Rep. Dana Rohrabacher
Rep. Dana Rohrabacher told me today that he’s inclined to vote no on a Wall Street bailout plan.
“In principle it’s a bad idea for the government to be taxing people who are responsible in order to bail out people who are irresponsible,” said Rohrabacher, R-Huntington Beach. “I’ll be looking at it but I can’t imagine they are going to come up with a package that will be sufficiently responsible to get my vote.”
Rohrabacher said he wants a “major reform of the system” rather than “simply bailing out everybody as if this was a bad turn of the weather, like a hurricane that came through and caused all this.”
Rohrabacher also said he sees these bailout packages as “a cover to pour billions of dollars into the pockets of special interests.”
He’s particularly concerned that U.S. taxpayers might help out foreign entities that bought up American home mortgages.
I also asked Rohrabacher what he thinks of John McCain’s call for the ouster of Chris Cox as chairman of the Securities and Exchange Commission. Rohrabacher and Cox served together in the Reagan White House and in Congress.
“Chris has only been in there a short period of time and the irresponsible policies that have brought this crisis upon us have been in place for decades,” Rohrabacher said. “Chris has made some fundamental reforms while he’s been there. I think making him the fall guy is very dishonest.”
I asked Rohrabacher what he would do to fix this mess. He wants to decentralize and perhaps even privatize the mortgage loan guarantee system. He envisions taking Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac apart and instead having 25 centers around the country. This way, he said, “the good guys wouldn’t be taken down by the bad guys.”
Dana is the only sane Congressman in Orange County now.
Way to go, Dana! I appreciate politicians who actually stand-up for the hard working American taxpayer. He’s got my vote on Nov. 4!
Thank you Congressman Rohrbacher for saying what’s on your mind and what’s on ours!
Just say NO to liberal bailouts!
“the good guys wouldn’t be taken down by the bad guys”
So, he is saying that in some parts of the country, there are no bad guys. There is greed everwhere and everybody that was involved in the Housing markey was greedy and a bad guy(gal)
Besides, what does he mean by the statement, “rather than “simply bailing out everybody” He seems to imply that somebody, not everybody will or should be bailed out.
Given that all parties involved were irresponsible, some fraudently, why will some people be bailed out.
I like what he says. Wish he was my congressman since what he says makes more sense.
One thing that disturbs me about this is that I read that some and I think it was the honchos behind the bailout were saying the root problem was the bad loans. That is scary if they don’t recognize how there came to be all those bad loans.
A lot of supposed financial whizzes made foolish, imprudent decisions which led to this whole mess.
Dana,
NO BAILOUT!!! Just let the pieces fall where they will.
“LIBERAL” bailouts???!!! WTF??!
I agree, bailing out people/corp who have been irresponsible is not fair; however the limits, oversight, and repayment plans added onto the bill made the bailout less a handout of money then a loan/investment by the government. I dont think Rep Rorie understands that by not getting this bill passed is going to hurt everyone, including the ‘honest’ taxpayers. Rohrabacher’s playing campaign politics on something that needs to be taken seriously. He is the one being irresponsible! This November, when he is up for re-election, I will be voting against him (I previously voted for him).