SWEET BRIBES

"Packed with 'sweeteners' - the deceptive name for political bribes - the ($700 billion bailout) bill passed with ease (in the Senate). Sweeteners like more regulations on insurance companies, setting up a 'Wool Trust Fund'.and even relief for the manufacturers of wooden arrows. 'Other goodies intended to attract the votes of individual members of Congress include $192 million for the rum producers of Puerto Rico and Virgin Islands, $128 million for car racing tracks, $33 million for corporations operating in American Samoa, and $10 million for small film and television productions,' says ABC's Jake Tapper."

- Andrew Davis, Director of Communications, Libertarian Party, 10/2/08

BUSH TO CONSERVATIVES: DROP DEAD

"With Senate passage of a revised financial bailout in sight, the White House refused to consider a more free market alternative proposed by House Republicans. The alternative plan, announced Tuesday by Rep. Jeb Hensarling (R-Texas), chairman of the Republican Study Committee, replaces the $700 billion bailout package aimed at easing the credit crisis with a plan to federally insure mortgages up to 100 percent."

- CNS News, 10/2/08

ANOTHER BUSH BUNGLE

"The Bush administration has mishandled the $700 billion bailout at every juncture."

- Columnist Debra Saunders

ABSOLTUELY IRRESPONSIBLE

"Former House Speaker Newt Gingrich blasted President George Bush and Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson Tuesday over the proposed financial bailout, saying the president 'is being absolutely irresponsible' in his handling of the problem."

- Former House Speaker Newt Gingrich

CRISIS HANDLED BADLY

"Unfortunately, (Treasury Secretary Hank Paulson) and President Bush have handled this (Wall Street bailout) situation very badly. They have refused to consider alternative plans and have presented a one-sided point of view that has stirred up fear and panic. I support an alternative bill, H.R. 7223, that gets to the underlying issues and gets our capital markets moving again. Congress must take action, but rushing headlong into Paulson's $700 billion, taxpayer-funded fire sale is the wrong plan."

- Rep. Virginia Foxx, 10/2/08

CONSERVATIVE ALTERNATIVES

"'Well, if you're so opposed to a bailout of Wall Street, what would you do?' I get this question all the time from advocates of the proposed $700 billion Wall Street bailout here inside the Beltway. . . . If I had any confidence in the ability of the political process to produce a rational, bold response, my answer would be: 'I would do plenty.'

"Start by unwinding the many government mistakes that created the housing bubble, repealing the various laws and regulations specifically designed to put people into homes that they could not afford. I would scrap the Community Reinvestment Act, break up Fannie and Freddie, and put the pieces back in the private sector.

"If 'liquidity' and the availability of capital is the immediate problem, I would also repeal the tax on capital gains and other tax provisions that punish savings and capital accumulation. The Flat Tax does all of this in one fell swoop. And, finally, I would repeal the various distortions in corporate accounting hurriedly drafted during previous legislative panics, starting with Sarbanes-Oxley."

- Matt Kibbe of Freedom Works