Lerew: Bailout deal just political cover for Congress

Seventh Congressional District Republican nominee John Lerew, a financial planner from Aurora, thinks Congress' motivation to quickly bail out ailing financial markets is to reassure voters with investments before quarterly statements are sent out next week.  

Slumping stock values seen on voters' 401K and investment plans when 3rd quarter statements are released Sept. 30 would be "a rude awakening that (members of Congress) are artificially trying to prevent," Lerew said.

"All they're trying to do is buy time," he said.

White House and congressional leaders announced a tentative $700 billion bailout deal on Sunday, according to the Wall Street Journal. However, both parties expect a close vote on the deal in Congress, the Denver Post reported.

Lerew opposes the $700 billion bailout, saying he'd prefer to "let the system run its course a little bit more.

"This is a totally different situation than the Depression Era," Lerew said. "You have interstate banking, you have bankruptcy laws that are set up to protect these corporations so that a normal market procedure can be held to liquidate their holding."

If Congress was going to spend $700 billion, he asked, "why not do it towards infrastructure?"  

"Build roads, bridges -- put people to work," he said. 

Lerew's opponent, incumbent U.S. Rep. Ed Perlmutter (D-Golden), said in a statement Wednesday that he "understand(s) the urgency" of addressing the economic crisis.

But, he said in the statement that he was skeptical about a bailout plan introduced by U.S. Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson and Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke.

"I didn't hear enough about taxpayer protection - either limitation on executive pay, or about the upside to the potential for taxpayers to gain an ownership interest in the companies," Perlmutter said in the statement. "Furthermore, I didn't hear enough about accountability/penalties toward those who gambled away people's money."