Senate candidates Warner and Gilmore weigh in on rescue efforts in Congress

By Chelyen Davis

Date published: 10/2/2008

RICHMOND

Democrat Mark Warner said this week that he thinks Congress has a responsibility to take action, although he'd like to see the bill contain more protections for homeowners. He also is glad that under the new proposal, there are higher limits on bank deposits covered by FDIC insurance.

"The bill can be improved," Warner said, but "Congress has got to act. Not acting, basically playing Russian roulette with the American economy is just not responsible."

Warner thinks the bailout is less about saving banks and more about "making sure there's not a total credit crunch."

But his rival in the race for retiring Sen. John Warner's Senate seat, Republican Jim Gilmore, is less confident that a federal bailout is necessary or wise.

Gilmore said this week he would prefer to see Congress slow down and investigate its options more thoroughly.

"I don't want to see our financial markets fail [but] if I were U.S. Senator, I'd want to get more information and make sure the public is protected," Gilmore said. "This has been a real rush to spend the taxpayers' dollars. The taxpayer is not an ATM."

Gilmore said he does think Congress should move to make sure this situation does not happen again. That includes giving more oversight over the financial industry to a government agency, most likely the Federal Reserve.

While that oversight could cover things like lending standards, Gilmore cautioned he doesn't support outright regulation and "nationalization" of the financial industry. He believes private, free-market enterprise would normally take care of market issues.

But in this case, he blames the Clinton administration

"This was not private enterprise. This was a policy by the Clinton administration to shove more and cheaper credit [into the market]," Gilmore said.

The issue of the bailout is likely to get more attention from Warner and Gilmore Friday night, when they meet for their last debate before the November election.

That debate is scheduled to be aired live on several TV stations statewide, including WWBT, the Richmond NBC affiliate, and C-SPAN.

Chelyen Davis: 804/782-9362
Email: cdavis@freelancestar.com

Date published: 10/2/2008