Bailout Vote
“While it creates a gimmicky $700 billion installment plan, attempts to improve transparency, and has new provisions cloaked as taxpayer protections, its net effect is still a huge bailout of the financial sector that will snuff out the free market system,” said Representative Connie Mack, Republican of Florida.
BREAKING NEWS: Senate plans to vote tomorrow night on a Bailout of Wall Street.
Congress is poised to vote on the biggest government intervention in the financial markets since the Great Depression, but it’s unlikely that any of the three senators vying for the White House will be there — even though all three have talked of little else for over a week.
Indeed, the Senate bailout vote could fall on Friday, creating a huge logistical headache for both candidates even to make sure they’re onstage when the curtain goes up at Ole Miss.
Our best efforts should stay focused on the House: use the roll call of the House vote to guide your calls it is most effective to contact those representatives who voted “NO” and convey your appreciation and approval!
President Bush joined key supporters of a Wall Street bailout package today, prodding lawmakers to approve the plan, hours ahead of a difficult House vote expected later in the day.
In a vote that shook the government, Wall Street and markets around the world, the House on Monday defeated a $700 billion emergency rescue for the nation’s financial system, leaving both parties and the Bush administration struggling to pick up the pieces.
Congress is poised to vote on the biggest government intervention in the financial markets since the Great Depression, but it’s unlikely that any of the three senators vying for the White House will be there – even though all three have talked of little else for over a week.
Late Sunday afternoon, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid held a news conference with Senate Banking Committee chairman Chris Dodd to announce that Congress would vote quickly on the legislation.
Indeed, the Senate bailout vote could fall on Friday itself, creating a huge logistical headache for both candidates even to make sure they’re on stage when the curtain goes up at Ole Miss.
Sen. John McCain has no plans to return to Washington this week, even though on Monday he expressed discomfort with Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson ’s trillion-dollar bailout plan and has offered his own rescue proposal.
On Wednesday, McCain contradicted Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, who said the Republican presidential hopeful would support the bailout.
Arizona Sen. John McCain has no plans to return to Washington this week, even though on Monday he expressed discomfort with Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson’s trillion-dollar bailout plan and has offered his own rescue proposal.
“Inaction would paralyze our economy,” Reid said.
Republicans had won concessions to force banks and financial firms to pay their own fair share of any government bailout.
Obama, meanwhile, said “the power to spend $700 billion of taxpayers’ money cannot be left up to the discretion of one man, no matter who he is or which party he is from.
Neither Obama nor McCain returned to Capitol Hill for an important economic vote on July 26, when the Senate passed a massive housing bill to shore up mortgage markets and prevent hundreds of thousands of foreclosures.
Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson, center, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Harry Reid, the Senate majority leader, announcing in Washington a tentative deal on a $700 billion rescue of the financial sector.
On Monday, not enough lawmakers were willing to take the political risk just five weeks before the elections of backing a deeply unpopular measure that many voters see as an undeserved bailout for Wall Street.
And Democrats had held firm in demanding executive compensation caps and mortgage relief, reports CBS News correspondent Bob Orr.
