Washington, D.C., Oct 3 - Congressman J. Randy Forbes (VA-04) released the following statement today after voting against the revised bailout bill, the Emergency Economic Stabilization Act of 2008:
"When I voted against the first Wall Street bailout bill on Monday, I did so because I was not willing to risk $700 billion of taxpayer dollars on a plan that I, after talking with senior Treasury officials and the former chairman of the FDIC, was not confident would work. The second bailout bill we voted on today contained a number of positive provisions, including increasing FDIC insurance coverage for American families and businesses. Even with these improvements, the core of the bill remained the same - the federal government will purchase $700 billion in bad assets from private corporations who have made poor financial decisions, and there is still no assurance as to whether the expenditure of $700 billion will solve the problem at hand. It became a bit like adding ornaments to a Christmas tree that no one wants; no matter how many ornaments were added, the problem was still the tree. I could not support a bill that leaves us with no backstop if it fails."
4 comments:
Yeah, as a little time has passed, a cooling off period, I suppose, I'm just not as convinced we have such a huge problem.
Sounds like your Congressman is a wise man. He must have gotten a few emails from a wise, trombone-playing transplanted South Carolinian...
Time will tell. But, seriously, look through the bill. The bill wasnt even originally for the economic situation (something about mental health). Throw on that all the "sweetners" (the best one that I saw was the tax breaks for actors...There you go Susan...a tax break for the "rich" who do not create small business in America).
I have forsaken the news networks and now commonly check Creative Loafing for my financial news. Thanks for the hard work, Chuck. Great job.
Alan - Ha! I smell a bit of sweetner in your comment :)
Either way, I think that this bailout was a really bad idea as a first line of action. It should have been done last.
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