Merkley pins economic crisis on Smith, Bush

U.S. Senate candidate Jeff Merkley (D-Portland) expressed disappointment in the Senate’s passage of bailout legislation for Wall Street Wednesday night, and responded to U.S Sen. Gordon Smith’s (R-Pendleton) vote by accusing him of being a part of the problem.

"This is what they do in Washington. They take a bad proposal and add $150 billion of sweeteners to satisfy enough people,” Merkley said in a statement. “This is not how to solve problems.”

The bill the Senate passed totaled close to $850 billion in taxpayer money that would be used to buy up bad debts that financial institutions have racked up. A House version of the bill that failed earlier this week would have resulted in $700 billion in taxpayer dollars going for the bailout.

Merkley was also quick to blame Smith for being part of the original deregulation that the Oregon House Speaker said led to the economic crisis.

"The crisis on Wall Street and the need for a bailout is an indictment of the failed economic policies of Gordon Smith and George Bush," Merkley said. "Their philosophy resulted in unimaginable abuses and excesses on Wall Street and now Washington is making taxpayers clean up the mess.  Congress and the Administration should go back to the drawing board and come back with a proposal that prevents more economic pain for families and small businesses and meets some minimum standards to protect taxpayers and guarantee accountability on Wall Street."

Smith said Wednesday night that Merkley was simply playing politics with the issue, and was exploiting it in order to gain ground the Oregon Senate election.

“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 in a statement. “That’s not what Oregonians expect their Senator to do.”

Smith voted for the bill, as did presidential candidates Barack Obama (D-Ill.) and John McCain (R-Ariz.).

U.S Sen. Ron Wyden (D-Portland) voted against it.