Congressman Patrick McHenry issued the following statement regarding the Wall Street bailout proposal.

“Over the past two weeks, my focus has been on the significant turmoil facing our financial and capital markets and the potential threat it poses to the people of Western North Carolina.  From the beginning, I was deeply skeptical of Secretary Paulson's unprecedented proposal to use $700 billion of taxpayer money to address this problem. 

“While I believe that action is needed, the legislation before Congress represented a fundamentally flawed approach to addressing the turmoil on Wall Street.  At a time when Western North Carolina families are struggling to pay their bills each month, I believe it is inherently wrong for Congress to open the taxpayers’ check book and cut a $700 billion check to bailout Wall Street.  There are alternative approaches to address this problem that do not require generations of American families to pay the bill for the irresponsible actions of Wall Street.

“In 2005, my first year in Congress, I recognized the threat that the runaway train of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac posed to our financial markets.  That’s why I voted for the reform and regulation of these companies that could have averted our current crisis.  In July of this year, I voted against legislation that issued the first blank check to begin the Wall Street bailouts.  Since then, taxpayers have bailed out a series of financial institutions and yet the problem persists.  Therefore, I’ve concluded that another round of taxpayer-funded bailouts will not bring lasting stability to our financial markets.

“Now that this bill has failed, I encourage the leaders of the Democrat-run Congress to offer legislation that will bring stability to our financial markets while providing protection for taxpayers.”

NOTE:  On October 26, 2005, Congressman McHenry voted for H.R. 1461, which would have instituted significant reform and regulation of Government Sponsored Enterprises (GSE) including Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac.

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