WASHINGTON -- Two Democratic presidential hopefuls on Sunday blasted President George W. Bush's plan to revive the shaky U.S. economy, attacking it as a scheme to help the rich.

Bush will formally announce his economic stimulus plan in Chicago today. The plan is expected to provide a multiyear stimulus of some $300 billion, relying heavily on tax cuts and advancing already enacted tax cuts, according to widely leaked reports.

On Sunday, two Democrats who announced they are running for their party's nomination in the 2004 presidential election -- Senator John Edwards of North Carolina and Vermont Governor Howard Dean -- blasted Bush's plan as skewed towards the wealthiest Americans, AFP reported.

The president is "trying to use the Bush recession to put money in the pockets of the richest Americans over a long period of time while providing very little help for regular people," Edwards said on ABC's "This Week" news program. Bush's proposal "just shows how out of touch he is," Edwards added. "All the things that he's proposing -- acceleration of tax cuts, elimination of taxes on dividends -- these are things that are greatly slanted to help the richest Americans."

Edwards also argued that the proposals will also have very little short-term stimulative effect.

Edwards would instead immediately give a $500 refundable energy tax credit to every U.S. family, grant short-terms tax cuts, extend unemployment benefits, and provide economic help to states -- especially to help with homeland security expenses. Anticipating the criticism, Bush on Thursday said that some opponents wanted to turn the U.S. economy's problems "into class warfare." But "that's not how I think," Bush said. "I think about the overall economy and how best to help those folks who are looking for work."

Governor Dean, speaking on CBS's "Face the Nation," said it was Bush who was practicing class warfare.

"The tax cuts are aimed at the class of people who don't need that help," he said.

Dean was especially upset at Bush's proposal to slash taxes on dividend income. "The people who live on the dividends are those in the higher brackets," he said.

For Dean, the best way to get the economy going is to provide health care insurance for all Americans. "That affects 40 million people directly plus all of America's small businesses," he said.