ALBUQUERQUE, — U.S. Senate candidates Steve Pearce and Tom Udall voted against a $700 billion bailout package Friday, saying the measure forced taxpayers to foot the bill for the Wall Street executives responsible for the nation's troubled economy.
Both campaigns said the bailout package was extremely unpopular among New Mexico constituents, who have flooded their offices with hundreds of phone calls and e-mails for the last week.
The measure passed the House 263-171, and President Bush quickly signed it bill into law.
Pearce, a Republican, said in a statement Friday that taxpayers could see their taxes raised by thousands of dollars to bail out Wall Street billionaires who knowingly gave out bad loans. Pearce estimated last week that those tax increases could be as high as $5,000 per household.
"Middle-class New Mexicans should not see their taxes raised by thousands of dollars while those who got us in this mess walk away with the profits," Pearce said. "Those who have brought us to this position through their own greed should be held accountable."
Pearce said he supports market alternatives, like raising capital through small investors, rather than making government larger. He also said the nation's financial system needs to be reformed so "we're not faced with the same problems down the road."
Udall, a Democrat, said the Senate-passed bill was almost identical to one rejected by the House on Monday that he also opposed.
Udall said he opposed several main principals of the measure before the House: it gives unprecedented power to the Treasury Department without adequate oversight or a plan for fixing the economy; corporate executives can still walk away with millions in taxpayer-funded compensation; taxpayer dollars are being spent to bail out foreign companies; and little was done to help homeowners.
"Make no mistake: America faces a serious crisis, and we must do something," Udall said. "But we cannot let fear and artificial timelines drive our decision-making."
Both congressmen said they would have supported a host of measures added to the bill by the Senate on Wednesday, including renewable energy tax credits and a provision that keeps an alternative minimum tax from hitting 20 million middle-income Americans, had they not been paired with the financial bailout package.
"These proposals should be voted on based on their own strong merits, and not forced into a $700 billion taxpayer bailout — a plan that will have a large and widespread impact for generations — that has been rushed through with serious flaws and many problems left unaddressed," Udall said.
Udall and Pearce are in a heated battle for the U.S. Senate seat held by Republican Sen. Pete Domenici, who is retiring after this year.
Domenici, former chairman of the Senate Budget Committee, said in a statement he supported the financial rescue plan because Congress' failure to act would have dire long-term consequences for the nation's economy.
"I believe Congress took the right step in approving this legislation that contains strong taxpayer protection, regulatory oversight and reduction of executive compensation before conditions moved far beyond anyone's control," he said.
New Mexico's third representative, Heather Wilson, also supported the bailout.
"A failure of our financial system will hurt every American who has a 401(k) or needs a car loan or can't close on the house they want to buy because banks are stopping lending to banks," Wilson said in a statement.
Wilson also ran for Domenici's Senate seat, but lost to Pearce in the primary.




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