CNN Reporter: Pollsters 'Perplexed' by Bailout Opposition
Americans aren’t all on board for the government stepping in and saving the day with an expensive bailout/rescue bill – and that has some journalists scratching their heads.
Correspondent Carol Costello explained on CNN’s Oct. 1 “American Morning” that polling organization can’t figure out why the public doesn’t want the big hand of government involved.
“I talked to our own polling experts and they are perplexed by the numbers,” Costello said. “Voters appear to have no clear idea what they want Congress to do – they just want them to do something. Voters are confused and many analysts say our political leaders are to blame.”
Costello noted that despite alarmist rhetoric from political leaders, the majority of American people still aren’t sold on the idea of government intervention in the form of a $700-billion bailout.
“It turns out those words didn’t pack a punch like the phrase, ‘Wall Street bailout’ did,” Costello said. “That’s all voters heard – ‘Wall Street Bailout,’ not ‘Main Street Bailout,’ so they weren’t exactly eager to jump on board. That’s left politicians now struggling to find the right words.”
To Costello, the failed passage of the bailout bill is nothing more that “playing politics.”
“And to add to the confusion, the stock market shot up about 500 points yesterday,” Costello added. “Now of course that means investors have new hope a new bailout plan will be passed, but analysts say clearly President [George W.] Bush and Treasury Secretary Paulson did a poor job of explaining the bailout to voters and to legislators – some of whom are clearly playing politics with a failing economy.”
However, as Rep. Mike Pence, R-Ind., explained – it’s not as simple as “playing politics.” He voted against the bailout because such a measure in his view would be government interference in the free markets.
“This is a very serious crisis,” Pence said on FOX News Channel’s Sept. 29 “Hannity & Colmes.” “And I want to take issue with something that’s been the underpinning of your discussion. Look, today Congress took a stand for the American taxpayer and for free markets. It wasn’t a speech by Speaker Pelosi. It wasn’t a blame game. It was – the American people rejected this corporate bailout and today the people’s House did likewise.”
