Washington, D.C – The following is a prepared statement by Ms. Ryan Alexander, President of Taxpayers for Common Sense on the upcoming Senate vote on the Emergency Economic Stabilization Act of 2008:
Taxpayers are very wary of seeing $700 billion of their hard earned tax dollars go to bailout bad debts of bad actors on Wall Street. When average folks make bad decisions at different points in their lives and have to accept the financial consequences, it feels fundamentally unfair to take care of banks and Wall Street right now over the rest of us. At the same time, people don’t want to see their retirement accounts, 401(K) plans, or other investments lose all their value, they want their kids to be able to get student loans and car loans, and they don’t want to see the credit system collapse. Very few people are happy about this.
Additionally, the Senate is walking a legislative tightrope by adding the energy and tax extenders legislation to the proposed bailout package. Leadership needs to add or change enough in the legislation to pull more House support for the bailout plan while not losing those who supported it previously. The addition of the tax extenders legislation, however, may leave some feeling that some in Congress may be abusing this national economic emergency to smooth the way for controversial legislation. Throughout this process, the House and Senate have had very different approaches to this bill. The House, specifically the Blue Dogs, had demanded costs of the bill be offset. The Senate has refused. The addition of energy and tax extenders is either a reckless gamble or what the leadership feels it needs to get to 218 votes.
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