Congressman Tom Cole was a bit like Daniel stepping into the lion’s den when he addressed a small group of voters at a downtown Ardmore coffee shop Thursday afternoon.
The Republican Congressman explained in detail why he decided to vote for the Wall Street bailout bill despite significant constituent opposition. He got a couple of tough questions, but no one bit his head off.
“You have a right to be angry,” he said.
Cole said the credit crisis is the result of a succession of financial failures over the past couple of months. The extent of the problem was made clear when U.S. Treasury Sec. Henry Paulson and U.S. Federal Reserve chairman Ben Bernanke came to Congressional leaders a few weeks ago with copies of a 3-page, $700 billion rescue bill.
“Those guys were really worried we were on the edge of stumbling into something like the Great Depression,” he said.
Cole said the initial reaction in Congress was incredibly negative. But faced with growing evidence of an impending crisis, the House leadership decided to consider the measure. After the resulting 130-page bill failed to pass the House, the Senate passed their own version. That bill then went to the House where it passed and was signed into law on Oct. 3.
“This was a very challenging vote for me,” Cole said. “This is not how my constituents think, and it’s not how I act. It offends me.”
Still, he decided it was in everyone’s best interest to act.
“This risk of doing nothing was substantial,” he said. “This is not the normal recession. I think inaction would be a mistake.”
Cole said it will take time for the government’s plan to have an impact on the economy. There was more bad news Thursday as stocks tumbled in the final minutes of trading, sending the Dow Jones industrials down to their lowest level in five years.
With the economy in a slide and the credit markets seized up, states are slashing budgets, eliminating jobs, putting major construction projects on hold and nervously waiting to see whether their shriveled pension funds recover.
They are also weighing lawsuits against Wall Street firms. And at least one state — California — may ask Washington to come to the rescue.
Cole assured his coffee shop audience that Congress will continue to monitor the state of the economy and revisit the issue after the election, if necessary.
“There has to be a higher level of responsibility on the part of everybody in our society,” he said.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
Steve Biehn, 221-6546
steve.biehn@ardmoreite.com
