Fridays With Chris; Emergency Economic Stabilization Act

Statement

Dear Friend,

Last week, I asked for your opinions on the financial bailout package. I thank all of you who took the time to contact me. The overwhelming majority of you were opposed to this package.

Today, I voted against the Emergency Economic Stabilization Act of 2008. My reasons for voting against this bill are rooted in a deep concern with the provisions of the underlying plan. I could not, in good conscience, vote to burden our hardworking taxpayers with hundreds of billions of dollars in new debt to finance a massive Wall Street bailout. I was disappointed that we did not take more time to examine alternatives that would give greater protections to homeowners and provide more oversight of Wall Street.

This is an enormous federal investment and stricter oversight of how the money is being spent is essential. This bill does not provide stricter regulation and oversight - it simply repackages the discredited Paulson plan that was defeated on Monday.

It was a bad bill on Monday and it remains a bad bill today - except now the price tag is $850 billion, not $700 billion. If this was a good bill it should have been able to stand on its own merits. No amount of ‘sweeteners' can hide the bitter taste of $850 billion in debt being passed on to the next generations of American taxpayers, especially with no guarantee that the package will even work.

The Emergency Economic Stabilization Act passed the House of Representatives by a vote of 263 to 171. It had passed the Senate earlier this week and will now be sent to the President to be signed into law.

Sincerely,

Christopher P. Carney
Member of Congress

Source