House is winning converts to bailout

Desperate to avoid another market-crushing defeat, House leaders won key converts Thursday to the $700 billion financial industry bailout on the eve of today's second vote.

But they didn't convince Rep. Jim Matheson, D-Utah. He indicated he dislikes the revised proposal more than the original one and will vote against it today in the House.

However, despite his opposition, Matheson added he believes congressional leadership will ensure the Senate-passed bailout bill will also pass the House.

Rep. Rob Bishop, R-Utah, who, like Matheson, voted against the initial bailout bill earlier this week, said Thursday he's undecided about the revised bill. Utah's third House member, Rep. Chris Cannon, R-Utah, supports the bailout and voted for it earlier.

"The Senate version is even worse (than the original)," Matheson said Thursday. "It's larded up with more debt and doesn't include long-term reform language that would prevent this kind of crisis from happening again."

He added, "I don't believe this bill is the right medicine to cure the disease. Economists aren't able to say that this bill is actually going to solve the credit freeze problem. ... No one in Congress fully understands the implications of this proposal."

Matheson said, "What really needs to happen is for Wall Street, Main Street and ordinary citizens to come together and deal with the fact that we cannot continue to live high off the hog on credit. It's bad for our markets and it's bad for our household budgets."

Scott Parker, chief of staff to Bishop, said, "For now, it's fair to say that Rob is undecided on this latest version. The legislation coming out of the Senate is better than what the House saw, and light years better than the original Bush/Paulson proposal (from President Bush and Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson)."

Parker added, "Rob has said before that something needs to be done, and he is committed to staying here in D.C. and working through this until we get the right solution, rather than a quick solution." He added that "besides stabilizing the economy, a top priority has to be protecting the taxpayers."

Both Bishop and Matheson face re-election next month. Their initial opposition came as they reported thousands of calls from upset Utahns, almost all of whom opposed the bailout. Cannon, R-Utah, was already defeated in the primary election.

In the Senate, both Sens. Bob Bennett and Orrin Hatch, R-Utah, voted for the Senate's redesigned version of the rescue bill. Neither of them face re-election this year.