Barton voted NO

Rep. Joe Barton, R-Arlington, a leader in the opposition to the original Treasury Department bailout bill, made no bones about why the compromise bill was still not good enough for him.

“I voted against the Emergency Economic Stabilization Act of 2008 because it violated the views and the interests of the Texans who sent me here to represent their views and their interests," said Barton. 

“I’m a conservative.  I know that more freedom and more opportunity built America, not more government, more spending and more debt.   Most of the people of the 6^th Congressional District of Texas know that even better than I do because they live it every day.  Today I was asked to bend my beliefs, forget my promises and ignore my people, and I said no.  My fellow Republicans joined me voting against this massive bailout by a 2 to 1 margin."

“This was no easy vote," Barton continued. "The compromise bill wasn’t all bad, but in its final version, it failed to give taxpayers the protection they deserve.  Republicans worked very hard to improve the bailout plan by including more taxpayer protections than previous plans and eliminating the money grab by liberal social welfare programs.  There are other things we can do to fix this financial crisis – things that won’t cost taxpayers hundreds of billions of dollars. Ideas we could pursue include forcing the people being bailed out to bear a majority of the costs, eliminating the capital gains tax for three years to encourage economic growth and suspending mandatory mark to market accounting rules.

-- Maria Recio

Comments

[Paul]

I think Joe probably voted the right way, but only time will tell. I do know that moving from a large surplus to huge deficits in the last 8 years has partially put us in this hole--the other part being deregulation of investment banking and Wall Street. The conservative view is to avoid regulation, and if we're talking about mindless paperwork, rules, etc., then I share that view. But that's different than SMART regulations that don't simply incur cost--such as telling the banking industry that they can't sell big "packages" of loans that contain subprime junk mixed in with A paper.

[D Greene]

Thanks, Joe Barton, for representing your fellow Texans and listening to their voices prior to the vote. You are a great example of what we want from our elected officials and it won't go unnoticed during the re-election process.

[R Wilson]

Barton would rather lose an economy than lose an election. Coward.

[Texzilla]

Finally some folks in Congress make the right stand against the consistent corruption that has spawned this crisis. Bill Clinton correctly laid the blame on Democrats that refused to control FannieMae and FreddieMac even though all with even a casual understanding of their policies knew both were train wrecks about to happen.
The GOP is not blameless in this mess either, but it is time to fix the problem. Shorting stocks should have been made an illegal activity years ago; hedge funds that make hundreds of millions while actively crashing often healthy companies is a insidious practice.

[rn]

I just wonder Joe. Did you unload all your investments before you went to work yesterday? You guys failed miserably this past weekend and yesterday. First with the histeria at the end of last week and how Congress was going to step in and "right" the ship. All of you failed the people you represent and now you're going to take a holiday and then come back and fix things? Is this a crisis or not? I think you would serve us all better if you guys just stay home. I am planning to vote against every incumbant on this Novemeber's ballot.

[mavsreader]

The system worked yesterday.

It's well and good for Rep. Barton to refuse a trip to the grocery store for America's Economic supper.

It's reasonable to expect Rep. Barton to explain what can be pulled from the cupboard or pantry that will pass Congress.

If after years of overeating, Americans just need to "skip a meal" Rep. Barton should state that. Is "skipping a meal" solution enough to get us through or is legislation required?

All I heard is, "I don't like what is being served for dinner. It doesn't match my taste."

Barton argues, "I'm going to the garden, to look for dinner there." What exactly is planted in that garden? Is it ready? Does it have a chance to pass?

Speak plainly with your immediate American economic supper alternative. If legislation is missing a key ingredient, state it.

[Jim]

Representative Barton did the right thing - which is not always the easy or most "political" thing to do. The problem is the legislation in the first place that enabled the Banks to float subprime mortgages. A Sep. 30, 1999 article in the NY Times titled "Fannie Mae Eases Credit To Aid Mortgage Lending" stated as much. It seems odd that anyone would think that throwing out all incumbents is any type of realistic solution to the Representative government we have here in America. That type of short sighted, reactionary thinking is what probably put incompetent people in office in the first place and helped us get a crop of legislators that don't represent the majority of their constitutents. I hope other reasonable people will consider that Representative Barton proved his allegiance to his District's interest, and remember that in the next election, rather than risk losing good representation for a foolish "upset the applecart" philosophy that leads to an out of touch government and ultimately to anarchy.

[JR]

Barton did the right thing. Send him an email and thank him.