Candidates weigh in on financial crisis, government bailouts

Edward Walsh

Sep. 18, 2008 (McClatchy-Tribune Regional News delivered by Newstex) -- Turmoil in financial markets seeped into Oregon political campaigns Wednesday as candidates used a plunging stock market and government bailouts of giant financial firms to debate economic policy.

Oregon House Speaker Jeff Merkley, D-Portland, who is challenging Republican Sen. Gordon Smith, used the bleak market and economic conditions to assail Smith for supporting President Bush's failed plan to divert some Social Security payroll taxes into private accounts to be invested in the stock market.

"Of course, if Gordon Smith had his way, millions of retirees and workers would now be wiped out," Merkley said in a statement.

"This is the Bush economy and the Bush lack of oversight that Gordon Smith has supported 100 percent and it's a disaster," Merkley said.

Lindsay Gilbride, a Smith campaign spokeswoman, disputed Merkley's statement. She said Smith has never supported diverting money that goes into the Social Security trust fund to private accounts but has supported creation of "add-on" accounts in addition to Social Security.

Gilbride said Smith will host an "economic summit" of business and community leaders in Portland on Friday to discuss how the government should respond to the financial crisis.

State Sen. Kurt Schrader, D-Canby, who is running to succeed retiring Democratic U.S. Rep. Darlene Hooley, said most of the government bailouts have been "just appalling and I can't believe they're happening under a Republican administration. They're bailing out shareholders. What about people who are worried about making the next mortgage payment?"

Schrader's Republican opponent, businessman Mike Erickson, also opposed the government bailouts and said that the Bush administration had been "too easy and relaxed" in its oversight of the mortgage and banking industries. Like Schrader, he said he opposed an additional economic stimulus because it would add to the national debt.

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