Projo Politics Blog

Democrats Langevin and Rep. Patrick J. Kennedy were in the minority that supported that version of the package as it went down in a narrow defeat Monday, triggering a plunge in stock market averages.

Since that shock, the split among constituents contacting Langevin has narrowed, with increasing numbers of Rhode Islanders telling him, "We need to do something, we need to do the right thing." But he said that "almost universally, people want the taxpayers to be protected" if they undertake the risk involved in raising a rescue pool totaling as much as $700 billion in the coming years.

"I completely agree," Langevin said. "If this were only to bail out Wall Street, I'd be the first to vote against it." As it stands, Langevin said the bill coming back to the House retains the protections originally written into the bill -- including independent supervision of the Treasury's work on the rescue; curbs on golden-parachute-style bonuses for corporate executives; and a mechanism to give taxpayers and ownership stake in companies participating in the rescue.

Before the House votes, Langevin said he intended to examine closely the new compromise that overwhelmingly passed the Senate last night, with Democratic Senators Jack Reed and Sheldon Whitehouse of Rhode Island both joining the majority.

Speaking as the Senate prepared for that vote, Langevin said the new bill's increased level of federal insurance for bank deposits was an appealing addition to the package. Overall, he said the new bill appears to be stronger than the one defeated Monday. "If that's the case, I'd be inclined to support it."

Meanwhile, Langevin speculated about some of the factors that seem to have made his constituents somewhat more open to the arguments for a rescue package.

He said one such factor was certainly the 777-point plunge in the Dow Jones average Monday during the hours after the House vote. "People saw their retirement savings drop in value," he said. "That was probably a wake-up call." In addition, Langevin said "people are connecting the dots" between the somewhat abstract phenomenon of market decline and the very concrete difficulties surfacing in their everyday lives. "If credit markets are seizing up," making it tougher for ordinary people to get cars loans, for example, citizens are beginning to conclude that the crisis on Wall Street "is the reason why," Langevin said.

The congressman said he heard a sobering report on Tuesday from a Rhode Island Realtor who does business in South County. He said the Realtor told him that some moderately good news -- "they're starting to see some stabilization" in housing prices and a resulting rise in the number of sale agreements -- has been clouded by bad news. "The problem is that people are encountering delays" with getting new mortgages approved, Langevin said, concluding that this problem is a direct result of the credit crunch tied to the financial crisis.

"Many people are angry. I'm angry," Langevin said, predicting that there will be efforts in Congress to fix responsibility for the crisis and repair the regulatory structure. "But right now we need action" to stabilize the flow of credit into the economy.