Earlier this afternoon, this is what the White House was saying:
White House says has votes to pass bailout bill
Mon Sep 29, 2008 1:24pm EDTWASHINGTON (Reuters) – The Bush administration believes it has enough votes in Congress to pass the $700 billion package aimed at rescuing the U.S. financial system despite some opposition by lawmakers, a White House spokesman said on Monday.
“I think we’re going to have a sufficient vote to pass this, we’re certainly confident that we are,” said White House spokesman Tony Fratto. “We’re not taking it for granted, these are very legitimate concerns and questions that members have.”
Ooops.
As we now know, 132 Republicans and 94 Democrats voted the wrong way. So what happened? How could The President’s arm twisters persuasion specialists on Capitol Hill at the White House been so mistaken? Well, as we all should have suspected, it was that evil dragon lady Nancy Pelosi who killed the deal with her liberal “hate” speech against the greatest Republican evah (or at least since Ronald Raygun):
In a press conference shortly after the measure failed, House Minority Leader John Boehner of Ohio said that House Republicans had no choice but to continue to work with Democrats to find a way to save the economy.
But Boehner and other House Republican leaders blamed House Speaker Nancy Pelosi for derailing the vote with a speech near the close of the debate in which she blamed “the Bush administration’s failed economic policies” for the current economic mess. Boehner accused Pelosi of speaking with a “partisan voice that poisoned” the proceedings. Added Republican Rep. Eric Cantor of Virginia, “There’s a reason that this vote failed — and that is Speaker Pelosi’s speech.”
Damn evil, liberal, hippy, commie bastids did it to us again! It sure can’t be President Bush’s fault. He had the votes, he had ’em I tell ya! If Nancy Pelosi could have just kept her poisonous maw shut until after the vote, those good Patriotic Americans (i.e., House Republicans) would have passed the bailout bill and all would have been right with the world. But once she besmirched the “honor” of Our Dear Leader, what choice did they have? I mean really? It’s enough to make an Wall Street investment banker or stock broker cry (and I’m sure a few did).
Update [2008-9-29 16:6:29 by Steven D]: The Fed’s Plan B is now in effect. Printing mo money!
WASHINGTON (AP) — The Federal Reserve and foreign central banks agreed to pump billions of dollars into the global financial system Monday to unlock tight lending that threatens to unhinge the U.S. economy.
The Fed said the action is intended to “expand significantly” the cash available to financial institutions in an effort to relieve to the worst credit crisis since the Great Depression. In taking the action, the Fed cited “continued strains” in the demand for short-term funding.
It’s ridiculous.
Can we haz reel ekonomicz plan now plz?
I doubt it. The Republicans don’t care about what happens. They already have their TV ads ready to roll blaming Democrats for killing the economy because they voted for the bailout plan.
To think that they would agree to something more sensible is highly unlikely. As long as they can milk this crisis for political advantage, they will, even if the stock market loses 20% or 30% of its value by tomorrow night.
The trouble is Paulson should have been approaching Congress last year on a plan to deal with the credit crisis, but the Bush administration (and one can only assume on orders from Bush, or more likely non-orders) decided it was off message to discuss the elephant in the room. The reality they wanted to depict/create in the minds of the electorate was that everything was just fine and dandy, even if a few homes on your block were in foreclosure.
Now with an election barely 6 weeks away, there is no chance in hell that a “better” plan could be passed. This Paulson cobbled together “Son of Frankenstein” bailout compromise bill, as bad as it was, was the only thing that had any possibility of being passed in a Congress where the partisan divide is so deep, especially on the GOP side of the aisle.
My guess is that some Money Market Funds will have to fail, or a run on banks begin before House Republicans will even consider doing anything to stem the bleeding. Take your lesson from History. The GOP Congress did nothing after the stock market collapse in 1929. They’ll continue to do nothing now. It’s what they are best at.
Hey – let’s not do what the other side does – lump all Republicans together. A number of them voted against this bill, and in my mind, for good reason.
If we go with the bailout, we only have temporary relief, at the cost of half a trillion dollars. But we’d also be devaluing our dollar at a time when there’s not much left to devalue.
If you don’t want to see the dollar go the way of the peso, we sometimes need to let the banks fail.
In a genuine society, the people who have would help take care of the people who haven’t. That’s what I’d like to see. I’d like to see a leveling of society – the wealthy having to move down a notch to keep the middle class going. Sell that yacht they only use twice a year. Forego the bonuses at Goldman Sachs for one year and give that as a donation to the homeless shelters.
There’s so much iniquity – it’s going to take a massive uprising of the people to keep this from sliding even further in the wrong direction.
