Spokesmen from the offices of U.S. Rep. John Carter, R-Round Rock, and U.S. Sen. John Cornyn, R-Texas, said calls have been plentiful and callers have been frustrated.
Carmen Fenton, spokeswoman for Carter’s office, said the office has received about 800 e-mails and 300 to 400 phone calls on the original bill put forth by the administration, Secretary of Treasury Henry Paulson and Chairman of the Federal Reserve Board Ben Bernanke. She said those numbers are the total of calls coming from the Temple, Round Rock and Washington, D.C., offices.
“If anything on a national level happens, we get flooded with phone calls and this is no exception,” she said. “The majority of those calls have been adamantly opposed to the Paulson plan.”
Brian Walsh, communications director for Cornyn’s office, said the senator’s office has also been flooded with calls.
“We have a high volume of calls, much more than a normal day, with over 1,000 just today,” he said on Thursday. “The vast majority are frustrated with the situation. Small business owners are concerned with markets and realize a complete collapse of markets could ruin their access to credit.”
Carter, speaking from Washington, D.C., where elected officials met Thursday to hammer out a proposal, said he favors a market-based approach to infuse money into the system over the initial, administration plan, which proposed using federal money.
“I am philosophically opposed to the concept of a massive infusion of federal capital into the private market, thus putting us on the slippery slope to Socialism,” he said. “So, therefore, I have to oppose the bailout and so far there’s been nothing to change its nature to where it becomes at all palatable to me.”
He said infusing private capital into the system would make a bill more acceptable.
“We have to have a rapid infusion, so you have to come up with various methods to incentify the rapid infusion,” he said. “There’s plenty of capital standing out there. We don’t want to bail out people who made dumb mistakes on Wall Street.”
In his floor speech on Thursday regarding the Paulson proposal, Cornyn expressed frustration and said he favored protecting the taxpayers.
“… I am extremely upset that we find ourselves in this terrible situation and I can tell you that the phone calls I’ve been getting from my constituents are overwhelmingly angry at how we could possibly find ourselves in this situation,” he said.
“…The vast majority of Americans played no part in the collapse of some of the largest financial institutions in America, and they shouldn’t be forced to pay the price for the irresponsible and risky conduct of those that were at fault,” he said.
He said economic growth is the key to recovery.
“…We need to make sure that this American economy remains stable and that small businesses, which are the lifeblood and the job creators in our economy, have the ability to grow and to create new jobs. I think in the end economic growth is the key.”
He also argued in favor of accountability.
“…We need to ask ourselves if this proposal does enough to safeguard transparency and accountability. And, frankly, I think a lot of work needs to be done here,” he said of the administration proposal.
