U.S. Sen. Elizabeth Dole, R-N.C., said Friday she could not vote for the $700 billion bailout plan for the financial industry that the Bush administration has put forward.
“After a week of closely scrutinizing the Bush Administration’s Wall Street rescue proposal,” Dole said Friday afternoon, “I have concluded that it violates every principle of American capitalism and free enterprise that I have been taught, and that our country has always held.
“I am not an economist, but the overwhelming reaction from economists has been negative about this plan.
“I am not a banker, but the overwhelming opinion of the bankers I have talked to in my home state and elsewhere has been negative about this plan.”
Dole said her N.C. constituents also have sent her the clear message that “this plan is not the way we do things in America.”
“I do not believe a plan that has drawn such wide criticism from experts and such anger from many of my constituents will create the kind of consumer confidence and market stability that we need to get our economy back on track,” Dole said in a statement.
“Most importantly, asking each household in America to in effect fork over $10,000 to help save Wall Street from itself is not something I can support.”
Despite her opposition, Dole said inaction also was not an option and that she would work with other lawmakers to find an acceptable alternative.
She said an alternative should include the following:
– Provide a significant and immediate tax credit for purchasing a home.
– Require the Treasury secretary to provide a report on the future role of the federal government in the U.S. mortgage market.
– End the system of “private rewards, public loss” that America has already been exposed to via Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac.
– Specify how the government would price problem assets, which the administration proposal fails to do.
– Fix the most urgent of the interrelated problems, including liquidity for the marketplace, solvency of financial institutions, declining home values and reforming the entire regulatory structure.