Roberts, Brownback Oppose Bailout Bill
Roberts, Brownback Oppose Bailout Bill Save Email Print
Challenger Slattery says "devil's in the details"
Posted: 7:43 PM Oct 1, 2008
Last Updated: 11:08 PM Oct 1, 2008
Reporter: 13 News/Associated Press


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WASHINGTON (AP) _ Both of Kansas' Republican senators voted against a revised plan to rescue the nation's financial industry Wednesday night.

Sen. Pat Roberts said his decision reflects the will of thousands of Kansas voters who have contacted his office to say the $700 billion measure is unacceptable.

"It’s important Congress act responsibly to shore up America’s confidence in the financial system. Unfortunately, this proposal is still flawed. It does not protect taxpayers, contains no meaningful oversight, may not solve the crisis and is seen by most Americans as rewarding greed," Roberts said.

Roberts' challenger on the November ballot, Democrat Jim Slattery, said he didn't know enough about the details of the plan to say whether or not he'd vote for it. However, he said he knew enough to know "the devil's in the details." He also says Congress needs to be sure to reward taxpayers with whatever it passes.

"It is clear the current Senate bill doesn't do enough for taxpayers and I have explained what I believe needs to be done for a bill to receive my support," Slattery said. "After voting for many of the policies that have caused this problem, Sen. Roberts has been deafening in his silence during this crisis and has failed to proposes how we begin to fix this mess."

Sen. Sam Brownback said the nation is entering a recession and called on Congress to pass a bill that works to restore ``the broader economy.''

“Congress needs time to get this right," Brownback said. "A rushed $700 billion bailout package is unlikely to produce the long-term results we need. Plus, $700 billion is a lot of money. You could buy all the farm land in the top 16 agricultural producing states in America with that amount of money. Or it could buy 4.4 million Americans a home at the median price in Kansas."

The Senate approved the measure on a 74-25 vote, and the House could vote on it by the end of the week.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

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Posted by: Brad Location: Kansas working in West Africa helping with oil production on Oct 3, 2008 at 12:25 PM
Brownback was right. We should not be in a big hurry to throw $700B at this problem. I would hope that Washington would try to do something right for a change. I also believe the Senate added a huge amount of pork to this bill to get the votes. So it is bloated even larger. The Senate found a way to print more money that we do not have. I think both our Kansas Senators showed some backbone and common sense. Something terribly lacking in our capital.

Posted by: Anonymous on Oct 2, 2008 at 03:19 PM
Yeah right, Lloyd Blankfein, chaiman of Golman Sachs made $73.7 million last year. Stanley O'neil of Merill Lynch made $61 million. Auction their properties and repay the taxpayers first.

Posted by: Topeka Location: KS on Oct 2, 2008 at 10:10 AM
I am sorry that we have to do this but it has to be done. If we don't do something fast it will start hurting all of us the every day work force. Stop giving money out to other countries we need to fix us first. Student loans you knew that when you went in that you had to pay it back so why are you crying now it is no different than any other bill you have to pay back. We need to take a look at who voted this down and caused a lot of this trouble and vote them out.

Posted by: Common Sense Location: Topeka on Oct 1, 2008 at 10:21 PM
I'm retired from the military and now work as a federal employee. I have been promoted enough and with the retirement check each month I do OK. We depend on annual cost of living raises, maybe we can find a few billion to make life better for our public servants. My wife teaches and just completed her Masters. I think we should find a few billion and wipe out all student loan debt for all teachers. Too many leave the profession for lack of income and our nation suffers because of it. About half of her recent pay increase will be for student loans. Sad that our educators don't have tuition costs waived but we are planning to bail out the fithy rich.

Posted by: D'Lynne Location: Missouri on Oct 1, 2008 at 08:19 PM
Thank you, Senator Roberts! We don't need to give our government a shove along the path of socialism. It may hurt worse in the short term, but the free market needs to settle this. The government needs to get out of the way! Thanks, again, Senator. I'm behind you.