GOP's bailout problem: Its senators just can't agree
By James Rosen | McClatchy Newspapers
WASHINGTON -- Once again, Republican Sens. Jim DeMint and Lindsey Graham find themselves on opposite sides of a major issue. DeMint took to the national airwaves Wednesday to denounce the Bush administration's financial-services bailout. Graham defended the $700 billion rescue plan as a necessary evil to avert financial catastrophe.
On a day when President Bush pitched the proposal in a prime-time address and his top economic aides blitzed Capitol Hill, other lawmakers in South Carolina and beyond waited for all the dust to settle before staking out a position.
"The government cannot manage this much money effectively without inefficiencies and corruption," DeMint said on NBC's "Today" show. "The government broke it. I don't trust them to fix it."
Graham, of Seneca, said lawmakers had to act.
"I've got one bad choice, which is for the government to get involved in this matter in a way that's never been done before and that I'm not comfortable with," he told reporters. "Or I can pass the buck and have a catastrophic meltdown in the nation and throughout the world."
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