Opponent: Emerson betrayed trust of voters
Joe Allen, the Democratic candidate for the 8th District, blasted his opponent, Rep. Jo Ann Emerson, for voting last week to support a $700 million bailout of Wall Street.
Allen, a Forsyth attorney, recently traveled through the east part of the district, and he said Monday that everyone he visited with wanted to talk about the crumbling economy and last week’s congressional vote to spend $700 billion to shore up bank’s balance sheets.
“The main issue on the minds of our people, regardless of which party they belong to, is Jo Ann Emerson’s betrayal of their trust and support in her two votes to bail out the Wall Street investment bankers who got way too greedy, gambled and lost,” Allen said. “Our people here in southern Missouri cannot understand why Jo Ann Emerson would force us to pay off Wall Street gambling debts. Wall Street is not a sure thing. These Wall Street types asked for, and then gambled on very risky financial instruments and lost. It is they who should pay off their gambling debts, learn a lesson and not make the same mistake again.”
Emerson joined Rep. Roy Blunt in supporting the measure, saying it was necessary to aid the economy.
“That what seems to irritate Missourians the most, is that Jo Ann Emerson is going to force them to not only bail out Wall Street bankers, but foreign banks, too,” Allen said.
Allen noted that more than 200 economists from Harvard, Yale, MIT and UCLA, among others, have said the bail out would not work.