More Barkley on the "Bailout"

From a press release issued last night.

Barkley Comments on Bailout Deal Negotiations

For Immediate Release
Contact: Christopher Truscott
ctruscott@senatorbarkley.com

PLYMOUTH—Dean Barkley, the Independence Party candidate for U.S. Senate, released the following statement Sunday evening regarding the Wall Street bailout deal reached by Congress this weekend:

"This is a bitter, $700-billion pill for American taxpayers to swallow.

"The deal reached by Congress this weekend appears to be a small step in the right direction because it addresses some of the problems facing our economy. But in the rush to complete a bill before recess, lawmakers have failed so far to confront one of the biggest reasons we're in this mess today: a complete abdication of oversight authority by the Legislative Branch.

"For the past decade, Wall Street has run amok while Washington looked the other way with a wink and a nod. The deal now before us provides only nominal oversight authority in the form of a panel comprised almost entirely of members of the Executive Branch—the same disastrous formula that helped bring us the Iraq War.

"Until we get a handle on election financing, it's going to be awfully hard for Congress to look the finance industry in the eye and say 'change your reckless ways.'

"In fact, in this race alone, Norm Coleman has taken more than three-quarters of a million dollars from the securities and investment industry and another $275,000 from commercial bankers. Al Franken is slightly less impure, taking 'only' $211,000 from the securities and investment industry.[1]

"Hopefully this very expensive wake-up call will help produce the long-overdue, real change we need on so many fronts in Washington."

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Barkley, a 58-year-old Minnesota native, served as the director of the Minnesota Office of Strategic and Long Range Planning under Gov. Jesse Ventura. In November 2002, Ventura appointed Barkley to fill the final two months of the late Sen. Paul Wellstone's term.

The former governor said recently that Barkley is "measured minute by minute … the most effective U.S. senator in Minnesota history."

More information is available online at www.senatorbarkley.com.

[1] The Center for Responsive Politics. Available online at: http://www.opensecrets.org/races/indus.php?cycle=2008&id=MNS1