I don’t know the specifics of this bill. I’d like to think it was a good one. But I don’t blame the people for being scared right now – that’s a good thing. They’re awake.
If the Democrats and Republicans want to solve this crisis, they have to do it WITH our consent, not in the absence of it.
Politico
Ha! I doubt that idiot can even tie his own shoes. Thats priceless and a window into future world if he somehow steals this election.
While there is no doubt that the republicans were planning on politicizing this “crisis” for months… There is no doubt that the Democratic party has managed to flip it politically as well. But there is one good thing that came out of this:
A toxic Bill that would have rewarded criminals trying to sell off toxic paper – while punishing the American taxpayer – was defeated for the time being.
Giving handouts to the Wall Street scum and failing to punish them harshly is not a serious option.
Maybe they were using Diebold machines.
LMAO!
.
Programmed to skew the vote 5% in favor of the Republican vote, works all the time in close elections! The exit poll left the wrong impression … darn margin of error.
"But I will not let myself be reduced to silence."It’s “blood in the streets” time again. No doubt the Rothschilds and the Bushes are poised to snare a few bargains.
The more it changes, the more it’s the same thing. The heck with elections, there are better ways to get rich.
Democracy, schemocracy.
Yay hyperinflation! That’ll work GREAT!
Dow down nearly 800 points for the day, Nasdaq and S&P down 9% each.
Fed’s not even waiting. They are just printing money now and they can’t ever stop or the the economy will drop below 55 MPH and explode.
It would be cool, initially, to hand this to cashier when you go to the store to buy a gallon of milk:
of immediate concern on the floor, traders are pondering the disconnect between Mainstreat and Wall Street – Sell Orders. No Buyers:
“the banks and credit markets are frozen…wait until the banks cut credit and credit card limits and we won’t be able to charge anything.”
small businesses rely on lines of credit and on credit cards.
just tried to call my reps, lines are all tied up! uh oh!
people are pissed.
“Now with an election barely 6 weeks away, there is no chance in hell that a “better” plan could be passed.”
On the contrary. What is a better bill? It’s a bill that actually addresses the causes of the problem. Our financial system is broken. Not only is it completely unjust to socialize the losses, even at best it won’t work for more than a short time anyway. Gresham was right, you don’t throw good money after bad.This bill had a few minor safeguards, but it was still based on the principle of taking from the middle class and giving money to the same greedy bastards to do even more of the same thing.
Our financial system is broken. The derivative debt total is far greater than the GDP of the entire world. The only way this can be dealt with is to treat it as a bankruptcy. The debts have to be marked down. This is funny money that has nothing behind it but speculation. No taxpayer money is necessary. The banks go into receivership and pay whatever they can. If you want to throw good money at anything, throw it at the productive people of the USA, manufacturers, workers, small business owners — and homeowners. The healthy banks will survive or new ones will be started. And regulate those derivatives. We can’t have a banking sector off the books that’s greater than the banking sector on the books. This laissez faire stuff has had its day.
This vote was painful, but hey congress, hey wall street, wake up and smell the coffee. Stop the smoke and mirrors and actually address the problem. You need an international conference on the world economy.
Get in on the ground floor now. Convert your US currency to Zimbabwean ahead of the curve. Wheelbarrows to carry the currency home now available on Aisle 3.
McCain reading a statement. No questions taken.
Obama is to blame. It was not a perfect Bill but it’s one McCain supported.
Please READ this THOUGHTFULLY! The Financial “Rescue” Bill was torpedoed by the Libertarians in Congress. NOTE: there are Libertarians in both the Republican Party and in the Democratic Party. That is why the rejection vote totals came from both parties. Obviously there are more libertarians in the Republican Party because they generally share similar views as to cutting taxes.
The “Gipper” was responsible for bringing a massive influx of libertarians into the GOP from the Libertarian Party. Libertarians WILL NOT VOTE for any bailout package NO MATTER what the conditions!! The heart of a true Libertarian is fanatically grounded in the uncompromising idea of NO TAXES and NO GOVERNMENT! The problem is that the leadership in congress is afraid to address the Libertarian sentiments of their members and tell it like it is.
Wall Street, stop sucking your thumbs and crying. Chairman Cox took away your main weapon, the Shorts, otherwise that -777 points would have been -1577 points! Too bad. Ain’t no bailout package coming. OBTW, last Thursday the Bank of China instructed all of its branches to STOP buying US Treasury Notes!
The banks were deregulated on the premise that the market could therefore correct errors. The market is correcting errors. Some banks are going belly up.
I thought that was the way it was supposed to work.