Republican State Senator Tom McClintock calls the bailout “a huge mistake.”
 
McClintock: “If I came to you and said, write me a check for $9,000 from your family’s budget and I’ll invest that to pay top dollar for mortgages that are in default, would you take me up on that?  That’s what $700 billion is.  It’s $9,000 from every family in America.”
 
McClintock says the money would be better off going towards good loans, instead of buying up bad ones.
 
But his Democratic opponent, retired Air Force Lieutenant Colonel Charlie Brown, says the bill’s not perfect, but needs to pass.
 
Brown: “When I talk to small business owners that see their lines of credit drying up; that are looking at laying off employees, these are jobs and people right here in the district that are hurting right now and are gonna lose their jobs.”
 
Brown says the current version is far better than the original bill.  He cites the creation of an oversight committee and the extension of the Alternative Minimum Tax.
 
The two candidates are vying to replace retiring Republican John Doolittle.