Open thread: Senate bailoutmania! Update: Bailout passes, 75-24
posted at 7:02 pm on October 1, 2008 by Allahpundit
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The vote’s set for 7:30 ET on C-SPAN, assuming the windbaggery on the floor is finished by then. It should pass with 70+ votes, three of which will come from McCain, Obama, and Biden. Will it pass the House on Friday? All signs point to … no:
House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer said Wednesday he was “personally disappointed” that the Senate added a package of tax breaks to the bailout bill.
However, Hoyer said he had spoken to House Minority Whip Roy Blunt “four or five” times on Wednesday and expressed hope that they could come to an agreement on the bill.
Tapper delved into this a bit further earlier today:
While the Senate will pass its version of the rescue bill with more than 70 votes, according to Senate sources, Senators have taken the partisan bickering over the rescue bill and added a stalled disagreement over a separate issue — “tax extenders,” or extending various tax relief provisions that are due to expire — into the mix…
But some conservative Democrats have expressed serious concerns about the fact that extending these tax cuts is not being paid for in the budget. Adding the provision may attract House Republicans, but it could alienate these fiscally-conscious Democrats, causing them to abandon the 140 House Democrats who voted for the bill to join the 95 who voted against it…
The implication: not only will Boehner need to provide the entire 13-vote margin that the bill lost by on Monday, but also that the addition of the unpaid-for “tax extenders” could cause up to 17 Democrats who voted for the bill Monday to walk. If not more.
Will the Senate bill clear the House? Will the economy be rescued? Will your humble correspondent succeed in his reckless gambit to hold onto his retirement portfolio until the bailout passes and the market spikes, whereupon he’ll duly unload his shares before the S&P inevitably tanks? Tune in tonight for episode one!
Update: The bailout clears its first hurdle, 75-24, and an anxious blogger lowers the revolver pressed to his temple. Tomorrow night: Russian roulette, as Palin takes the stage against Biden and the House tries to choke down this fat, greasy piece of pork. If it doesn’t? Expect Pelosi to come back with a third iteration of the bill even less palatable to conservatives than this one was. Something’s going to pass soon; we might as well get the best deal we can.
Check here soon for the roll of glory reluctance!
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A most insidiously anti-American journal nailed that point on target. The Mirror should remember itself a house of glass, loathing the Liberators who quelled for a long generation the very Socialist destruction to which all who tolerate befall.
maverick muse on October 2, 2008 at 7:40 AM
Greenspan cleared out and quit knowing full well the time bomb he ‘gifted’ to Paulson. He spoiled his political allies for an entire generation and then split town in the nick of time.
THEY unveiled? PAULSON & Democrats unveiled for Bush’s signature, sealing our fate. The Democrat induced/inspired bail-out plan did not even meet the majority Democrat required vote. Talk about mixed messages.
That Bush allowed himself to get cornered on this is his own downfall. He tried early in office to commit a reform, but even then proved his lack of leadership in committing his original Republican majority to effect economic reform, let alone bipartisan leadership. That he quit trying early on leaves him open to Der Spiegel (I despise their hatred of America’s Founding Principles) and UN international defamation today. No President can be all to all at all times. But what each President does with what time he has in office is his legacy. The Democrats legislated America’s economic failure, not Bush. Time and again, the Democrats refused to prevent today’s economic catastrophe AND SO TOO the Republican’s failed to stop the corruption. As Bush and Republicans failed to deliver any prevention, he and our Republican legislators fail to deliver a means towards security or any hope. His $700billion demand is to see him out of office before the candle’s meltdown burns out the entire wick. I would venture that the $700billion spending affects this economic grease fire with a bucket of water, not a fire extinguisher. That Bush so willingly sells out Reagan’s legacy even as he throws America out with his dirty bath water proves that Bush was a Progressive socialist all along, a token card carrying “compassionate conservative republican” Progressive socialist.
If McCain remains consistent as such, schade.
maverick muse on October 2, 2008 at 7:46 AM
That analogy is the same BS the congress is trying to scare us all with. It isn’t a wreck, it’s gridlock caused by irresponsibility.
What they wont tell you is this:
1) There is a super highway available to use that we used to be on.
2)As a matter of fact they are the ones who detoured us onto the gridlocked freeway.
3) Their buddies caused the bottleneck by running out of gas because they have holes in their fuel tanks. And they have congress’ campaign posters in their trucks.
4) Congress wants to take fuel from those stuck in the bottleneck and give it to the same guys with holes in their tanks.
5) It would be better to detour us back to the original highway that it will be to put gas into fuel tanks that will simply leak out another mile down the road causing another bottleneck.
The detour will be difficult and will cost us fuel in our tanks, but once we are on the new freeway, everyone gets back up to speed and the problem is solved for the vast majority of us.
