HEMPSTEAD, New York (Reuters) - Republican John McCain and Democrat Barack Obama fought over their tax plans and promised to help working Americans like "Joe the plumber" early in their final presidential debate on Wednesday.

McCain went on the offensive quickly, criticizing Obama's proposal to raise taxes on Americans who make more than $250,000 a year and saying it would hurt small business owners like a plumber named Joe who Obama met on the campaign trail.

"Why would you want to raise anybody's taxes right now?" McCain asked Obama. "We need to encourage businesses."

Obama said his plan would cut taxes for 95 percent of Americans and raise them on only a small slice of the most high-income Americans, while McCain would give tax breaks to oil and gas companies.

"We both want to cut taxes," Obama, an Illinois senator, said in their third and last White House debate at Hofstra University. "The difference is who we want to cut taxes for."

McCain, an Arizona senator, entered the debate under intense pressure to turn in a strong performance that could turn around a presidential race that has shifted decisively in Obama's favor after weeks of economic turmoil and plunging stock markets.

Opinion polls three weeks before the November 4 election show more voters say they trust Obama's leadership on the economy, which has dominated the campaign-trail discussion and dwarfed McCain's expertise in foreign and military policy.

(Editing by David Wiessler)

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