinton said she supports proposed legislation to establish a federally backed auction system for hundreds of thousands of mortgages in default. Under the Democratic-drafted plan, lenders "could sell mortgages in bulk to banks and other buyers," Clinton said, and they in turn would "restructure them to make them affordable for families, because they know the government will guarantee them once they're reworked."

The Federal Housing Administration "should also stand ready to be a temporary buyer to purchase, restructure, and resell underwater mortgages," she said.

Clinton said a recently enacted $168 billion stimulus package "did next to nothing to help homeowners and communities struggling with foreclosure."

Clinton also pointed to recent events on Wall Street that she said show there is greater need to focus on homeowners, singling out the Federal Reserve and the Treasury Department's decision to back the buyout of the Bear Stearns Cos. investment bank by J.P. Morgan Chase & Co.

"If the Fed can extend $30 billion to help Bear Stearns address their financial crisis," Clinton said, "the federal government should provide at least that much emergency help to families and communities to address theirs."

A $2 per share price for Bear Stearns stock was being reconsidered Monday at $10 per share, a more favorable number to Bear Stearns shareholders who last week saw their investment evaporate overnight. The Fed announced Monday morning it would support the buyout at the higher-valued price.

Treasury, J.P. Morgan and Bear Stearns struck the deal after lenders lost confidence in Bear Stearns, which had holdings in fast-sinking securities based on high-risk mortgages.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.