SUBMITTED RELEASE FROM FRIENDS FOR HARRY REID
LAS VEGAS–A year and a half after Wall Street chaos ravaged our economy and threw eight million Americans out of work, Republicans continue to oppose and obstruct common sense efforts to rein in the abuses that caused the financial meltdown. And while Sen. Harry Reid is leading the fight in Washington to hold Wall Street accountable and ensure taxpayers are never again made to bail out big banks, opposition to the bill isn’t just limited to DC.
Republicans Sharron Angle, Danny Tarkanian and Sue Lowden are all vehemently opposed to the type of Wall Street reforms Reid is fighting for–repeatedly sticking up for the big banks in spite of their ruinous impact on the lives of countless thousands of Nevadans via lost jobs, destroyed home equity (or altogether loss of ownership) and devastated retirement savings.
Instead of trying to reel in the “anything goes” Bush-era policies that fostered the largest economic catastrophe since the Great Depression, the top GOP Senate candidates have all advocated moving in the opposite direction:
· Astonishingly, Lowden favors even less taxpayer protection from Wall Street abuses than the status quo. “Lowden responded by walking back her comments, saying that they were part of an ‘intellectual conversation’ with the reporter and that she would not have voted for the bailout, period. In an interview, she went further, saying that the financial meltdown was the result of too much government regulation, not too little.” [Las Vegas Sun, 4/4/2010]
· Angle opposes all accountability, even for taxpayer bailed-out banks. When asked a question about TARP-funded banks giving bonuses to executives, Angle said, “Well you don’t give them the money in the first place, but now that they’ve got it, I don’t see that we go in and tell business what to do. That’s not what government’s supposed to be about.” [Face to Face with Jon Ralston, 2/3/2010]
· Tarkanian also opposes Reid’s Wall Street reforms. Not to be left out, Tarkanian sent a misleading email to supporters and the media that was nothing more than regurgitation of thoroughly debunked national GOP talking points. Tarkanian’s missive was so transparently a cut-and-paste of Frank Luntz’s talking points that in any other context, he could reasonably have been accused of plagiarism.
“Instead of doing the bidding of the Wall Street bankers that brought us the financial meltdown, Republican candidates should stand with Nevada families struggling to find or keep jobs, stay in their homes and protect their retirement savings,” said Friends for Harry Reid Communications Director Kelly Steele. “Sen. Reid is standing up for Main Street instead of Wall Street, and is fighting the big banks to demand they pay back every cent of the bailouts and ensure taxpayers are never on the hook for their irresponsible behavior again.”
