The crisis gripping the country is as much political as it is financial, according to the independent candidate running for the 15th Congressional District.

Don Eckhart said he is opposed to a government bailout of private companies and likens Washington’s reaction to it as a larger version of the decision to mail stimulus checks this spring: an expensive band-aid to put off a real solution.

“Politicians always find it much easier to give hand-outs than to address root causes, especially when that entails personal responsibility,” he said in a press release. “One striking observation about the current financial fiasco is how quickly many politicians abandoned a free market solution.”

Eckhart said the market should sort unfit companies from fit ones, rotten apples from good apples.

“The proposed bail-out flies in the face of all hard-working, honest Americans, both workers and business owners. America has plenty of good fruit; let’s not let the bad apples spoil the good,” he said.

Both Mary Jo Kilroy (D-Columbus) and Steve Stivers (R-Columbus) said they were open to a bailout in an earlier interview with PolitickerOH.com.