Dole and Hagan oppose bailout
Sen. Elizabeth Dole, a Republican, was one of 25 senators to vote against the financial industry rescue (bailout) package Thursday. In a written statement, she said:
"Action is clearly needed to return stability to our financial markets, but most importantly, effective, sound action is needed. To fix the markets, we must deliver a market-based solution, not a government bailout."Because of unrelated spending additions, this bill now comes at a cost of over $800 billion, and it is still a government takeover of our economy with no protection for taxpayers. It raises the debt ceiling to $11.3 trillion. It bails out foreign investors before American homeowners struggling to pay their mortgages. And it does nothing to address the root cause of this mess, the housing crisis.
"I was against the Administration’s original plan. I was against the bill that failed in the House. This latest revision is an improvement but still contains the flaws of the earlier proposals, and I will not support it.
"While it may be easier for some in Congress to quickly pass a bill, pat themselves on the back and say they’ve done their part to stabilize the markets, then pack up and head home – I say we must take the time to get this right. There are a number of possible alternatives being suggested by economists, bankers and experts from every political stripe.
"Now is the time for careful, deliberate actions – not hasty, knee-jerk reactions. I will stand up for the taxpayers and vote no."
Dole is in a tough re-election fight against Democratic state Sen. Kay Hagan. Even taking her statement at face value, it certainly seems to be a trend that those in tougher election fights are more prone to oppose the bill.
Earlier this week, Hagan declined to take a firm position on the bailout bill, saying that she had "grave concerns." In a statement issued Thursday evening, those concerns turned to outright opposition:
"I support this legislation's goal of freeing up the credit markets to stimulate an economy on the brink, but I would have voted against it because it doesn’t do enough to protect everyday North Carolinians," Kay said. "It's a fix for Wall Street, not Main Street, and this isn’t a situation where we can afford to only address half the problem. I’ve said that any new bailout legislation must add real accountability, oversight and protections for Main Street to ensure we never find ourselves in this position again."Kay continues to insist that any bailout legislation include protections to fix the abuses that caused this crisis. The lax limits on CEO pay and compensation while including nothing to address protections for working families – lost jobs, high energy prices, falling wages and home prices – do nothing for the people this package should really protect.
"We got into this mess after years of Washington looking the other way and letting Wall Street and their lobbyists do as they pleased. And at a time when Main Street needs Washington to stand up for them the most, we should be ensuring this doesn’t happen again, not giving them our money and crossing our fingers," Kay said.
Both statements are similar in their sentiments. I'm wondering if the two campaigns are seeing polling or something else that says the bailout is particularly unpopular with some key constituency down here.
