Matheson will still vote no to bailout; Bishop undecided

Despite the Senate's changes in the $700 billion financial institution rescue bill, Rep. Jim Matheson, D-Utah, says he still opposes it — and will vote against it in the House.

Meanwhile, Rep. Rob Bishop, R-Utah, who like Matheson voted against the initial bailout bill earlier this week, says he is 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."

Matheson added that he believes congressional leadership will ensure the Senate-passed bailout bill will also pass the House, but he will continue to oppose it. He added, "I am certain this isn't the end of the difficulties we face. Congress will have to return in January to deal with this again."

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 reelection next month. Their initial opposition came as they reported thousands of calls from upset Utahns, almost all of which 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 reelection this year.

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