I just read over again the statements from U.S. Senate candidates Elizabeth Dole and Kay Hagan over at the N&R blog Decision 2008. Indeed they both oppose the bill (Dole voted ‘no,’ as you’re aware), and Mark Binker concludes that the “statements are similar in their sentiments.”
That’s what I thought during this morning’s first read. But read it again and note that Hagan pretty much lays it all on Wall Street, specifically singling out CEO pay:
Kay continues to insist that any bailout legislation include protections to fix the abuses that caused this crisis. The lax limits on CEO pay and compensation while including nothing to address protections for working families – lost jobs, high energy prices, falling wages and home prices – do nothing for the people this package should really protect.
“We got into this mess after years of Washington looking the other way and letting Wall Street and their lobbyists do as they pleased. And at a time when Main Street needs Washington to stand up for them the most, we should be ensuring this doesn’t happen again, not giving them our money and crossing our fingers,” Kay said.
One of Hagan’s main soundbites is “Washington is broken.,” and I guess we have to give her credit for not supporting a broken institution handing out billion in taxpayers dollars. But does Hagan understand, or is at least willing to admit, that Washington is as much to blame as Wall Street?
