How Your Representatives Voted On The Bailout
Oct 3rd, 2008 | By Editor | Category: All Posts, Government Representation… the seven hundred billion dollar ($700,000,000,000.00 USD) bailout…
H. R. 1424 As Amended; A bill to provide authority for the Federal Government to purchase and insure certain types of troubled assets for the purposes of providing stability to and preventing disruption in the economy and financial system and protecting taxpayers, to amend the Internal Revenue Code of 1986 to provide incentives for energy production and conservation, to extend certain expiring provisions, to provide individual income tax relief, and for other purposes.
Senate vote October 1, 2008
Chambliss (R-GA), Yea
Isakson (R-GA), Yea
House vote October 3, 2008
Linder (R-GA), Nay
…I guess it pays to call your congressman…
• Reference: The Library of Congress Roll Call Votes
By Camie Young
Senior Writer
Gwinnett Daily Post
LAWRENCEVILLE - While leaders Friday were able to get enough votes in Congress for the House of Representatives to approve a massive $700 million financial rescue plan, Georgia’s leaders voted for the second time this week to reject the idea.
All seven of the state’s Republicans voted “no” Friday, including Duluth Rep. John Linder.
“The House of Representatives took a step that would have made Karl Marx proud: nationalization of our financial sector,” Linder said “By passing this bailout bill, private enterprise will now be managed by the federal government.
“While our markets, despite temporary volatility, have been effective at self-correcting for decades; the federal government only does one thing effectively - it picks winners and losers. In fact, federal intervention in our markets is largely responsible for the precarious situation in which we find ourselves.”
In Monday’s vote, only two Georgia lawmakers voted in favor of the bail-out. On Friday, two switched their votes, while the state’s nine other representatives remained against the plan.
“I am well aware of the urgency of this situation, but that is no excuse for Congress to abandon the free market principles that have guided our economic prosperity,” Linder said. “The American people, who are involuntarily funding this plan, deserve a better solution than one that relies on political pressure and haphazard solutions.”
Gwinnett’s other representative in Congress, Democrat Hank Johnson of Atlanta, also cast a second no vote.
“Without giving serious thought to workable alternatives, I simply cannot support a bill that further burdens the taxpayer and does nothing to address the economy from the bottom-up,” Johnson said. “Like every American, I know that we must find a way to fix Wall Street and protect our nation’s economy. I remain deeply frustrated that the President’s bill, which I voted against for the second time in less than a week, was the only option on the table.
“I remain in agreement with many of the greatest economic minds in the country that there are alternatives to this acutely flawed bill - yet none of those alternatives were even considered. In a debate as serious as this, I find it profoundly disturbing that there was one, and only one, option.”