Latham speaks out on opposition to bailout
By Andy Hallman — Daily Freeman-Journal Staff WriterU.S. Rep. Tom Latham (R-IA) paid a visit to Webster City Republican headquarters this week. Latham came to share his views on the recent $700 billion government bailout plan and to explain why he voted against it.
In an interview prior to his speech, Latham was asked to comment on the situation on Wall Street.
"This is not a situation that has anything to do with the Dow Jones Industrial Average. This is about liquidity in the financial markets and being able to have confidence in whatever securities you're buying or selling," Latham said.
Referring to the bailout bill, Latham stated, "The problem with the bailout vote and the reason I voted no twice on that was I didn't want to just give the Secretary of the Treasury a blank check, or a $700 billion check, with no control, no restraint, and they could go out and purchase anything they want, whether it be credit default swaps, any kind of exotic type of derivatives or anything with this money. And there is no real plan for it. There was never a hearing. There was never any real discussion, no mark-up in committee. Just to rush this thing through and to give the Secretary of the Treasury that check, I think is just simply wrong for the taxpayers and obviously it's not doing any good as far as the markets are concerned."
In his address to the audience, Latham accented the lack of oversight and the absence of any plan as to how the money would be spent. Latham was also irritated that Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) wanted perks for ACORN (Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now) and for trial lawyers to be included in the bill.
Later at the event Latham brought up Pelosi again when he commented, "The national media agrees with the San Francisco values of Nancy Pelosi."
Members of the audience asked Latham why President George W. Bush supported the bailout, and Latham responded that Bush received bad advice from Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson. Latham said that Paulson made the case to Bush that if the government did not inject hundreds of billions of dollars into the economy, Wall Street would be harmed. Latham went on to say that Paulson was "born without ears," and Johnson piped in that Paulson "didn't come from Heartland America".
Latham told the crowd that Senators Chris Dodd (D-RI) and Charles Schumer (D-NY), along with Rep. Barney Frank (D-MA) were the ones who prevented any regulation of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, and that those congressmen are partly responsible for the crisis.
Latham spent most of the remainder of his speech discussing energy policy. Latham declared that oil imports amount to $700 billion annually and that he found this figure to be very alarming. Latham was also distressed that "we send $180 million a day to Hugo Chvez [President of Venezuela]. This oil dependency makes us vulnerable to foreign countries." Latham's solution to the problem was, "we need to drill in the USA and use royalties to invest in our future."
Commenting on his bid for re-election, Latham declared, "We're going to get our message out there. I think one clear difference is that my opponent [Becky Greenwald] in this election would have supported the bailout. I voted no twice. She actually was against it and then changed her mind to be for it. So I think that's a major issue, but certainly my history, my record in congress and what we've been able to do in the district and for the state of Iowa is something I'm very proud of and we're going to run on those issues."
Contact Any Hallman at reporter@freemanjournal.net
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WARDCLEAVER
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10-14-08 10:40 PM
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Interesting choices for Congress this cycle. We have Latham Seed versus Garst Seed. It's just too SEEDY for me. Tomorrow, I'm voting early and casting by ballot by write-in to SEND IN THE MARINE! William J. Meyers, is an average guy just like us and will bring real world common sense in representing us. Stand with me and write in your vote for the Veteran for Common Sense. William J. Meyers MEYERSFORHOUSE DOT COM OR ***********youtube****/watch?v=8hurk_zJQAs
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