Bailout bombs
Updated – 6:05 p.m.
House defeats the bailout 228-205.
Rep. Thelma Drake (R-VA02) voted NO.
“Today, a bi-partisan majority of the US House rejected the Congressional Leadership/Bush Administration’s Wall Street bailout plan. I joined a majority of House members who voted to reject the false choice presented as doing this plan or doing nothing to solve the economic crisis,” said Drake in a press release. “A real solution to this problem will put the taxpayers first, require Wall Street to pay its fair share, and will address the root causes of this crisis, including immediately reviewing the “mark to market rule” to determine its role in the financial crisis. I stand ready to return to Washington to address this issue in a bi-partisan fashion.”
Rep. J. Randy Forbes (R-VA04) also voted NO.
“While many Members of Congress agree that our unstable economic situation calls for decisive action, an overwhelming bipartisan majority (95 Democrats and 133 Republicans) agreed this proposal was not the action needed. I have met almost non-stop over the last several days with members of the Treasury Department and former Chairman of the FDIC who cautioned that this plan may not work,” said Forbes. “Unfortunately, if we spend $700 Billion of taxpayer money and it fails, there is no backstop. I believe we should stay in session until we have created a vehicle to give us long term stability and not settle for one that may be a short term fix with a long term price tag.”
According to the AP, the House will reconvene on Thursday.
Leslie put it this way:
The U.S. House of Representatives has defended the Constitution, the will of the people, the market economy, the lessons of history, justice, and common sense by rejecting, by a vote of 205-228, the $700-Billion bail-out bill.
Rep. Eric Cantor on CNN:
Look at the votes today, 94 Democrats voted “No.” 94. Now, when we were in the majority, I think we would make a decision that we would be able to come to the floor and bring a solution to the American people and pass it. They made a decision to leave 94 of their votes off the table. And, frankly, as you can see, a majority of our votes that wouldn’t go along. Clearly this is an instance where you see Speaker Pelosi’s failure to listen, failure to lead. This caps off a year that I think has been probably the most unproductive year in the U.S. congress that I’ve seen in my lifetime. No production of any bailout bill. No energy bill. No appropriations process. Very little to show the American people. So we’re going to…go back to the drawing table and look to see where we can come together, listen to our members, and produce a solution for the American people.
Apparently this speech, referred to by Rep. Cantor in his remarks, really ticked-off a lot of folks:
Also voting “No”: Reps. Wittman and Scott
Category: Government
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I am glad this bad bill was defeated. However, I am not glad that the safe guards put into place following the Great Depression were removed. Congress needs to act in the best interest of the Americna people, not in the best interest of those corporate entities that caused this disaster.
Randy Forbes and even Jesse J. Jr. voted nay.
What is more bothersome is that not only are these “leaders” afraid to coordinate their actions and take a stand, but the Republicans involved are trying to place further blame on a speech! A speech? If the crises is so huge as to require $500 Billion, how can they let a speech stand in the way of action? In my view, it’s not Pelosi who is being overly partisan here, it’s House Republicans.
For all those who thought McCain’s “I’m gonna suspend my campaign to fix this thing in DC!” was anything legitimate, take today’s result as a surefire indication a stunt was all it was.
If he really was going to be leading the way on this financial crisis he would’ve stayed there in DC, worked with the House Republicans and made sure this issue carried today. It may have been a completely different bill being voted on… but it would’ve been done and then he absolutely could have claimed true leadership.
Interesting that instead he comes out today before the vote took place to act as a champion of the bill only to criticize Obama when the bill goes down in flames.
Obama played it right by staying out of the area and letting the members of Congress not running for President and the White House do what it was going to do.
Wow!!!
Talk about spin. I just heard the GOP leadership’s reason for not passing the bill. Pelosi’s speech!
Are they saying they would have voted for it if Pelosi wasn’t a bitch?
UnF#$^*&^Believable!
So hurt feeling are more important than staving off economic disaster?
