Bailout passes Senate
House leaders seeking converts for Friday vote
By JULIE HIRSCHFELD DAVIS and CHARLES BABINGTON
WASHINGTON — After one spectacular failure, the $700 billion financial industry bailout found a second life Wednesday, winning lopsided passage in the Senate and gaining ground in the House, where Republicans opposition softened.
Senators loaded the economic rescue bill with tax breaks and other sweeteners before passing it 74-25, a month before the presidential and congressional elections.
In the House, leaders were working feverishly to convert enough opponents of the bill to push it through by Friday, just days after lawmakers there stunningly rejected an earlier version and sent markets plunging around the globe.
How they voted
YES: Sen. Lindsey Graham (R)
NO: Sen. Jim DeMint (R)
WHAT'S NEXT
The House of Representatives, which voted down the first bailout legislation on Monday, will vote Friday on the bill the Senate passed.
The measure didn't cause the same uproar in the Senate, where both parties' presidential candidates, Republican John McCain and Democrat Barack Obama, made rare appearances to cast "aye" votes.
In the final vote, 40 Democrats, 33 Republicans and independent Sen. Joe Lieberman of Connecticut voted "yes." Nine Democrats, 15 Republicans and independent Sen. Bernie Sanders of Vermont voted "no."
Sen. Jim DeMint, R-S.C., was among those who voted against the measure.
"While many are blaming ... our free enterprise system for the crisis, we know that the government is the root cause," DeMint said. "I believe this Congress should admit its guilt, prove that we have learned from our mistakes and correct the bad policies immediately that have caused these programs."
The package lets the governmentspend billions of dollars to buy bad mortgage-related securities and other assets held by troubled financial institutions. If successful, advocates say, that would allow frozen credit to begin flowing again and prevent a deep recession.
Even as the Senate voted, House leaders were hunting for the 12 votes they would need to turn around Monday's 228-205 defeat. They were especially targeting the 133 Republicans who voted "no."
Their opposition appeared to be easing after the Senate added $110 billion in tax breaks for businesses and the middle class, plus a provision to raise, from $100,000 to $250,000, the cap on federal deposit insurance.
There were worries, though, that the tax breaks would cause some conservative-leaning Democrats who voted for the rescue Monday to abandon it because it would swell the federal deficit.
"I'm concerned about that," said Rep. Steny Hoyer, D-Md., the majority leader.
As revised by the Senate, the package extends several tax breaks popular with businesses. It would keep the alternative minimum tax from hitting 20 million middle-income Americans and provide $8 billion in tax relief for those hit by natural disasters in the Midwest, Texas and Louisiana.
Leaders in both parties, as well as private economic chiefs everywhere, said Congress must quickly approve some version of the bailout measure to start loans flowing and stave off a potential national economic disaster.
"This is what we need to do right now to prevent the possibility of a crisis turning into a catastrophe," Obama said on the Senate floor. In Missouri, before flying to Washington to vote, McCain said, "If we fail to act, the gears of our economy will grind to a halt."
Critics on the right and left assailed the rescue plan, which has been panned by their constituents as a giveaway for Wall Street, and has little obvious direct benefit for ordinary Americans.
DeMint said the step was "leading us into the pit of socialism."
Sanders, a self-described socialist, said the rescue was fundamentally unfair.
"The masters of the universe, those brilliant Wall Street insiders who have made more money than the average American can even dream of, have brought our financial system to the brink of collapse," Sanders said, and are demanding that the middle class "pick up the pieces that they broke."
Still, proponents argued that the financial sector's woes were already being felt by ordinary people in the form of unaffordable credit and underperforming retirement savings and without the bailout would soon translate into even more economic pain for working Americans, including more job losses.
What's in the bill
Key provisions of the $700 billion financial industry bailout and sweeteners added by the Senate to attract votes from constituencies where the first bill was not popular. The underlying legislation would:
-- Authorize $700 billion for the government to purchase troubled assets and buy equity in distressed financial firms.
-- Require the Treasury Department to make rules to prevent excessive compensation for executives whose companies benefit from the rescue, and cap deductibility of executives' pay packages at $500,000 for firms that get $300 million or more from the program.
-- Establish an oversight board for the program, a special investigator general to monitor it and regular government audits.
