SOUTH BEND, IN -- Mark Vogel believes Rep. Joe Donnelly's rush to bail out Wall Street investment banks is misguided, pointing to scores of economists who share Vogel's own view that a bailout is a temporary election-year fix and could lead to greater problems down the road.
"You've got the former Chairman of Goldman Sachs, Henry Paulson, serving as Secretary of the Treasury, asking for essentially a blank check with no controls," explains Vogel. "And, our Republican President and Democrat Finance Committee want us to believe this is urgent enough to pass this in a day? What happened to reading the bill in its entirety? Any time both parties are so eager to push something at the voters -- however nuanced it may be by the opposing parties -- that spells trouble."
Vogel continued, "Look at the Patriot Act. Look at the vote on the war. These were rushed judgments and now endlessly debated. We have time to get this right. We have time to truly address this problem and determine what, if any, action the government really needs to take."
Congressman Donnelly, a member of the prestigious House Finance Committee, sits in the back pocket of Committee Chairman Barney Frank (D-MA) on this issue. Calls to his office resulted in an explanation that "something must be done now" and "we can't wait and watch the economy fall apart."
Donnelly's position, no doubt, echoes those on the Hill that point to the loss voters are sure to suffer with greater foreclosures, bank failures and tighter credit markets.
But, in an interview with WNDU's Maureen McFadden the Congressman points to the greed of Wall Street bankers and a lack of regulations on the problem. He then concludes with the necessity of bailing out the very same banks?
"You'd think Donnelly is a Republican the way continues to throw money at poorly managed private corporations," notes Vogel. "He speaks about deregulation as a real problem, but it was his own party that limited debate on controls on home loans in the mortgage industry and fought for freer lending. In just two years, he's managed to make himself part of the problem. That puts him ahead of schedule; it took Rep. Chocola four years to really create problems."
Vogel's position clearly aligns himself with LPIN's 9th District Congressional District candidate, Dr. Eric Schansberg. Schansberg is an economist with Indiana University Southeast.
