Democrat Congressman Steve Kagen from Appleton says his constituents didn't want to bail out Wall Street firms and financial institutions with their hard-earned tax dollars, so he voted against the plan.
“I was elected to represent the best interests of families in Northeast Wisconsin, not the billionaires on Wall Street, so I voted no.”
Kagen says he can't justify giving $700 billion to institutions who were not able to keep their financial houses in order.
“We've seen many people lose their jobs because of these failed economic policies of borrow and spend, the unbalanced trade deals, and the fact that we've had an administration that will not regulate the financial markets. They were asleep at the wheel.”
Kagen says he was elected to represent the best interest of his constituents, not Wall Street, and says the $700-billion bailout will not help average taxpayers.
Kagen says he received letters, phone calls and emails from constituents who don't want their money to be trusted with the very people who caused this huge problem.
“So what we need to do is catch all the crooks and punish them; we need to clean up the economic mess; and we have to write laws to protect homeowners, not the speculators on Wall Street.”
Kagen says as bad as things are right now, they're not nearly as bad as they were in the 1980s with the Savings and Loan crisis, which cost taxpayers $160-billion.