Space, Latta and Wilson talk about votes on bailout

U.S. Reps. Charlie Wilson (D-St. Clairsville), Zack Space (D-Dover) and Bob Latta (R-Bowling Green) spoke about their votes on the Emergency Economic Stabilization Act Friday afternoon.

Wilson and Space each voted for the revised version of the bill that was approved by the Senate, while Latta voted against it, each of their votes remained unchanged from the first vote by the Senate revisions.

Space said that he supported the bill to protect against a financial meltdown.

"Today, I voted to protect the taxpayers of Ohio from economic collapse," Space said. "Without this rescue package, we could have seen an economic disaster on the scale of the Great Depression."

"Americans saw $1.2 trillion in savings disappear on Monday alone," Space continued. "This bill is far from perfect - but we have put in place taxpayer protections that will see this investment not only stabilize our economy, but provide protections that will see American taxpayers are repaid. The cost of not fixing the problem will be much worse for residents as banks begin to fail, companies go under, pensions evaporate, and jobs disappear. I was sent to Washington to make the tough choices and the risk of inaction could be catastrophic."

Wilson said he voted in favor of the bill because the Senate version bill includes an increase in federal coverage of bank deposits to $250,000 as well as other Congressional top priorities including:

• Strong independent oversight, transparency, and accountability requiring Congressional review after the first $350 billion is disbursed;
• Limits on excessive compensation for CEOs and executives of participating financial institutions;
• Requiring a plan that would ensure taxpayers are repaid in full-or even make a profit;
• A $1000 tax break for 28 million American homeowners who don't itemize and desperately need property tax relief; and
• Requiring the government to steer mortgages in danger of foreclosure to loan workout programs to prevent the foreclosures that are driving down home values across America.

"First and foremost, we protected the taxpayers. We are facing an economic downturn as serious as any that has faced this nation," Wilson said. "An incredible 159,000 workers lost their jobs last month, small businesses aren't getting the short term loans they need to operate in a normal way and even in California, the state says it might have to stop paying its teachers soon if something isn't done. I know it's a lot of money, but the cost of inaction would have been much worse."

Wilson also addressed the additional $150 billion that the Senate added to the already $700 billion bill.

"There has been a lot of talk about the $150 billion of spending the Senate added to the bill," Wilson said. "These are not earmarks headed to specific districts at the request of a specific Senator or Member of Congress. The bulk of the additional spending is AMT relief for the middle class and extending tax incentives that would have expired for alternative energy, including tax credits for the construction of clean coal facilities. I wish that the Senate version of the tax extenders had been paid for. When the House passed a similar package of tax extenders earlier this summer we paid for it. However, it was important to pass this bill today to protect the economy and protect Main Street."

Latta said that the revised version of the bill was an improvement, but couldn't support the bill because the language was still questionable.

"Minority Leader John Boehner and House Republican leadership were successful at turning a bad bill into a better one when the bill was first voted on Monday in the House of Representatives," Latta said. "The Senate added many tax reduction provisions during the negotiation of this bill that I support, including the important alternative minimum tax patch that I voted for earlier this year, which will protect 21 million taxpayers from a tax increase."

"Unfortunately, the core language of this bill did not change from the bill that we voted on earlier this week," Latta continued. "This is still a $700 billion package with few details on how taxpayer money will be spent and how the Treasury Department arrived at the $700 billion figure. In addition to the price tag of this legislation, there is still questionable language within the bill that fails to define financial instruments. Without a clear definition, the Treasury Secretary has the authority to purchase almost any debt that he determines the purchase of which is necessary to promote stability. Because these issues were not resolved during the latest negotiations, I could not support this legislation. It is my firm belief that Congress must do all it can to protect the taxpayers' money and the bill fails to do so."