Published: October 02, 2008 12:12 am      

Would there be rush to help ordinary Americans?

Some see federal rescue plan as a ‘necessary evil’

FAIRMONT — If the shoe were on the other foot, President Bush and Congress wouldn’t be rushing to bail out Main Street firms and ordinary Americans, say some Marion County residents.

That was one of the dominant responses in a man-on-the-street survey Wednesday to the administration’s plan to spend $700 billion in taxpayer funds to buy troubled mortgage-related bonds and securities.

“I think it’s going to be a necessary evil, though,” said Rachel Riffee, 24, of Rivesville.

A speech pathology student at Fairmont State University, Riffee works at the Hoops Cafe on Locust Avenue. “I also think it could have been prevented if there had been more regulation of loan officers and investment firms.”

Jessica Caputo, one of Riffee’s friends, said she hasn’t been closely following the national debate on the issue. But she knows that the economic outlook for her generation isn’t bright right now.

A respiratory therapy student at FSU, Caputo said it will be hard to find a job in her specialty when she completes her associate degree.

“As far as health care in general goes, there will always be a job somewhere,” for her and her fellow therapists, said Caputo, also 24 and a Rivesville resident.

“Just maybe not around here,” she said. She and her classmates will compete for jobs at local hospitals, she said. Those who can’t land positions will have to move out-of-state.

Sheryl Screen, 48, is one of millions of Americans who are holding down two jobs to pay the bills. The Grant Town resident and her husband, Brian, 44, own the Downtown Pizza & Subs Restaurant on Adams Street, right across from the Marion County Courthouse.

While Brian runs the restaurant with three part-time helpers, Sheryl works a shift as a dietary manager at the John Manchin Sr. Health Care Center on the East Side. She then comes in to help at the restaurant.

“I think they needed to do something a long time ago,” as the housing boom grew into a bubble in recent years, she said.

“I’m not sure that using public money is the right thing, especially when these chief executive officers were getting millions and millions of dollars and living a great lifestyle. Meanwhile, the rest of us had to dig for our pennies,” Screen said.

“But something definitely has to be done,” she said to ensure that small businesses have access to credit for payroll and other operating expenses.

She and her husband are proud of their business, one which they have nurtured for seven years.

“As it is, we haven’t had any problems, and really, West Virginia hasn’t had any problems yet. But the credit problem will trickle down this way and it will really hurt the little people,” she said.

“Somebody needs to be accountable, and it doesn’t need to be the little people, as it always is in the end.”

Raymond McIntire, 71, of Worthington was one of the early-afternoon shoppers at the Wal-Mart SuperStore in White Hall.

“They shouldn’t have loaned the money to people who couldn’t afford it in the first place,” said McIntire of those in the finance and banking sectors who pushed “no documentation” and other subprime mortgage loans.

A retired maintenance specialist who worked at several local mines, McIntire said he rolled over his retirement 401-K fund years ago. Citing the cost of gas, food and housing, he said he feels bad for younger generations.

James Shuman, also 71, of Mannington and another retired miner, said he’s doing OK, “so far.”

“They definitely have to do something,” he said of Congress.

Morgan Fouse, 37, of Idamay said from what he’s heard and seen on the news that “it sounds to me like we’re bailing out high corporate types.”

Fouse is a driver and warehouse employee for a local mining supply company.

“It’s sad that they let one or two investment firms get so large that when they got in trouble and failed, we have to use public funds to bail them out.”

At a Bellview gas station, Ed Pill, 51, of Fairmont, said he doesn’t like the retirement bonuses that some investment firm presidents have collected.

“They’re walking away with millions,” said the automotive technician at a local car dealership.

“If you and I had a business and it failed, the government wouldn’t bail us out.”

E-mail Bill Byrd at bbyrd@timeswv.com.