Murphy blasts lawmakers for failure

By GARY WECKSELBLATT
Bucks County Courier Times

Area lawmakers Patrick Murphy and Allyson Schwartz heeded the call of their Democratic Party leaders and President Bush to vote for a $700 billion financial rescue package Monday, but the bill went down and took the stock market with it.

More than $1 trillion was wiped off the value of the entire U.S. stock market Monday, as measured by the Dow Jones Wilshire 5000 Index.

“Let’s be clear — politicians voting against this bill today caused the biggest point drop the Dow has ever recorded,” said Congressman Patrick Murphy, D-8, referring to the 777-point decline in the Dow Jones Industrials. “This is what’s wrong with Washington — reckless partisan extremists just made it much harder for Pennsylvania families to keep their homes, seniors to protect their pensions and students to get loans.

“Blocking this bill has just made a bad economic situation far worse,” said Murphy, who represents the 8th District. “We need to come together and continue to work on this problem; there is simply too much at stake for us not to solve this crisis.”

More than two-thirds of Republicans and 40 percent of Democrats opposed the bill, whose final tally was 228 to 205. Democrats voted in favor, 140 to 95. Republicans voted against 133 to 65.

Schwartz, D-13, was surprised she was on the short side of the vote.

“The potential downside for everyday Americans is simply too great not to act,” she said.

Her spokeswoman, Rachel Magnuson, said, “We’re at an economic precipice right now.”

Republican Charlie Dent, whose 15th District includes parts of Montgomery and Lehigh counties, voted against the plan.

“This bailout plan would have exposed taxpayers to a risk of $700 billion to buy toxic assets at inflated prices. … Wall Street would benefit at the expense of the taxpayers. That is not acceptable.”
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Tom Manion, a Republican challenging Murphy, agreed with Dent.

“I wanted to see if this legislation was going to repair some of the problems that got us to this point,” Manion said. “I just am not convinced that it does so. I would have voted no.

“There are systemic problems this legislation doesn’t address. I don’t want taxpayers to bear the burden of these mistakes, but I am opposed to using huge sums of taxpayer dollars to support a free market economy. I think we need to take more time to react and balance both of these concerns. We need to go back to the drawing board and look for other options.”

Tom Lingenfelter, an independent challenging Murphy for his seat, said he would have voted against the bill.

“It’s throwing good money after bad. Government has caused the problem by interfering with market forces. The free market system works when we leave it alone.”

Marina Kats, a Republican running against Schwartz, said she would have voted for the measure.

“The bottom line is we do need the government to step up now and add liquidity to our markets,” said Kats, an attorney. “This is not a bailout. Government created this problem. But when (Treasury Secretary Henry) Paulson and (Federal Reserve Chairman Ben) Bernanke say there’s a problem, we need to take action.

“If something’s not done by tomorrow or the day after we might as well run for cover.”