-- Require that the president establish a plan to recoup the cost from the financial industry if, after five years, there are any losses.
-- Phase in the money for buying troubled assets, with $250 billion available immediately, $100 billion to be released if the president certifies it is needed, and the last $350 billion available with another certification, but subject to a congressional vote.
Among the sweeteners added are those that would:
-- Provide business tax breaks, including for production of, investment in, and use of renewable fuels.
-- Require group health plans that include mental health or addiction treatment to provide coverage for those conditions that is equitable to other medical coverage.
-- Increase personal credits against the alternative minimum tax, shielding more than 20 million taxpayers from the tax.
-- Grant tax relief to victims of natural disasters in the Midwest and elsewhere.
-- Extend through 2011 a program that funds rural schools and local governments that have low property-tax bases because they lie within or are adjacent to federal lands.
-- Extend until end of 2009 the deduction for state and local general sales taxes.
-- Extend until end of 2009 individual tax breaks, including deductions for higher education costs and teachers' personal expenses.
-- Increase, from $100,000 to $250,000, the limit on federal bank deposit insurance.
Associated Press
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Comments
DoaMM (anonymous) says...
I just hope the House shoots it down.
October 2, 2008 at 6:55 a.m. ( permalink | suggest removal )
BigSargeofSC (anonymous) says...
Welcome, one and all, to the USSA, United Socialist States of Amerika.
October 2, 2008 at 8:44 a.m. ( permalink | suggest removal )
BigSargeofSC (anonymous) says...
Included with this bill is the new Pledge of Alligence.
I swear alligence to the flag
Of the United Socialist States of Amerika
And to the Marxist, for which it stands,
One nation, under Communism,
Totally divided,
with Liberty and Justice for none.
October 2, 2008 at 8:55 a.m. ( permalink | suggest removal )
DoaMM (anonymous) says...
I even heard one of the female Senators giving her speech at the pulpit (can't remember who it was and, therefore, don't know how she voted).
She stated that she had received 91,000 emails about voting for this bill and 83,000 of them insisted a "NO (NAY)" vote.
How many other Senators got that many emails? Did 74 Senators get a bunch of emails that contained a desire for a YES (AYE) vote? Reading the polls that were taken on this bill, I doubt it.
How many Senators defied the wish of the people that voted them in? Furthermore, it was stated that most of the Senators probably did not have time to read the final version of the bill (400 and some-odd pages). How can you vote on something that you haven't read completely?
October 2, 2008 at 9:15 a.m. ( permalink | suggest removal )
bkeelin (anonymous) says...
Democrat Bernie Sanders is a self described socialist and he is serving as a US Senator. What are the people of Vermont thinking, or are they thinking?
October 2, 2008 at 9:59 a.m. ( permalink | suggest removal )
DoaMM (anonymous) says...
Oh! Let's just add in there that the bill offers "Decreased Taxes" for 20 million Americans.
Isn't that, like, right at 10% or less of the American Population? Way to look after "Main St", Washington!
And I see how well a half-passed bill is helping Wall Street right now:
Dow: Down 232
Nasdaq: Down 54
S&P: Down 29
Idiots...the lot of them...
October 2, 2008 at 10:45 a.m. ( permalink | suggest removal )
abitskeptical (anonymous) says...
If Barney Frank was so hell fired determined to get this atrocity of a bill passed why didn't he mention talking to members of his own party who didn't vote for it?
Blaming the opposing party for failure to pass the bill when his party is in the majority is the height of hypocrisy. Can't get much more disingenuous than Frank's sleaze ball attempt to pass the buck on this issue.
October 2, 2008 at 11 a.m. ( permalink | suggest removal )
DoaMM (anonymous) says...
...and now I notice that since yesterday, you are unable to email any of the SC representatives in the House.
It might just be a website glitch, but I hope it wasn't done on purpose...
If anyone else has a way to email them, let us know.
October 2, 2008 at 11:26 a.m. ( permalink | suggest removal )
gneubeck (anonymous) says...
Voting for Obama is tantamount to writing your own obituary.
This crisis, purely and simply, was set-in-motion by the cheerleading of the Politically Correct Social Engineering that flourished under the Clinton Administration in the artificially inflated boom years of the 1990s.
