June 9 (Bloomberg) -- Barack Obama's presidential campaign today named Jason Furman, who worked closely with former Treasury Secretary Robert Rubin, as economic policy director.

Furman, 37, most recently worked as an economist and budget expert at the Brookings Institution in Washington, where he headed the Hamilton Project, an economic policy research group aligned with the Democratic Party that was founded by Rubin, now chairman of Citigroup Inc.'s executive committee.

Obama today begins a two-week tour of tightly contested states including Missouri and Florida to tout his plan for jumpstarting a slowing economy. The Illinois senator says he, not Republican rival John McCain, is best suited to create jobs, provide tax relief and revive the middle class. Obama, who has struggled to attract lower-income workers, seeks to link McCain to what he deems the failed policies of President George W. Bush.

``John McCain and I have a fundamentally different vision of where to take the country,'' Obama said in a speech today in Raleigh, North Carolina. ``For all his talk of independence, the centerpiece of his economic plan amounts to a full-throated endorsement of George Bush's policies.''

``It's time to try something new,'' Obama, 46, told the crowd of about 900 that included former Democratic presidential candidate John Edwards and his wife, Elizabeth. ``It's time for a change.''

Hamilton Project

Furman's appointment allies Obama's campaign with leading economic centrists in the Democratic Party, foremost among them is Rubin, 69, who helped found the Hamilton Project in 2006 and is on the group's advisory council. Furman is a former adviser to 2004 Democratic presidential nominee John Kerry

Rubin orchestrated President Bill Clinton's economic policy of promoting free trade and reducing the federal budget deficit.

Obama says he favors free-trade pacts as long as they include stronger protections for workers and the environment. He also advocates budgeting rules that require new spending proposals or tax changes be paid for by cuts to other government programs or new revenue-generating sources.

Furman and Austan Goolsbee, a University of Chicago economist who until recently was Obama's top economic adviser, told reporters today that Obama's ``pay-as-you-go'' position contrasts with McCain's. They claim that the Republican senator from Arizona doesn't provide details about how he would pay for his economic proposals.

Consequence of Bush Policies

They also criticized McCain, 71, for what they say are proposals that would increase the federal budget deficit and fail to provide short-term stimulus to the economy and tied him to Bush policies they said were responsible for the current economic slowdown.

``We did not arrive at the doorstep of our current economic crisis by some accident of history,'' Obama said today. ``This was not an inevitable part of the business cycle that was beyond our power to avoid. It was the logical conclusion of a tired and misguided philosophy that has dominated Washington for far too long.''

McCain's campaign responded today, saying that Obama's proposals will lead to higher taxes, further weaken the economy and hurt job creation.

``While hardworking families are hurting and employers are vulnerable, Barack Obama has promised higher income taxes, Social Security taxes, capital gains taxes, dividend taxes, and tax hikes on job creating businesses,'' McCain spokesman Tucker Bounds said in a statement.

McCain Fundraiser

McCain today attended a fundraiser in Richmond, Virginia, raising $800,000 for his campaign and other Republicans.

Obama today repeated his calls for a middle-class tax cut, an overhaul of energy policy, the rebuilding of the country's infrastructure, protection of Social Security and making college more affordable.

He also singled out Exxon Mobil Corp., the world's biggest oil refiner. Obama said he would seek to tax oil companies such as Irving, Texas-based Exxon on their record profits.

``We'll use the money to help families pay for their skyrocketing energy costs and other bills,'' Obama said today. Obama says that McCain's tax proposals would result in almost $2 trillion in breaks for companies, including $1.2 billion for Exxon alone.

Furman said in an interview that the Obama campaign's economic goal is based on ``broadly shared, bottom-up growth,'' similar to the views espoused by groups such as the Hamilton Project and the Economic Policy Institute, a Washington research group funded partly by labor unions.

`Empower People'

``You need to empower people to make the economy work for them,'' Furman said.

As Obama's economic policy director, Furman said his priority would be to expand the range of advice and proposals flowing to the presumptive Democratic nominee by reaching out to a wider group of economists.

``My key mandate, which came directly from the senator, is to bring him a diverse set of voices and ideas, because that's the kind of debate he likes to hear to make up his mind about his economic agenda,'' Furman said. He named Rubin, former Treasury Secretary Lawrence Summers and former Federal Reserve Vice Chairman Alan Blinder as advisers the campaign would turn to.

Furman also named Jared Bernstein of the Economic Policy Institute and James Galbraith, a University of Texas economist and son of economist John Kenneth Galbraith, who was an adviser to President John F. Kennedy.

Furman attended Harvard University in Cambridge, Massachusetts and the London School of Economics and received a doctorate in economics from Harvard. He worked as an economist in the Clinton administration and at the World Bank.

Goolsbee will continue to play a leading role in the campaign, Furman said.

To contact the reporter on this story: Kim Chipman in Washington at kchipman@bloomberg.net.

Last Updated: June 9, 2008 17:03 EDT