NW senators split evenly on bailout bill; Murray yes, Cantwell no

WASHINGTON, D.C. — Northwest senators were evenly divided Wednesday night as the Senate approved a $700 billion bailout for the financial industry.

Sens. Patty Murray, D-Washington, Larry Craig of Idaho and Oregon's Gordon Smith supported the bailout, while Sens. Ron Wyden of Oregon, Maria Cantwell, D-Washington, and Mike Crapo of Idaho voted no.

Murray, Wyden and Cantwell are Democrats, while Craig, Crapo and Smith are Republicans.

In the House, leaders were working feverishly to convert enough opponents of the bill to push it through by Friday.

Murray said the bill was not one she would have written or wanted to support. But she said this is not the time to tell America's families, "Sorry, you're on your own" and hope for the best.

She said that if the crisis worsens, credit could dry up completely, both for consumers and for companies seeking to make their payrolls.

"This package is not a cure-all. It's an attempt to keep an already bad situation from getting much worse," she said.

Cantwell said she favors putting the full faith and credit of the federal government into solving the financial crisis, but added: "I do not support turning the keys of the U.S. Treasury over to the private sector. I don't believe it's the government's job to pick winners and losers in corporate America."

While she supported a plan to expand FDIC bank deposit coverage to $250,000, Cantwell objected to a structure where the government only gets companies' bad assets.

"This approach leaves the government with less resources, the troubled companies with less working capital, and in the end may not solve the market's underlying financial problems," Cantwell said in a statement.

Instead, she said the Treasury Department should make equity investments in financial institutions so taxpayers get a share of the companies' good assets as well as the troubled assets, and called for congressional and independent oversight to "identify the culprits" and devise regulatory reforms.

Smith, who is facing a close re-election contest, said his vote in favor of the bill should help rescue the main streets of Oregon from the greed of Wall Street, while extending an economic lifeline to Oregon's rural communities.

"My opponent, in opposing the rescue plan, has shamefully placed his partisan ambitions ahead of the retirement, financial and economic security of the people he seeks to serve and once again has demonstrated his willingness to leave Oregon's rural communities behind," Smith said. He was referring to Oregon House Speaker Jeff Merkley, a Democrat who has denounced the bailout as a giveaway to Wall Street.

Smith said the plan was not perfect, but should stabilize financial markets and financial institutions and ensure access to loans for businesses, families, farmers and students.

He also said it extends hundreds of millions of dollars to Oregon's rural counties to pay for schools, police, fire and other critical services, and holds Wall Street executives accountable for their mismanagement while ending "golden parachutes" for departing CEOs.

Merkley said the bill would help Wall Street executives who created the financial crisis in the first place, while doing nothing to end the failure of oversight that allowed the problems to continue unabated for years.

"We cannot ignore the suffering on Main Street, sidelining our homeowners and allowing deceptive practices to lead more families into bankruptcy," Merkley said Wednesday night.

Wyden said Congress was rightly called to action as Americans — and the American economy — were hurting.

But he said Congress has an obligation to take the time to ask tough questions before making such a momentous decision.

In 2002, Congress rushed through the process of authorizing the Iraq war and failed to verify the answers it received from the Bush administration, said Wyden, who voted against the war.

"Now, in 2008 we have been rushed into voting on a package that would spend $700 billion to address the credit crisis that threatens our markets. In my judgment, the bill we are considering tonight leaves far too many questions unanswered and misses the mark in addressing both the causes and potential cures for the current crisis."

First, Wyden said, the bailout package provides too much help to large institutional investors who took "foolish risks." It also does not do enough to increase regulation over greed-driven abuses on Wall Street, he said.

But Craig said he was convinced that the federal investment, which the Treasury may be able to recoup, would bring stability to financial markets.

"Doing nothing is not an option," he said, adding that Congress has a responsibility to protect taxpayers and eliminate golden parachutes for "greedy" CEOs.