Bailout Vote
BREAKING NEWS: Senate plans to vote tomorrow night on a Bailout of Wall Street.
WASHINGTON The House of Representatives defeated the White House’s historic $700 billion financial-rescue package a stunning turn of events that sent the stock market into a tailspin and added to concerns that the U.S. faces a prolonged recession if the legislation isn’t revived.
Proponents of the plan argued that the urgent, dramatic intervention called for by the plan was vital to prevent further erosion of confidence in the U.S. credit markets and that failure to act could lead to a significant downturn in the economy.
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.
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.
The vote came in stunning defiance of President Bush and Congressional leaders of both parties, who said the bailout was needed to prevent a widespread financial collapse.
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!
The 228-205 vote, which defied a full-court press from the president and the Treasury secretary, marked a dark moment in a month that has shaken the financial system to its core and forced the government to take a host of ad hoc measures to shore up confidence.
The vote was a catastrophic political defeat for President Bush, who tried to muster national support for a recovery plan in a televised address last Wednesday, then lobbied wavering Republican legislators in intensely personal telephone calls on Monday morning.
In September 2008, leaders of the U.S. Treasury and the Congress proposed a three-page bill called Troubled Asset Relief Program, which was much modified, expanded to 110 pages, and renamed the Emergency Economic Stabilization Act of 2008, a proposed act intended to bail out the U.S. financial system.
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.
“Inaction would paralyze our economy,” Reid said.
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.
WASHINGTON — In a moment of historic import in the Capitol and on Wall Street, the House of Representatives voted on Monday to reject a $700 billion rescue of the financial industry.
Nicole Gelinas offers a critical look at the Treasury Secretary’s plan to bail out mortgage borrowers in financial trouble.
Every single Representative’s term is up this year .
A former Treasury Department official predicted that the administration would try to get another House vote before the end of the week, and with only “tiny tweaks” to the package, given the relative closeness of the vote.
Both Republican and Democratic leaders in Congress and the White House had crafted an agreement over the weekend that was supposed to appease these simmering tensions.
Besides purchasing troubled assets such as mortgages, the current agreement would require the government to offer insurance at a cost to the Wall Street companies on some home loans instead of buying them.
Support among Republicans, who had revolted against an earlier iteration of the bill last week, was at the low end of what was expected by the House Republican leadership, with 65 in favor and 133 against.
In voting against the bill, conservatives who opposed government intervention were joined by many Democrats facing tight races in November.
Democrats also hope that, after the compromises, enough House Republicans will vote for the package to give Democrats political cover.
Indeed, the Senate bailout vote could fall on Friday itself, creating a huge logistical headache for both candidates even to make sure they’re on stage when the curtain goes up at Ole Miss.
This measure, which involved the federal government’s acquiring or insuring as much as US$ 700 billion of troubled mortgage-backed securities, was intended to reduce uncertainty regarding these assets and restore confidence in the credit markets.
This site is dedicated to stopping the government’s planned bailout of the housing market.
Supporters of the bill had argued that it was necessary to avoid a collapse of the economic system, a calamity that would drag down not just Wall Street investment houses but possibly the savings and portfolios of millions of Americans.
No-bailout crowd gets help from perfect storm on Wall St. from latimesblogs.latimes.com on 9/29/08 8:11pm Maybe Wall Street should have taken that hate mail more seriously.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average sustained its biggest point drop in history and its biggest closing decline since the day the markets re-opened after the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks.
In lieu of legislation, Treasury is likely to revert to addressing problems institution by institution, according to a person familiar with the matter, while waiting to see whether Congress will revisit Monday’s vote.
In response, the U.S. government announced a series of comprehensive steps to address the problems, following a series of “one-off” or “case-by-case” decisions to intervene or not, such as the $85 billion liquidity facility for American International Group on September 16, the federal takeover of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, and the bankruptcy Lehman Brothers.
