Bob Tuke for U.S. Senator ~ Tennessee

Tuesdays with Tuke

September 30, 2008

Bungling the Bailout

After the Congress, Administration officials, and advisers worked over the weekend to come up with the Emergency Economic Stabilization Act, a compromise that promised to stabilize global credit and stock markets, the House failed to pass the measure when 2/3 of the Republican Congressmen abandoned their leaders and voted against it. Certainly, it was a flawed bill, but a consensus of Washington leaders, from the President to Congressional leaders in both parties, to both Presidential candidates had deemed its passage critical.Then why did it fail? It failed because Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson had "poisoned the well" when he first proposed the bailout in a 3-page memo calling for his unfettered authority to spend $700 Billion of taxpayers' money to backstop his buddies' Wall Street firms that had caused the very crisis from which he sought to protect them. He then arrogantly defended this outrageous plan and sent a befuddled President out before the American people to call for its immediate adoption. He also orchestrated the utterly fruitless meeting of Congressional leaders, the President, both Presidential candidates and himself to further his plan. Although Democrats had diligently drafted important provisions to protect taxpayers, small town banks and borrowers, and had added provisions limiting "golden parachute" giveaways to financial executives, by the time Paulson was finished with his 10-day personal parade, he had managed to alienate a majority of Americans and many leaders in his own party. Henry Paulson should resign immediately, and he should be replaced with a moderate consensus-oriented person with experience in the commercial banking and mortgage industries, not another Wall Street investment banker. Paulson sought to protect his friends and his business interests, while duping his uninformed President and others, like Lamar Alexander, into supporting his flawed approach to this debacle. Until he is gone, it will be very difficult for the President and the rest of the lame Republican leadership to have any credibility in this crisis. At the same time, Congress must look to main street, not just Wall Street. While Senator McCain was grandstanding about suspending his campaign, the Senate was considering two important pieces of legislation: The Economic Recovery Act of 2008 and the Consolidated Appropriations Act of 2008. Lamar Alexander voted against both. His vote helped block the former, and the latter passed in spite of his vote.The Economic Recovery Act passed the House 264-158 and contained critical provisions for working Americans, including a 7-week extension of unemployment benefits for jobless workers whose benefits are exhausted, which extends to 13 weeks in states with high unemployment. The US has lost over 600,000 jobs in 2008, and it is estimated that by the end of this year some 1.1 million jobless workers will run out of benefits in this broken economy. The bill also included funding for job-creating infrastructure projects, including bridge and highway repair, water and sewer projects, public transportation, school repair and additional funding to help states fund their Medicaid obligations. These things are the kind of stimuli the main street economy needs, and Lamar voted against the bill and helped kill it. Adding insult to injury, Lamar also voted against the Consolidated Appropriations Act of 2008, which passed anyway. This omnibus appropriations bill includes funding for infrastructure, energy and economic recovery, state and local law enforcement assistance, and national defense, including funding for necessary improvements at Fort Campbell and the National Guard readiness center in Tullahoma. It also provides homeland security funding for research at Oak Ridge National Laboratory. Even more critically, it contains funding for the Injury Prevention and Performance Enhancement Research Initiative for the 101st Airborne at Fort Campbell, which focuses on reducing the number of musculoskeletal injuries for the 101st. Lamar voted against it. These are more reasons why I am running for the US Senate: Tennesseans deserve a Senator who will help lead our nation in a constructive way out of this economic crisis, one who will look after the whole economy and not just the financial sector, one who will care for our troops, veterans, and law enforcement personnel. I will do these things for Tennesseans and all Americans. Together, let's Take the Hill!

Semper Fi,

Bob Tuke,(D) Candidate forU.S. Senator~Tennessee


Editorial : Lamar Alexander also sponsored a bill to completely do away with minimum wage ! He is so out of touch with most Tennesseans.