Kline Has $780,000 Reason To Vote For The Colossal Taxpayer Bailout

The House on Monday defeated a $700 billion emergency taxpayer bailout for the nation's financial system, ignoring urgent warnings from President Bush and congressional leaders of both parties that the economy could nosedive without it. Rep. John Kline (MN-R) voted for the colossal taxpayer bailout which in reality is little more than taxpayers footing the bill for Wall Street and Washington mistakes during Kline's time in office. Not much of surprise here -given Kline has taken $780,000 from wall street. While Kline says his vote was in the best interest of Americans, ultimately those that gain the most are the special interests on wall street that have been very generous ($780,000) to Kline over the years.

According to research produced by MAPLight.org, House members who voted yes on the proposed bailout package received 54 percent more money from banks and securities than members who voted no:

"[O]ver the past five years, banks and securities firms gave an average of $231,877 in campaign contributions to each Representative voting in favor of the bailout, compared with an average of $150,982 to each Representative voting against the bailout – 54 percent more money given to those who voted Yes."

Kline even admits to hearing from thousands of folks in Minnesota's second district voicing concern about having to bail out wall street (private profits/socialized losses) and the billions it would cost Americans. But in the end, having received over 3/4 a million from Wall Street, Kline is beholding for his vote to Wall Street and not Main Street.

"The liquidity measures are a stopgap … You’re funding the banks’ balance sheets, but nobody wants to lend money to them because they’re all afraid of insolvency.” -Laurence H Meyers of Macroeconomic Advisers notes

It's ironic that Kline having grossly profit from Wall Street can even pretend to represent us. If Kline really was representing the second congressional district he would immediately return the $789,000 from Wall Street.

Now that another attempt at a taxpayer bail out has been turned back, hopefully we can have reform included in the next attempt. Let's see a plan that better targets aid..not the blank check, has reform and oversight built into it, that provides for a 'trickle up' approach that takes care of us over corporations.