Congressman Elton Gallegly
Serving the 24th Congressional District encompasses most of Ventura County and inland Santa Barbara County.

WASHINGTON, D.C. — Congressman Elton Gallegly (R-Ventura & Santa Barbara Counties) issued this statement today after voting against the Economic Stabilization Act for the second time:

“There is no doubt our economy faces a crisis. To resolve it, we need a solution that addresses the core reasons for the crisis. As I have said repeatedly, while I do not like government intervention, if we are to intervene, we must do so correctly. I believe this bill is fundamentally flawed and Congress should stay in Washington and not leave until we get the right solution.

“The bill the House considered today is virtually identical to the one which the House rejected Monday, except that the Senate added numerous provisions that will not help the credit crunch facing our nation. Some of these provisions can only be defined as pork at its worst. In the midst of a crisis, how can we justify special interest tax breaks of $192 million aimed at Puerto Rican rum, $148 million for wool fabric producers, $100 million for race track owners, $2 million for kids’ practice arrow makers, and $33 million to American Samoa, which benefits Star-Kist Tuna in Speaker Pelosi’s district?

“The underlying reason for our economic problem is that people are in homes they can’t afford and for which they never should have qualified. The roots of this go back to previous Administrations, when lenders were told they had to make loans to individuals who could not afford them. This was only compounded by tens of thousands of people, including illegal immigrants, who were given loans without proper scrutiny and often put no money down and made few payments, if any at all. Add to that greedy Wall Street scoundrels, unscrupulous mortgage brokers, and an ocean of consumer debt and it is easier to understand how we got into this mess.

“None of these problems have been addressed in this bill. With the passage of this flawed bill today, it is even more important that we aggressively make the necessary changes to end these policies and ensure this never happens again. I fully intend to focus my energy on that.”