That's my Congresswoman! "Why I voted against the Bush bailout."

[Bluebear]

Congresswoman Carol Shea-Porter released the following statement after voting against the Emergency Economic Stabilization Act:

“Our economy has been battered by eight years of a financial wild west on Wall Street. There was no oversight and no accountability. I thought it was a mistake for the Administration to ask Congress to vote on a $700 billion bill to bail out Wall Street with only a single week to consider the proposal and a single day to review it. The Administration asked Congress to give up its Constitutional power of the purse and hand over a blank check for $700 billion. Congress said no.

“While I believe it is essential to address our credit and liquidity crisis, I voted against the Bush Bailout. I could not support the bill because it did not address the fundamental problem in our economy that caused the crisis in our financial institutions.

“I voted against the bill because it gave the Secretary of the Treasury -- a political appointee -- unfettered control over the execution of the bailout program. If the bill had passed, the Secretary of the Treasury would have had absolute authority to decide which securities to buy, from whom to purchase, and how much to pay. The Secretary of the Treasury would have also had absolute authority to decide who he would hire to manage the assets he purchased.

“More than four hundred economists, including three Nobel Laureates, appealed to Congress to slow down and make sure we got this right. Congress took about 8 months to draft and pass the legislation establishing the Resolution Trust Corporation -- and this only involved about $100 billion of taxpayer money. Certainly, Congress needs more time than one week to invest $700 billion of taxpayer money in a bailout.

“American taxpayers need a better bill, a better plan, and better protection. That is why I voted to stay in Washington and continue working on this bill. That is why I voted against this bill.”

Carol Shea-Porter

[John Q. Citizen]

1. That sounds honest and it makes sense to me.

[2Design]

2. is she an R or a D n/t

[Bluebear]

3. That is a big D :)

[Eric J in MN]

4. I hope Congress considers a completely different approach...

...to helping the economy,

instead of just considering how to improve the approach of buying the worst products on Wall Street to prop up Wall Street firms.

[DCKit]

5. Not to mention the RTC was a complete and utter failure.

The RTC recovered few assets and I'm not sure if anyone was prosecuted. Another total Republicon cover-up by a group of highly overpaid political appointees who rarely showed up at the office.

We need to do better this time around.

[BrklynLiberal]

6. K&R

[HughMoran]

7. Interesting. I like her - she's so down-to-earth

If there is one person who I will listen to on this situation it's her. I feel better already.

[TexasObserver]

8. That was incredibly rational.

Let's just think about the logic involved here.

If the House leadership on both sides of the aisle, both major nominees for president, and all the lobbyists on Wall Street and K street were unable to sell the bill to a majority of the House, which is up for reelection, what should that tell us?

It should tell us that those congress people that voted against it think they will LOSE in November if they vote against it. Do any of us know their district better than they do?

This bill failed for good reasons, the foremost of which was heavy opposition from voters.

[spin]

9. Because of the Bush scare tactics...

we have to something real soon.

A recession is a pain in the ass, but they do occur. Because Bush used fear tactics to promote his idiotic bail out plan which would have made the Secretary of the Treasury king of the world for two months, we find ourselves in a dilemma. Do nothing and the stock market collapses and we find ourselves in a depression. Pass the imperfect plan and hope for the best.

It would be my bet that we are screwed either way.

The Bush administration deserves a share of the blame, but somewhere along the line the people we elect to Congress also sold out their souls to the big corporations and failed to represent the people that elected them. And of course the greedy individuals who ran the failed financial institutions share in the blame.

Life's a bitch and hen you die.