Even a great number of Democrats couldn’t support the bailout:
The bill aimed to open up clogged credit lines for financial markets that had come to a near collapse. Sellers continued to shed stocks as the market teetered down more than 500 points after the vote ended.
Representatives worked throughout the weekend to make a bill palatable. Republicans had insisted on a mortgage securities insurance paid by firms who had invested in bad housing loans. That was included in the bill voted on Monday.
But many lawmakers continued to oppose the plan for a variety of reasons, including the massive price tag that would expand the national debt, and GOP members said their constituents were calling 10-1 in opposition to the bill, which had been described as too much government intervention. Of 235 Democrats, 140 supported the legislation. Of 199 Republicans, 133 opposed it.
President Bush was to meet with his economic team, including Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke and Treasury Secretary Hank Paulson, to determine the next steps, and White House officials said they will meet and then contact congressional leaders.
“The crisis we are facing remains,” said White House Deputy Spokesman Tony Fratto, who added, “We’re obviously disappointed.”
Fratto said that he thinks many Americans were mistaken by believing that the bill was a “bailout of Wall Street.” Instead, he said the bill was to prevent a large economic crisis.
95 Dems against the bailout, and it was a Democrat friendly bill. As of now the Dow is down almost 570 points and European markets are tumbling.
Gateway Pundit and Hot Air are all over this.
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Democracy worked this time. Congress listened to constituants! Let Wall Street pay for their own losses.
Agreed. The Paulson bill would have led to more problems than it could fix. They’re basically asking us to extend credit to people who have proven they can’t manage it. Thank the gods their were enough Democrats and Republicans who still listen to the people.
I really wasn’t a big fan of this bailout policy. Both Barack Obama and John McCain endorsed this failed bailout effort, and it died. Now I’m still a registered Republican, but I’m thinking more of like a closet Independent.
I also agree that Paulson should resign from his post, and also Bernanke as well. They both did a horrible job, and I doubt their successors under an Obama or McCain administration would prove any hint of an improvement at all.
Democrats and Republicans who voted against the Paulson bill should propose an entirely new bailout plan that doesn’t put the government in so much debt.Don’t just fiddle with a plan structured by Paulson. Another top down solution that many experts say won’t be enough. It will paralyze the government for years to come and leave our children to pay the biil
One such example of a “bailout” plan that could work is proposed by William Issaacs, former FDIC chairman, in the September 27th Washington Post :
“If we were to (1) implement a program to ease the fears of depositors and other general creditors of banks; (2) keep tight restrictions on short sellers of financial stocks; (3) suspend fair-value accounting (which has contributed mightily to our problems by marking assets to unrealistic fire-sale prices); and (4) authorize a net worth certificate program, we could settle the financial markets without significant expense to taxpayers.”
Another 700 billion of debt and more to come (because knowledgeable experts say we haven’t reached the bottom yet) will leave the government impotent to solve any problems i.e. infrastructure, education, health.
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