What congress doesn’t want to see is their buddies still sitting on the old freeway with no fuel in their tanks and unable to deliver their campaign posters to them while the tow trucks approach to take their buddies to the scrap heap.
csdeven on October 2, 2008 at 7:49 AM
That should read “campaign posters in their TRUNKS.”
csdeven on October 2, 2008 at 7:54 AM
I put on my picker of nit hat last night and noticed that C-SPAN’s roll call of the vote on screen had a capital “Y” or an “N” beside each Senator’s name to designate their vote.
EXCEPT FOR McCAIN WHICH HAD A lowercase “y”
And it stayed that way for as long as I was watching it.
Doth I protest too much or is it another subtle bias???
Brat on October 2, 2008 at 8:15 AM
Yeah,, the beginnings of the new civil war. This time, the masters are in Washington and they call themselves Democrats.
The rest of us are the slaves. Instead of the north and south,, the dividing lines are east and west vs center.
The way to combat this is getting local government.
We have got to fight socialism on the local level and move up from there.
Instead of talking all this crap about guns and ammo,, go win an election on your school board. Run for city council and run for mayer! Run for any position that is open! Run for state senator! You should have done it yesterday!
The future is going to be stopping socialism at the local and state level! Stop accepting Federal monies now!! Find ways to get out of the Federal monies! And don’t go telling me “That will never happen!”
Go jump off a cliff if you want to! Conservatives need to take action now at the local level and let the idiots that want to say “That will never happen” be run over by the guy doing it!
We are either going to take back this government or we are going to crumble as a nation!
JellyToast on October 2, 2008 at 8:17 AM
Tax cuts and more spending. Recipe for a Democrat landslide.
No reform, no bailout.
Be a maverick McCain, oppose the bailout!!!!
Angry Dumbo on October 2, 2008 at 8:48 AM
Oh look, we went from a crap sandwich, to a crap sandwich with a pinch of corn.
TheHat on October 2, 2008 at 8:54 AM
John McCain is not worthy of being President.
His lies are now apparent. He has been promising us “Country First,” “Reform,” “Transparency.”
He promised us he would veto any legislation containing pork.
He promised us he would name and shame those responsible.
He promised us he was going to clean up washington.
Last night not only did McCain break every promise he made, he voted to thrust us into head first into socialism. Granted, many aspects of our nation are socialist- social security, medicare, medicade, welfare – just to name a few.
But now, now our entire economy.
I no longer care about this election. Both candidates are taking us to the same place.
Virginia Shanahan on October 2, 2008 at 8:59 AM
Nope, it’s a crap sandwich with a huge side of pork.
katablog.com on October 2, 2008 at 9:18 AM
SCOTUS argues “the same place” though economically THIS MANUFACTURED CRISIS proves the equality $McCain=Obama$.
It remains McCain’s victory by pre-empting the very corruption that is the problem. To claim “must do this bail-out” is the only choice of “must do” is TOO LAME, particularly AS IF “Congress knows best” since this is ALL CONGRESS’ FAULT. That “must do bail-out/anything else is to do nothing” line belongs to the dead duck GWBush. Shame on Bush. Shame on McCain to prove an economic echo chamber for corrupt socialism at Bush’s discretion. Placing “Country First” on socialism’s altar of sacrificial offerings benefiting corruption is too painful to bear, McCain. WAKE UP! State exactly what you stand for, and let the chips fall. Don’t push for more of the same economic destruction printing more daddy big bucks a la Greenspan!
maverick muse on October 2, 2008 at 9:24 AM
In 2006 all we heard was Democrats had to change the “culture of corruption.”
Is this anything if not corruption? If I took 500 people off of the street I am certain I would find 500 individuals with more integrity than our Congress.
Angry Dumbo on October 2, 2008 at 9:49 AM
I don’t really know what to believe. I know we do have a genuine credit crisis, but if that’s the central problem, why is the Administration insistent upon the ability to purchase foreign assets?
The Bush Administration has performed up to their usual low standards in selling this bill to the public. They have not made their case at all. Why has President Bush not been more engaged in the process? He’s a Republican, why isn’t he demanding a real fix to the underlying problems that led to this crisis in the first place? Why hasn’t he stood on his desk and demanded the immediate repeal of the Community Reinvestment Act and that Freddie and Fannie be mothballed?
I might be more supportive of the bill if it had sunset provisions on the new powers being given to Sec. of Treasury. To fix a short term problem, President Bush is driving us straight to socialism, if not fascism. Why is he so unwilling to give free market solutions a real shot? President Bush has conned people into believing he is a conservative, byt just like his father, he often accepts the advice of his blue-blood friends in times of crisis.
The President ought to let corporations and Wall Street know they will never be bailed out with one nickle of taxpayer money again, so they had better make wise decisions or they face ruination alone.