I mean, if they didn’t like the bill and wouldn’t vote on it for specific reasons, just say so. (Not that I want to this passed, but using that as an excuse, what a bunch of cowards.)
Hey, I’m not blaming either side for this mess, but WTF?
The truth is the guys who voted against it did to save their own asses and keep their jobs, I’m talking both Dem and Rep. Once again our fearless leaders are looking out for Number One, themselves.
Anyone who votes back in any of these yahoos is a moron. Everyone in House and Senate need to be fired!
There is absolutely no Republican House Member who was swayed on how to vote by Pelosi’s partisan rant. However, they may have felt better about voting NO because her ridiculous remarks.
Shane,
If it weren’t for McCain coming to DC and lending voice to House Republicans, the bill that Pelosi, Reid, Frank, Paulson and Bush were high-fiving over last week would’ve sailed through with little or no debate, and it would have been one of the biggest handouts in government history.
I’m glad McCain went back. And as a taxpayer, you should be too.
But,you’ve already made up your mind on this and no rational conversation in the world will persuade you otherwise.
Pelosi said “I don’t know what was so Great about the Depression, but that’s the name they give it.”
Now, let’s imagine if Sarah Palin said those words. Wouldn’t they be on every news show right now and on their way to SNL?
But since it’s Pelosi, the press accepts it.
[...] Bailout Bombs Bearing Drift [...]
Oh come on JR!
You really believe McCain had any impact? Not once did I hear him say this bill should go down in flames. According to him, he went there to rally the troops and save the nation.
How is a divided GOP and looking like a bunch of self serving incompetents good for America?
I don’t get it. The GOP has always shown a united front, if McCain had any impact it was to split it.
I can see trying to score some points off the other side, but it was definitely pretty stupid of Boehner to try and pin the failure on Pelosi’s speech. As others here have said, if that were the case it would mean the the Reps put a partisan reaction above what they had finally thought was the best course for America. Accusing one’s own party of political brinkmanship with the American economy is idiotic. Being proud of it takes it to a whole new dimension.
Brian, i admit, i kinda felt like a ba dump bump was expected after that Great Depression line, or least a little cigar chomping. Of course if Palin said it, she may not have meant it as a joke.
ba dump bump.
Jim, I don’t think it would have sailed through. Without the fig-leaf concessions granted to the Repub Conference (which may not have happened w/out McCain) it may have had even less a chance to pass. If they didn’t vote for it with the minor concessions, they certainly wouldn’t have voted for it w/out them.
Davis, Wolf and Cantor voted “yes.”
Whoa, Cantor votes aye and Kucinich votes nay on a bill decried by the conservative base as blatant socialism?
The again, Kucinich did say he’d want Ron Paul as his running mate.
I’ve been sitting here trying to figure out what the heck these guys are all thinking and I think I’ve got.
Treason.
Everyone of these guys in government has sold their souls to Satan.
Right now they’re in scramble mode, trying to insure their golden parachute while the country goes down in flames. Not one of these guys is interested in the well being of America as long as they have theirs.
Think about the back door deals that are going on right now. The international banking industry won’t except any deal that involves increased regulation. And as the control of those banks is falling in to fewer and fewer hands, that small minority is welding more and more power.
And who ever these people are, they’re going to ride out any economic storm and pick the bones of the fallen like the bottom feeders they are.
Start stocking up your survival kit. The End is Here.
There’s a difference between being confident in an opinion and being so bull-headed as to not be swayed by information… I’ll speak to being confident in an opinion JR, I’ll let you handle the latter.
McCain’s contribution to the meeting at the White House was virtually nil, and that’s according to the Republicans who were present.
Am I glad McCain has injected Presidential politics into the financial disaster for his own personal gain (as we saw him attempt to do today)? No, why would anyone be? Why are you?
Did McCain really have anything to add? Did Economics suddenly become his strong suit? Of course not.
