Sen. Kerry: GOP Used Pelosi as Excuse to 'Screw the Guy on Main Street'
With all the turmoil in financial markets in the wake of a defeated federal government bailout package, hyperbole is running at high levels.
Take former presidential candidate Sen. John Kerry, D-Mass. Kerry appeared on FOX News Channel’s Sept. 29 “The O’Reilly Factor” and commended House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., for her efforts garnering Democratic votes in the House. He lambasted the Republicans members for not voting ‘yes’ on the proposed $700 billion bailout.
“Let me tell you something. She [Pelosi] summoned a supermajority,” Kerry said. “Sixty percent plus voted for this. The Republicans had a super-supermajority – almost veto proof – 66 percent voted against it today.”
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“And just because their feelings were hurt by something that Nancy Pelosi said is not an excuse to screw the guy on Main Street and his savings account, to screw small businesses, to screw companies across the country,” Kerry said. “It was an act of cowardice and selfishness and pure politics.”
But according to Rep. Mike Pence, R-Ind., one of the members of the Congress who voted against the bailout, it wasn’t Pelosi’s speech that drove Republicans to oppose the bill, although it was criticized as an attempt to politicize the process by taking a shot at President George W. Bush. Pence said conservatives opposed the bill in defense of the taxpayers and of the free market.
“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.”
Earlier on CNBC’s “Mad Money,” host Jim Cramer criticized politicians for not passing the bill – saying they were too
