Outraged Harkin wants to slow speeding bailout train

U.S. Sen. Tom Harkin

In about a decade of being on conference calls with U.S. Sen. Tom Harkin, this morning is the most angry we’ve heard the Iowa Democrat.

He’s no doubt reflecting the calls and emails and other contacts he’s received from constituents regarding the Bush Administration’s proposed $700 billion rescue plan for the beleaguered financial sector.

The bailout, incidentally, is more than what it costs to run the Pentagon for a single year (that costs about $600 billion, according to The Washington Post).

“My office is deluged with calls from Iowans who are outraged with this bailout,” Harkin told Iowa Independent and other media early this morning from Washington, D.C. “My phones are ringing off the hook. They know that nobody is going to bail them out if they make reckless investments and they’re disgusted with the idea of handing over $700 billion of their hard-earned tax dollars.”

What are people flooded in Cedar Rapids supposed to think with rejection letters for 4 percent Small Business Administration (SBA) loans in their hands as Congress considers tossing a multi-billion lifeboat to people who shuffle paper for a living?

Harkin thinks the administration has handed lawmakers a panic-driven proposal.

“Absolutely, there is no doubt in my mind we are being stampeded,” Harkin said.

President George W. Bush last night used words like “painful” and “panic” and “recession” in a speech to the nation, and his Treasury secretary, Henry Paulson, said, “This entire proposal is about benefiting the American people because today’s fragile financial system puts their economic well-being at risk.”

But Harkin said he’s not going to be pressured by what he thinks is a false specter of financial Armageddon.

“It’s time for us to take a deep breath, sit back and do it right, and not be bum-rushed into something like this,” Harkin said.

But it’s not just the administration calling for quick action. Market analysts are saying it’s a mistake to inject morality and fairness into the debate. The alternative to the bailout is perhaps worse, goes that line of reasoning, which the I asked Harkin about this morning: the notion that some financial entities are just too important to fail, no matter their sins.

“These are all the bright people in the past that got us into the mess, right? And now we should listen to them about how to get out of it?” Harkin said. “I don’t think there are too many bright bulbs out there in a lot of these management positions, managing these assets, you know.”

Harkin not only wants caps on pay for CEOs, but he wants the taxpayers to get some ownership in the companies it is saving in the bailout.

The senator is also demanding that relief from high-interest credit card debt be included in the package and went so far as to say that the inclusion of such relief would be “determinative” for his support of the bailout.

“I’m going to fight to do it on this bill,” Harkin said.

Harkin is not alone in his call to “slow this train down.” Some lawmakers say a vote on the bailout may be the most important one of a career.

“This is too serious a problem for the administration to expect us to just rubber-stamp a $700 billion proposal and rush to get out of town,” Sen. Susan Collins, Republican of Maine, told The New York Times. “That’s something my constituents definitely won’t tolerate.”

Then there is Paulson on Capitol Hill telling Congress it has to act now.

“Americans’ personal savings and the ability of consumers and business to finance spending, investment and job creation are threatened,” Paulson said.