FactCheck.org has a new piece about freshman House Democrats — including Battle ‘10 regulars Mary Jo Kilroy and Dina Titus — saying they voted against a bill that was never even in front of them. The story is entitled Democratic Bailout Baloney:
At least five freshman Democratic House members are running ads claiming they voted against the bank “bailout,” when in fact none was in Congress when the bill setting up the Troubled Asset Relief Program, or TARP, was enacted.
Mary Jo Kilroy says she “voted against the bank bailout.”
Kathy Dahlkemper says she voted “against a bailout that helped Wall Street.”
Frank Kratovil claims to have cast his vote in opposition to “the big bank bailout.”
Dina Titus’ ad maintains she “even voted against the bank bailout.”
Glenn Nye’s ad tells viewers he went “against his own party” and “voted against the Wall Street bailout.”
The final House vote on the Emergency Economic Stabilization Act of 2008 took place on Oct. 3, 2008. The bill passed, 263-171. None of the five lawmakers who are running these ads is listed in the roll call vote. That’s because none of them had taken office yet – in fact, none of them would even be elected for another month.
So what are they talking about?
As the FactCheck.org piece explains, the claimed opposition to the $700 billion “bailout” is based on votes for a later disapproval resolution that occurred months after the TARP law passed, and was irrelevant because Treasury already had the funds in question.