Altmire/Murphy vote nay

Timothy McNulty | September 29, 2008

Facing a tough reelection fight against Republican Melissa Hart, Jason Altmire of McCandless voted against the bailout bill today. From a statement from the freshman Democrat:

"Today, I voted against the $700 billion Wall Street bailout plan proposed by President Bush and Treasury Secretary Paulson. This bill does little to protect taxpayers and ultimately fails to address the underlying problems that have led us to this point. I agree that the economy is struggling, but the free market works properly only if there is a downside to risk. It is not the government's role to reward bad decisions or nullify the downside to investment risks.

"With Congressional approval of the Bush-Paulson plan, the total sum of corporate bailouts would exceed $1 trillion this year. This perpetuates the same borrow and spend economic policies of the past that have led to the current predicament. Multiple government bailouts are not an acceptable economic policy.

"This past week, I talked to and heard from hundreds of my constituents who are overwhelmingly opposed to the bailout plan. They wonder why Washington is so quick to act to help those on Wall Street, yet nothing is done to help them. The times ahead are going to require tough decisions - but we should not start by asking American families and small businesses to pay for the mistakes of Wall Street. The $700 billion Wall Street bailout plan is not the right response to this crisis."

Tim Murphy, R-Upper St. Clair, voted no too. From his statement:

"The bill voted on today did not address the fundamental issues that I believe must guide us through resolving the market crisis.  My vote in opposition in no way reflects a belief that the federal government should do nothing while markets tumble. We still have a lot of work to do.

Congress must enact reforms to prevent another market collapse. We need to audit all of the failed financial firms to determine if the financial standing of these companies were accurately portrayed. We need to limit the taxpayers' exposure for high risk loans and no longer securitize unsound mortgages. We need to enact real consequences for those who were accountable for this mess.

Congress must immediately end the obscene compensation packages at federally backed companies like Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. And hold CEOs accountable to all shareholders, meaning the American taxpayer, because at the end of the day the taxpayer has now become shareholder in trillions of dollars of public investment into the private marketplace.

Finally, this legislation does not accomplish what the market needs: an injection of real money to grow the economy.  Instead of moving the bad debt around we should be creating a means by which to bring actual money into the markets.

If we drilled on the outer continental shelf and went for the Colorado shale oil, if we looked to the north slope of Alaska we would yield trillions in federal income. Trillions of dollars into our economy. Real money. But we continue to keep it all off limits.

Congress in the final days of this session spends billions but continues to ignore how we could be boosting our economy and change it from the largest bust in our history to largest boom in our economy."

(UPDATE) Murphy faces a reelection fight, too, against Democrat Steve O'Donnell. As the Washington Post notes, via Politico, there is good reason for the no votes.

And, for vulnerable Republicans who believe that the free-spending attitude of Congress and the Bush Administration was either partially or primarily responsible for their ouster from majorities in the House and the Senate in 2006, the idea of floating the federal government another $700 billion was simply unpalatable.

It's no coincidence then that of the 205 Members who voted in support of the bill today, there is only one -- Rep. Chris Shays (R-Conn.) -- who finds himself in a difficult reelection race this fall. The list of the 228 "nays" reads like a virtual target list for the two parties.