Just in from the Congressional office:
WALZ VOTES AGAINST BAILOUT PLAN
Says this is still a bad deal for the American taxpayers(Washington, D.C.) – Today, Congressman Tim Walz voted against the revised bailout plan that passed the Senate on Wednesday night. The bill passed the House by a vote of 263-171 and now goes to the President for his signature.
“The economic crisis facing the nation is serious and real,” said Walz. “Inaction is not an option. We must move fast to address it, but after you peel away all the extras the Senate added, this is still the same bad deal for taxpayers I voted against on Monday. I cannot in good conscience vote for this bill.”
Walz identified a number of serious and troubling shortcomings in the legislation including:
· The bailout lacks a concrete mechanism for guaranteeing that taxpayers get their money back from Wall Street;
· Few if any homeowners will get mortgage relief;
· Tens of billions of dollars could go to foreign banks, like the Bank of China;
·The Oversight Board can only critique, not halt, any action by the Treasury Department;
· Meaningful regulatory reform proposals will be subject to filibuster, delay and dilution at the hands of the future President and Congress.“I’ve said all along that we must move quickly to put out this fire in the financial markets,” said Walz. “I’ve also said that getting it right is paramount. In the panic that the White House brought on, we have lost sight of the wise course of action to fix this mess the right way.”
“The original bailout proposal was written with lots of input from people on Wall Street but little input from people on Main Street. After the bill failed on Monday, I reached out to my constituents and my Congressional colleagues on both sides of the aisle to make real improvements in the legislation to protect taxpayers and help ordinary people struggling on Main Street. I talked to hundreds of people across southern Minnesota and got great input about how to make this a better deal for the American people,” added Walz.
“I’m disappointed that instead the Senate sent this bill back to the House with $100 billion in unpaid for additional spending that will be added directly to the national debt. Further, it saddens me that I must vote against this bailout which includes provisions that I’ve long supported such as the Wellstone Mental Health Parity Act and the renewable energy tax incentives,” said Walz. “Now that this bill has gone through, we must begin investigating why this crisis happened and what must be done to make sure this never happens again.
“I know Minnesotans are worried about their retirement accounts, college funds and other personal savings. Now we must turn our nation’s attention to creating jobs, making health care affordable and keeping people in their homes,” concluded Walz.
Amen to that, Congressman.
Photo: Walz talking to Southern Minnesotans about the bailout plan on Wednesday.
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