BLUE BELL, Pa.--Senator John McCain unveiled $52.5 billion in new economic proposals on Tuesday aimed at easing financial distress on the nation’s elderly, workers and the unemployed.

In a plan in which most of the benefits would go to older voters, Mr. McCain proposed that people 59 and up who withdraw money from IRAs or 401(k) retirement plans in 2008 and 2009 pay a tax rate of 10 percent on the money rather than their higher normal rates. That part of the plan would cost $36 billion, based on the McCain campaign’s internal estimates.

“So much of this decline in our markets and value destruction was due to the failure of Congress and the Administration to come out with a timely rescue package,” Mr. McCain told a crowd at Montgomery County Community College here. “Investors are always responsible for their investment decisions, but the hard-earned savings of Americans should not be penalized by the erratic behavior of politicians.”