If McCain had made the economy the centerpiece of his campaign this would be a completely different matter and I absolutely would have expected his involvement.
As a taxpayer am I glad McCain wasted his time? No. As a taxpayer am I glad I’m getting to watch my government break down at the same time I watch my investments take a turn for the worse? No. As a taxpayer am I glad that I’ll also get to watch my dollar become less as the inevitable inflation is sure to follow any bail out plan that finally gets accepted? No.
Now, if McCain’s got the fix-all cure believe me I’m all for it. And should he have such an idea he should be in front of a microphone right now explaining to the country how it’s going to work… should that happen you better believe I’ll change my tune completely.
But that hasn’t happened yet.. so without further ado I’ll leave it to JR to finish the latter portion of the explanation.
Just a quick note, doing a peek at the rest of the world’s markets to see how they were
taking the newshandling the crisis, and they appear to be mostly tanking in the 4-5% range. The one index still in the black? Norway’s BRIX, shock of shocks. Who needs a bailout when you already have a mixed economy right?What a dire situation. So dire that Congress takes off for a holiday that most Americans didn’t even know exists. While these weasels are out playing golf with their Wall Street handlers the rest of America will be at work.
Why was the Speaker of the House speaking from the well of the House anyway????
Isn’t she supposed to be presiding?
And for you ‘outraged’ libs, where’s your rage at the dozens of Democrats who vvoted ‘nay’?
Pelosi didn’t need a single Republican vote to get this shitburger passed, and she still failed.
Thelma Drake voted “No.”
I am glad.
Now let’s get a plan on the tabel that can help prevent this from happening again – possibly unclog the credit crunch – but not screw the American taxpayer in the process.
Right now there isn’t a plan on the table that will actually correct the situation.
Of course, this really isn’t the role of the Congress to get involved in. Those are private banks and the mortgages outside of Fannie and Freddie are completely a private matter.
The notion of nationalizing our banking and mortgage industry shouldn’t even be up for discussion – it is simply wrong.
As to the Pelosi speech – what a nit wit she is. But at the end of the day, the Democrats control the majority of the Congress and President Bush already said he’d sign this bailout bill – so this is clearly the result of the Democrats that caused this bill to fail.
Here is the odd part – the bill SHOULD have failed. It’s crap – and all of them know it.
But those BILLIONS will sure help those banks and other CORPORATE interests looking to dump all the bad loans they bought, won’t it?
Folks – this is a scandle or MASSIVE. no, make that EPIC porportions.
And yet people haven’t taken to the streets to protest this?
Those that understand it are probably too busy working to set fire to the capital building.
We are all being snookered. The only reason it went down was a “deal” was made so Democrats could use Republican “YES” votes to beat up Republicans in key swing states. But – many Republicans understand that they will not win reelection if the vote “YES” – so FEAR of losing their gig motivsated them to renig on the “deal” that they really were not a party to in the first place!
What we are witnessing is a train wreck of conflicting self interests and personal preservation in stunning disregard for the welfare of the nation.
This makes Senator McCain’s campaign slogan of “Country First” laughingly ironic – and pathetic at the same time.
It seems to be that for the most part – NONE of these people in Washington D.C. care about putting the “Country First”.
The proof of this is the incredible lunacy of CONGRESS GOING ON A HOLIDAY in the middle of this disaster!
Are you kidding us?
Unbelievable.
FYI, for those interested…
McCain’s statement from yesterday
McCain’s suggestions for immediate steps to stabilize the economy
And, for those of you that “trust” Democrats and Obama to deliver the economy during this particular time, you might want to check-out this research briefing.
I don’t know JR.
I’m pretty disgusted by this whole situation.
Personally, I think we need a military coup. Adm Mullen would make a great interm dicator until they can clean up Washington, arrest all those morons in DC and make some draconian changes.
I know, we can throw them in to the prison at Gitmo! Then we wouldn’t even have to give them trials and they couldn’t complain about it.
Hum, water boarding anyone?