Symington Statement on Wall St. Bailout

STATEMENT ON WALL ST. BAILOUT
Gaye Symington
3pm - 9/29/08

Good afternoon.  Today, as our national leaders wrestle with the
question of how best to shore-up our financial system, Vermonters are
feeling a great deal of frustration and anger about being asked to
bailout Wall Street in the amount of $700 billion, especially when so
many Vermonters are struggling to make ends meet.  The Vermonters I
talk to want to know who will bail them out if they can't make their
mortgage payments or pay their heating bills.

This weekend I saw one estimate of the cost of the war in Iraq and
Afghanistan and the war on terror at $790 billion.  That puts in
perspective the cost of the bail-out being discussed in Washington
and it's no wonder that Americans are balking, and the initial vote
failed in the House this afternoon.  Remarkably, in only a couple of
weeks we are being asked to take on another liability that approaches
in scale the cost of the conflicts that have diverted resources from
our national priorities - our roads, schools and energy future.

In the wake of this collapse and bailout, Vermonters are asking "how
did things get to this point?"   While there are undoubtedly many
complex factors that led us here, there's a basic philosophy in gear
that puts too much trust in large private interests over the public
good.

Unfortunately, this "corporate America knows best" worldview is not
just on display in Washington.  Our own Governor has in several
important instances shown the same blindness to the dangers of this
philosophy.

If Governor Douglas had had his way, our lottery system would have
been placed in the hands of Lehman Brothers, a Wall Street firm that
no longer exists.  When Jim Douglas proposed this idea last year, I
questioned the wisdom of it and called in experts for a second
opinion.  It was clear from their testimony that the Governor had
placed far too much trust in the numbers and logic of Lehman
Brothers, and we were able to set this scheme aside and get back to
considering more sensible policy options.

We also see Jim Douglas placing far too much trust in the owners of
Vermont Yankee. Entergy has proposed to spin off five aging nuclear
power plants under a new owner that will be heavily in debt. A
majority of Vermont legislators, and senior officials in
Massachusetts and New York where Entergy's plan would have an impact,
agree that this is a strategy to enrich the executives and
stockholders of Entergy and it could cost states and their taxpayers
dearly if this smaller company fails.

The decommissioning fund is hundreds of millions of dollars short of
what is likely going to be needed to fully clean up after Vermont
Yankee when it closes.  That shortfall had been estimated to be at
least $400 million before recent turmoil on Wall Street.

The Vermont legislature passed a bill that would have required
Entergy to live up to its original promise to fund that clean-up if
it goes ahead with corporate re-structuring.  Jim Douglas vetoed that
bill, leaving Vermont taxpayers potentially on the hook for another
large bill unless we can trust Entergy to do what's right for
Vermonters, over the interests of their bottom line.

Well, all across America today we can see the results of that kind of
poor judgment and misplaced trust.

Jim Douglas has to explain to Vermonters why - after all we've seen
in the past several months - is he is still taking the side of
Entergy instead of protecting Vermont taxpayers?  Jim Douglas is
taking the same gamble in trusting Entergy to handle the
decommissioning funds properly as he did in trusting Lehman Brothers
to handle our lottery system.

When I'm Governor, I won't take that kind of gamble.  I do not share
the Republican philosophy that corporations always know best. I will
do everything in my power to stand up for Vermont taxpayers and
ensure that Entergy pays to clean up after itself.