Contact: Matt Lloyd, U.S. Congressman Mike Pence, press office, 202-226-4379

WASHINGTON, Oct. 3 /Standard Newswire/ -- U.S. Congressman Mike Pence released the following statement, announcing his opposition to the revised bailout bill, which is set to be considered by the House today.

"Our nation is confronted by a serious financial crisis. It is a crisis of confidence in our financial markets and a crisis of confidence in this government. While many are anxious about how we will confront this crisis, as I saw on the faces of my constituents this week, many more approach this moment with faith, not fear.

"We will get through this.  We have confronted much greater challenges than this and I am confident we will restore our markets and renew our government.  But we must do so in a manner consistent with the principles that make America great.

"The President and Congress were right to act with all deliberate speed and I am confident that the members in this House are motivated by what they believe to be in the best interests of the American people.

"It must be said that Republican leaders and my colleagues in the House worked hard to improve this bill from the outset. House Republicans slowed down this process long enough to remove outrageous subsidies for liberal activists and trial lawyers and managed to include an optional insurance program.

"And because of the principled stand taken by House Republicans last Monday, the bank deposits of Americans are safer and the balance sheet of their local bank is more secure. Americans will see their bank deposit insurance rise from $100,000 to $250,000, and banks will now be able to value assets much closer to fair market value, increasing their capital and their ability to make credit available to working families, small businesses and family farms.

"But even with these important improvements, this legislation remains the largest corporate bailout in American history, forever changes the relationship between government and the financial sector and passes the cost along to the American people.

"I did not come to Washington to expand the size and scope of government.

"I did not come to Washington to ask working Americans to subsidize the bad decisions of corporate America.

"Therefore, I cannot support the Emergency Economic Stabilization Act of 2008.

"While this bill promises to bring near-term stability to our financial turmoil, I ask my countrymen, at what price?

"The decision to give the federal government the ability to nationalize almost every bad mortgage in America interrupts a basic truth of our free market economy.

"Government cannot control outcomes in the economy without eroding the independence and integrity of our free market system.  When the government chooses winners and losers in the market, every American loses.

"This Congress will choose whether we will confront this crisis by elevating the individual and personal responsibility or by elevating the role of the state in our financial markets and our daily lives.

"Some say that this crisis is too acute to rely on antiquated notions about the role of government in the private sector, but I disagree. I believe the principles of limited government, free enterprise and representative democracy are as relevant today as they were in 1776.

"In another October - 1964 - Ronald Reagan addressed the American people about a 'time for choosing' not much different than today.  He said their choice was, 'whether we believe in our capacity for self-government or whether we abandon the American Revolution and confess that a little intellectual elite in a far-distant capital can plan our lives for us better than we can plan them ourselves.'

"There are no easy answers, but the American people deserve to know there were alternatives to massive federal spending.

"The House Republican alternative would have set up an FDIC-style mandatory insurance program in which Wall Street firms would have paid to insure their mortgage-backed securities. Doing so would have made Wall Street instead of Main Street pay the cost of this rescue. And while there is an option for an insurance plan in this bill, it falls far short of the substitute that Republicans desired.

"The House Republican alternative would also have injected liquidity into our markets through fast-acting tax strategies, releasing the economic power inherent in the American economy. Temporarily reducing the repatriation tax, as we did in 2004, would have brought hundreds of billions of dollars back into this economy.  House conservatives also promoted reducing the individual and corporate capital gains tax. And, there were other business deductions that would help the financial sector get back on its feet.

"Should the current legislation pass and our economy continue to struggle, I remain hopeful that this Congress will turn to these and other proven remedies based on our free enterprise system and belief in limited government.

"President Theodore Roosevelt said, 'An American… must face life with resolute courage, win victory if he can and accept defeat if he must, without seeking to place on his fellow man a responsibility which is not theirs.'

"With this bill we place upon the American public a responsibility which is not theirs: bailing out financial institutions after they made irresponsible business decisions.  This we should not do.

"Instead we should confront this crisis with resolute courage and faith in God and the principles of freedom and free enterprise.  I urge my colleagues to oppose the Emergency Economic Stabilization Act of 2008."