Bob Barr: Illinois ready for alternative?

by Mark Silva

Who is it that says people should vote for neither Barack Obama nor John McCain? And who is the former House member who says the House sold its soul in voting for the $700-billion bailout of the nation's financial industry?

And who's speaking in Chicago tonight?

Bob Barr.

The Libertarian candidate for president and former Republican congressman from Georgia will address the Illinois Libertarian Party Convention in Chicago tonight - at 6:30 pm CDT, at the Double Tree Hotel in Oak Brook.

Barr, representing a party which, in the best circumstances, might gain as much as five percent of the vote nationally, has attempted to stake out a position independent of the major-party candidates - denying that he is playing any spoiler's role for either party.

And Barr, who left the GOP in dismay, is voicing plenty of that now for the party that first acted to block the federal bailout of the nation's banks and financial institutions in a vote of the House on Monday and then caved to the sweetened offer that leaders presented on Friday, another $100-billion-plus in tax breaks to make the medicine go down.

"It didn't take much to buy a House vote, only about $130 billion in so-called sweeteners," says Barr, calling out the 58 members of Congress who changed their vote from 'no' to 'yes' in support of the bailout bill on Friday. ""So now the House has joined the Senate in taking $700 billion-plus worth of Main Street's money to bail-out Wall Street. Congress spent money it doesn't have to get reluctant members to vote even more money that they don't have."

"The bailout was supposed to pacify the markets, but the stock market dropped after the bill's passage," Barr noted in a statement released by his campaign. "nd no wonder; the 2008 federal deficit ran more than $400 billion. Even without the bailout, Washington will run up a half-trillion in red ink in 2009. The national debt already is $9.5 trillion, with the debt ceiling now pushed to $11.3 trillion. Toss on top of that the total unfunded liabilities for Social Security and Medicare, which exceed $100 trillion. Again, when will it end?"

""The bailout will set back the economy's recovery,'' Barr adds. "It tosses good money after bad. It also punishes companies that attempt to work through their problems without taxpayer largess. Now only a fool will take tough steps to clean up his firm's balance sheet.''

Should be a pretty good meeting in Oak Brook tonight.