Tom Feeney Opposes Wall Street Bailout Bill

(Washington, DC) -Tom Feeney (R-Oviedo), member of the House Financial Services Committee, today released this statement regarding his opposition to today's Wall Street bailout vote. Earlier this week, Tom Feeney voted against the largest government intervention into financial markets since the Great Depression and unfortunately this new bailout bill still has the same problems.

"I gave today's vote on the bailout bill a great deal of thought and while I believe that it has been slightly improved with the increase in FDIC insurance, the underlying problem is still in the bill. Using $700 billion of taxpayer money to buy troubled assets and firm up balance sheets on Wall Street will not stimulate Central Florida banks. The United States taxpayer is now an unwilling gambler in the derivatives and hedge fund business; not a place our Founders envisioned America's citizens would be.

"One of my main frustrations with this rushed plan is that there are options out there that worked during the Savings and Loan Crisis that do not require the taxpayer to foot the bill -- and these proposals aren't even on the table.

"I do believe that responsible action is needed and I have cosponsored a free market alternative SOLUTION to this bailout. The Free Market Protection Act of 2008 uses free market principles to help stabilize the market, loosen capital and allow lending to continue, correct the root cause of this credit crunch and reform legislation to create meaningful regulations. All of this can be done without using taxpayer money to bail out irresponsible decisions on Wall Street.

"At the end of the day, I stood with my principles and voted to protect hardworking Main Street Americans from footing the bill for past speculation by Wall Street executives and liberal politicians who pushed lenders to make loans to people without adequate credit." said Feeney.

This bill increases the amount of federal debt to $11.3 trillion. That is an additional $8,000 of debt for each American man, woman and child.

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