We are absolutely, totally broke, so President Bush should be demanding an immediate spending cut in every government agency. He ought to go on television and tell people under 55 that the government lied and there is no social security trust fund and we will not be able to pay you, so start saving. Same with all health care programs. He ought to tell everyone the only chance we have to save ourselves financially is to eliminate social security and medicare for all those with an income in excess of $75,000 beginning next year. He ought to go on television every night and demand Congress make way for domestic oil production because we are sending American wealth to our enemies. I could go on for hours, but I will spare you. Just know I am angry and scared for my country.
flyfisher on October 2, 2008 at 10:04 AM
Republicans masquerading as “conservatives” voting for this bill have destroyed both brands forevermore.
Angry Dumbo on October 2, 2008 at 10:06 AM
I am persisting in my futility by emailing every representative and demanding they reject this disgusting bailout.
LimeyGeek on October 2, 2008 at 10:49 AM
Does anyone not believe this was a manufactured crisis cooked up by Paulsen and Bernake to benefit Obama?
red131 on October 2, 2008 at 11:17 AM
John McVain will go to his grave never achieving the one thing he coveted – the Presidency. Instead he will be repeating “IFONLY” in his disoriented last days.
If he would have been true to his mantra of maverick and opposed the PORK, he would have show that he was indeed a true leader. No, he wanted to go-along to get-along.
I wonder if Bob Barr is still interested?
belad on October 2, 2008 at 11:55 AM
So now we’ve got a bailout package in the Senate, well that’s great. But according to the article below, Congress has not even discussed repeal of the laws that caused the problem. So there goes our 750-billion swirling down the drain.
CRA Repeal Never Discussed in New Bailout Package
As I’ve emphasized several times in bailout threads, repeal of CRA should have been the first step BEFORE any bailout package was ever discussed. Without repeal of CRA our money is just wasted. The House need to reject this bailout bill until CRA has been repealed.
Maxx on October 2, 2008 at 12:24 PM
Um, there’s more than two candidates in the race. If you vote for either McCain or Obama, you’re wasting your vote on someone who want change anything (they both voted to bail out Wall Street and screw the rest of us, remember).
Vote for Bob Barr in November. Stop electing Republicans and Democrats and thinking “This time it will be different, this time he’s really sorry and he won’t hit me again.”
corbettw on October 2, 2008 at 12:28 PM
Let the markets crash and let the decent from tall buildings without parachutes begin. We’ll pick up the pieces and rebuild our free market economy and continue to live in a nation built on individual responsibility and liberty. This solution is far better than reverting to socialist/communist state with a Marxist ruler. Where is the courage and where are the patriots . . . they certainly are not among our elected officials. It’s a sad time for the Republic.
rplat on October 2, 2008 at 12:28 PM
Beware the list of ‘no’ votes. As usual some were voting with permission from the party to facilitate re-election, not because they opposed the package
Why cooked by Paulson and Bernanke and not the Democrats?
Read this very important article in the American Thinker
How allies of George Soros helped bring down Wachovia Bank
By Ed Lasky
The people discussed are the Sandlers, from this article:
The Democrats kicked in and refused to oversight the banking practices that caused the crash. By strange luck the economy crashed exactly before the crucial debates/election. By strange luck the Sandlers tanked Wachovia in perfect timing. Soros is nothing if not ambitious and crashing currencies is his specialty, next to micro managing nations. Soros in the last few years, like his partner(s) have been sheltering a lot of bucks in Asia which is most protected from this crash, certainly China with a trillion U.S. in reseve and government leashes on its banks.
(That was Soro’s one worry, that the US crash would take down China. He wrote an op-ed on it)
If he didn’t plan the wave Soros rode it better than any election he ever manipulated before. There were enough useful idiots when the dollar signs were flashing. And Soros had bankrolled a young pol named Obama who was an ideal Soros candidate, globalist, weak on Christianity, down on American culture, hater of American history, big on Saul Alinsky. A Citizen of the World
Who’s the chump?
entagor on October 2, 2008 at 12:54 PM
This will fix nothing, it will however bring us closer to the tipping point where citizens will be forced to make some very difficult decisions and ultimately take this country back from the big business hacks who are in control of it.
Viper1 on October 2, 2008 at 1:53 PM
If you don’t consider bank failings a bad thing, not being able to get a loan for college or a car or a home, watching the value of your house plummet, possibly getting laid off because your company can’t make payroll, and watching your money disappear in the stock market, then you’re either a very brave or foolish person.
As I said in my initial post, even if you’re an innocent bystander here, you’re going to take a hit. The difference is, you can either pay now or pay later. However, the cost of doing nothing will make a $700B bailout look like a wet dream.
Dagnar on October 2, 2008 at 2:25 PM
McCain has now lost all chance at the presidency.
Dave R. on October 2, 2008 at 3:05 PM
The stock market dropped 777 points when the House REJECTED a bailout. The stock market dropped 348 points when the Senate ACCEPTED a bailout, It’s time to stop playing nursemaid to edgy investors and concentrate on the socialistic horror (voted for by BOTH presidential candidates) of a government bailout, funded by taxpayers, for stupidity, crookedness and greed thus absolutely guaranteeing future stupidity, crookedness and greed.
MaiDee on October 2, 2008 at 6:18 PM
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