Saintless

Utah’s lone Democratic Congressman, Jim Matheson, sent me an email tonight, asking for my opinion (via  radio-button survey) on the Financial Crisis. In case you aren’t on his “advisor list”, here are the questions he asked, along with my responses. My answers are the ones shown as bold.

Dear Misty,

Most economists accept that the nation’s financial crisis demands intervention by the government.  But I have concerns about the proposal to put $700 billion to $1 trillion in taxpayer money on the line.

Are we acting too quickly, without gathering enough information? Will the proposal work? What benefit will taxpayers receive, if the financial system is stabilized?  Are we giving too much power to one government agency?

I would like to hear from you.  Please take a moment to respond to the following brief survey.

Sincerely,

U.S. Representative
2nd District of Utah

Do you support the use of taxpayer money to buy up the bad debt on the books of troubled investment banks?

yes
no
don’t know enough about it

How concerned are you about financial executives receiving excessive compensation even as their companies go bankrupt?

Not too concerned
Quite concerned
Strongly opposed to it

Should homeowners facing foreclosure be allowed to restructure their mortgages to afford the payments and stay in their homes?

Yes
No
Don’t know

If the bailout plan is approved, should an independent oversight board be appointed to keep tabs on the program?

yes
no

Who do you blame most for the current crisis?

Banks
Wall Street executives
Homebuyers
Mortgage lenders
Homebuilders
Realtors
A combination of the above
the government

How worried are you about the safety of your savings accounts and mutual funds?

Not worried
somewhat worried
very worried

I found the phrasing of the questions quite interesting, and much of it quite leading. Especially the question about who I blame most. Why wasn’t this question a checkbox? I can’t blame the government as much as Wall Street, and if I want to blame both Wall Street execs and Banks, I have to blame the home builders, too? That doesn’t make much sense.

If you want to give Matheson your thoughts, you’ll have to use his web site. Unfortunately, I don’t think the survey is “open”, but you can use a feedback form to pass your answers on. Or give them a call at (202) 225-3011.

Feel free to leave a comment telling if you’d answer differently than me, and why.

This entry was posted on Tuesday, September 23rd, 2008 at 8:59 pm and is filed under Democrats, Jim Matheson, Utah. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.