In an effort to increase minority home ownership, the Clinton regime threw sound fiscal discipline under-the-bus; and, promulgated policies that forbid mortgage lenders from using common-sense criteria such as : income; ability to afford a reasonable down payment; and, credit history, as metrics in the evaluation of mortgage applications. The same congressional left-wingers who, with their insatiable appetite for social engineering, later vehemently rejected Bush Administration efforts in 2003 to re-implement sound regulatory practices, with the Congressional infamous Dead-On-Arrival mantra.
In brief, mortgage lenders were compelled to abandon fiscal discipline and "RISK" as guiding principles in mortgage creation. Policies that were obscured so long as housing values continued to escalate; but, when the bubble burst similar to the dot-com fever; and, housing values began to implode, the crisis was set in motion.
Two of the principal players in the Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae calamities, Jim Johnson and Franklin Raines, are now leading the financial advisory cadre for Barack Obama, the second leading Senatorial recipient of lending institution largess. Interesting that it was Obama who recently led the charge to prohibit mortgage lenders from tightening their lending terms for low-income recipients. Think there's any possibility of a correlation here? Even a Democrat Congress couldn't swallow that proposal.
Of commendable note is the fact that John McCain was one of only three (3) co-sponsors of the 2005 Senate legislation (S 190) which if enacted could have short-circuited the current crisis confronting our financial sector.
And now Obama, with his innate Marxist/Socialist concepts, has focused his campaign on extravagant promises to find still other methods of transferring financial benefits to those whom he considers "disadvantaged". Clearly, the election of Obama, who has learned nothing from the these catastrophic events, when coupled with the Democrat's obstinate obstruction of America's efforts to develop our indigenous energy resources, would set in motion still other financial crises of unparalled proportions.
The "Rational Majority" in our electorate only has a brief few weeks to identify the true enemy in our midst; and, to relegate their Socialist diatribe to a barely audible level. Greg Neubeck
October 2, 2008 at 11:40 a.m. ( permalink | suggest removal )
theronce (anonymous) says...
What's the big deal. This is the same pack that we put up there to prevent these problems. They did not. They certainly have done nothing to indicate to me that they are competent to fix the problem(s). We will probably put them back up there in November. We can't get them out unless they quit or die, or we're lucky enough to jail one now and then. We are so stupid. They know it, and we prove it every election.
October 2, 2008 at 12:59 p.m. ( permalink | suggest removal )
DoaMM (anonymous) says...
theronce,
This MAY be the one election that TRULY demonstrates what America wants.
I know that may be said every election, but I feel that this one may do it with big changes to seats (people, not necessarily parties).
October 2, 2008 at 1:14 p.m. ( permalink | suggest removal )
gcmadness (anonymous) says...
I too hope that Congress declines this bill. It's realy hard to believe that we've come to this. Senator Demint is a true patriot! I saw his plan, and he gets it. Also Dave Ramsey's plan is awesome too. I urge everyone to go to daveramsey.com and check it out. Hopefully it's not too late to get a plan that doesn't throw the baby out with the bath water.
October 2, 2008 at 1:15 p.m. ( permalink | suggest removal )
southbel (anonymous) says...
Did any of you read the 431 page bill? I did. I was furious after reading it. It is LOADED with pork. Pork, pork, and more pork.
Hey, there's money for manufacturers of toy wooden arrows, money for rum producers, money for people who ride a bicycle to work, money for film and TV producers, money for litigants of Exxon-Valdez, money for railroad track maintenance, and money for racetrack owners.
Honestly, there are more, but some are a bit "hidden" in various methods and terms because they point to an extension or plus up of other legislation without actually naming that legislation. Thus, you would need to follow the paper trail.
What do any of these things have to do with their bailout of this supposed financial Armageddon that we are facing???
October 2, 2008 at 1:18 p.m. ( permalink | suggest removal )
iceman1978 (anonymous) says...
Get ready. You think the economy is bad now you just wait until this passes and the Dollar goes into a freefall.
October 2, 2008 at 1:29 p.m. ( permalink | suggest removal )
charlestonpride (anonymous) says...
