Woodward News - Inhofe Makes Whistle-Stop in Woodward

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Woodward News - Inhofe Makes Whistle-Stop in Woodward

Sen. James Inhofe, R-Tulsa made Woodward one of his stops on a whistle stop tour of the state in the critical weeks before the election.

Key to his decision to make the tour was his desire to explain to Oklahomans his reasons for voting against the $700 billion bailout passed in both the House and Senate about two weeks ago.

he addressed about 30 community leaders and citizens who gathered Monday afternoon at the Woodward Chamber of Commerce.

"It was four weeks ago last Friday, we got a call from the Secretary of Treasury," Inhofe said. "That is when he announced that it had to be $700 billion and it's got to be done and I asked, were there some other choices and he said ‘no' he was just adamant about it,"

But Inhofe said when he asked some key questions about how the bailout would be structured, he began to believe there were too many unanswered questions. His questions to the leadership included how they would determine the criteria to ascertain which institutions to bail out, as well as who will be making those decisions.

Inhofe said after a meeting with the community bankers in Oklahoma, doing the math and finally considering the impact to Oklahomans as well as the Oklahoma banking institutions, he chose to vote against the measure.

" The first problem is problem is, it is hard for you in this room and me in this room to really understand what $700 billion is," Inhofe said. When you have by count, 139 million households that file an income tax return, If you do that math, it is $5000 per household...so its a big deal."

The legislator also provided his opinion about the upcoming election.

Despite media claims that the Obama campaign is gaining an increasing lead daily, Inhofe believes this election will be very different from former election where polls more adequately predicted an outcome.

"This will be the greatest divergence, probably in the political history between polling numbers and voting numbers," Inhofe said.

Inhofe also responded to questions health care, education and his ideas about energy.

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