Boston lawyer Edward M. Swartz, a product safety advocate who garnered national headlines with his annual list of the 10 toys he deemed most dangerous, died Saturday from congestive heart failure at his home in the Brookline section of Chestnut Hill. He was 76.

Mr. Swartz, a Chelsea native who put himself through law school in the 1950s and began publishing the dangerous toys list in the early 1970s, won multimillion-dollar judgments for clients injured by defective products ranging from little toy people to pools.

President Barack Obama will call on Congress to pass new tax breaks that would allow businesses to write off 100 percent of their new capital investments through 2011, the latest in a series of proposals the White House is rolling out in hopes of showing action on the economy ahead of the November elections.

An administration official said the tax breaks would save businesses $200 billion over two years, allowing companies to have more cash on hand. The president will outline the proposal during a speech on the economy in Cleveland Wednesday.

Amid an uptick in unemployment to 9.6 percent, and polls showing that the November election could be dismal for Democrats, Obama has promised to propose new steps to stimulate the economy. In addition to the business investment tax breaks, he will also call for a $50 billion infrastructure investment and a permanent expansion of research and development tax credits for companies.

The proposals would requires congressional approval, which is highly uncertain given Washington's partisan atmosphere.