Why do we need to study wool? That is in this package. We need to quit voting lawyers into office and start voting CPAs and financial managers. If Barney Frank and his group would have listened to the auditors years ago we would not be in the mess we are in today. That's just my opinion.
October 2, 2008 at 1:42 p.m. ( permalink | suggest removal )
DoaMM (anonymous) says...
Iceman,
If this passes the House, I'm willing to bet that the market will continue to dive, or at LEAST stagnate with little gains. That's when the politicians will say it's someone else's fault. You watch...
charlestonpride,
I agree, and I know I'm gonna get ALOT of flack from saying this, but that's why Ross Perot would have an "okay" president.
DoaMM <-----dodging rocks, paper cups, fruit, etc.
Hang on! Sure he's crazy, nutty, and a bit off kilter, but isn't the country of America essentially a business? Isn't a SUCCESSFUL businessman (not necessarily Perot) the best pick to run the country?
Business Speak = Political Speak
Contracts = Foreign Policy
Shipping & Receiving = Imports & Exports
Take-Overs = War
Just a thought...Continue pelting me...
October 2, 2008 at 1:56 p.m. ( permalink | suggest removal )
GermanyXO (anonymous) says...
Here we are again, deciding whether to approve CORPORATE WELFARE for business leaders who command six-figure salaries and golden parachutes, only to lead companies that hire them to dust. If our nation's leaders approve this $700B bailout package, then they're only giving these speculative businessmen another chance to do it again. Bank and lending industry leaders who chose to take on extreme risk in the sub-prime loan marketplace through frivolous lending practices should be put on a long list. This list should list all those ineligible for CORPORATE WELFARE. Why not put $700B toward college scholarships so we can teach our future business leaders how to properly operate banking, saving, and loan industries?
October 2, 2008 at 3:02 p.m. ( permalink | suggest removal )
DoaMM (anonymous) says...
stand828 wrote:
"I'm a small business owner. How will it help me?"
Do you make wooden arrows?
October 2, 2008 at 3:38 p.m. ( permalink | suggest removal )
SwampFox2 (anonymous) says...
Press Release
--- Draft Copy - not for release until verified ---
November 5, 2008 The U.S. Senate, from South Carolina In a stunning defeat, incumbent Lindsey Graham lost his Senate seat to his relatively unknown challenger, Conservative Democrat Bob Conley. Graham's loss is largely attributed to his turning on voters and supporting the massive bailout package, after he also earned his constituents' ire by being involved in the creation of and voting for the shameful Amnesty Legislation. Angry voters fired a record number of incumbent Senators amd Congressmen this year. South Carolina voter Mary Dobbs said, "We have had enough. Bailing out Wall Street, while we are struggling to buy gas and groceries was just too much." Grass Roots activists used the Internet to rally opposition.
One blogger using the pseudonym 'End the Fed' posted this question: "Will America now be more Socialist than Russia?" Many voters joined former Speaker Newt Gingrich in calling for the firing of Treasury Secretary Paulson, an insider, who wrote the first bailout bill and profited over 100 million dollars from Goldman Sachs Bank. Goldman Sachs is one of the companies the bailout was designed to help. "It's a classic case of the fox guarding the hen house," said farmer Todd Earnest, "Reforms are clearly needed to help our economy, but an 850 billion dollar bail out filled with pork that benefits Wall Street and foreign banks, and is paid for by middle class Americans like me was not the right answer."
Graham's colleague in the U.S. Senate, the Honorable Jim DeMint had this to say about the bailout bill, ""As the blood of our young men and women fall on foreign soil in the defense of freedom, our own government appears to be leading our country into the pit of socialism." Sen. Jim DeMint, R-S.C.
And another constituent of both Senators added that "The socialism Senator DeMint is referring to is the worst kind of socialism, because it is not taking from you to help your neighbor, it is taking from you, and your children's, children's children to help your CORPORATE FUEDAL LORD, AKA fascism!"
Graham had support across party lines and rural to urban areas. He was favored to win, and many pundits thought he would do just that. The financial crisis pitted Main Street against Washington just a few weeks ago. When Graham sided with Washington and Wall Street on the bail out and with the memory of his shamnesty votes, South Carolina voters bailed on him.
October 2, 2008 at 9:07 p.m. ( permalink | suggest removal )
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