Web posted
Friday, October 10, 2008
Brownback skeptical of government bailout
By ROY GRABER
Courier Editor
Equipped with a dry-erase board at the Southwestern College library Sen. Sam Brownback had the look of a college professor.
And while Brownback appeared to have captured the attention of the college students and community members gathered to hear him speak on Thursday morning, he acknowledged that he wished his colleagues in the United States Senate would do a better job of listening to him.
The Kansan opposed the recent $700 billion bailout approved last week by the U.S. government. So did nearly all of the Kansas constituents who contacted his office, saying about 2,000 people voiced their opposition, compared to about 50 who said they supported it.
"It was very rushed," said Brownback. "We didn't have a single hearing on it."
One thing about the bailout plan that Brownback disliked was the enormous amount of money that will be spent.
"That was a big bullet to shoot at all one sector," he said. "Rather than fire a big bullet, we should have done something on a narrower, targeted basis."
Less than a week after the bailout's passage, Brownback is hearing horror stories of companies like AIG abusing the money.
"Any time there is government money out there, you will hear bad stories coming back," said Brownback. "To me, these people ought to be cutting their own wages back instead."
Brownback said he thought some form of bailout may have been warranted. One possibility could have been cutting that sum in half, and if it proved to be successful, releasing a second $350 billion."
But that suggestion fell mostly on deaf ears in Washington.
"It's hard to get a group that big to agree on anything," Brownback said.
While he has reservations about government investing, he does see some good things in the recent British trend of the government buying stock into banks.
"It's a lot cheaper route and a cleaner route to go," he said.
Brownback also spoke on energy issues, stating that there will likely be many changes on the horizon.
"Our energy grid is going to look a lot different in 20 years than it does now," said Brownback.
When asked about using natural gas to fuel cars, Brownback expressed reservations.
"I'm not as convinced on natural gas. I'm hesitant on that because there is already a demand on natural gas for heating our homes, and it's already a volatile market," he said.
Instead, Brownback said we could be less reliant on fuels from overseas because of the recent wind energy boom. Combine that with the upcoming increase in production of electric cars, and our dependence on foreign oil will go down dramatically, he said.
He said that most electric cars being designed can run on electricity for 30 miles before they are switched over to gasoline. "Half of the country doesn't drive over 30 miles a day," he said.
Brownback said he also liked the idea of channeling natural methane and using it for energy production.
"I think you will see a lot more local and regional energy between methane and wind, and your parking lots are going to look a lot different."
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