Schweikert: Bailout 'full of crap'

David Schweikert, former Maricopa County treasurer and the Republican candidate in the 5th Congressional District race, blasted the financial bailout bill that was passed by the U.S. House today, saying some of the legislation's components "make the hair stand up on the back of your neck."

Schweikert's main opposition comes from the "amount of pork that was rolled into it."

"This is one of the most important votes in modern history,"  Schweikert told PolitickerAZ.com, "and it's full of crap."

In order to lure support, around $110 billion was added to the bill's $700 billion price tag, including tax incentives and other earmarks, which Schweikert, who prides himself on fiscal conservatism, decries.

"Once again it shows that this Congress is dishonest," said Schweikert - "Democrats and Republicans."

Schweikert further took issue with the bailout being directed at large financial firms, rather than people themselves. He said the underlying crisis was home values and bad mortgages, not the institutions that hold the mortgages.

"As long as home values continue to collapse, more and more of this mortgage paper will go bad," said Schweikert.

He offered his own solutions, though pointed out that they were ideas others had proffered before. Schweikert said he wanted to instead give homeowners a tax credit for their mortgage interest payments and "provide certain types of purchasing insurance."