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Hat tip to Matt Stoller, via email:
But with conservative Republicans denouncing the plan as an affront to free-market capitalism and some liberal Democrats criticizing it as a giveaway to Wall Street, both parties were anxiously starting to court votes, particularly in the House, where angry Republicans nearly scotched a deal that had been in the works for days.
House Republicans, under pressure from Democrats to deliver 70 to 100 votes, were scouring the ranks and focusing on the two dozen Republicans who are retiring this year.
Both parties also were scouring the political map to identify lawmakers who face little or no opposition for re-election in November, knowing they would be more willing to vote yes.
Democratic officials said that despite having control of both chambers in Congress, they were far from having a majority sufficient to pass the measure just from their ranks. And they also warned that Demo-crats in potentially tough races could not be counted on to provide the votes to put the package over the top when it reaches the floor.
They’re not under any illusion the country wants this. So we know who’s pulling the strings here.
18 Comments
One only hopes that this travesty lacks the votes. I can’t believe Obama wants to hamstring his first term like this.
He is walking the sharpest knife edge of all. This is a hard call for all of them. They should just have no bill and go home.
They should just have no bill and go home.
I really don’t know that that’s possible. *Something* must come out of Congress – I believe that the market will fully and thoroughly crash otherwise.
I say give Hank $150-200B, then force him (or whomever is in his place) to come back in January. At the very least, even if the give him an initial $350B, make ‘em come back and give a progress report before the second half is distributed. As it stands, the second $350B is automatic, and would require overturning a presidential veto to block it.
And if the Dem’s wanna draw a line in the sand – make it over the issue of bankruptcy judges having the power to adjust mortgage rates on the primary (only, in most cases) residence. I can’t believe they’ve rolled over on that one.
and OT – Pach – belated condolences on the loss of your father. Best wishes to you.
What’s wrong with letting the market crash? The housing market is crashing and that effects more people than the stock market. Don’t see the bailout as helping homeowners.
I am so not an economist. If what I’m told is correct, pensions and 401(k)’s would likely be wiped out.
Please feel free to correct me if I’m wrong.
And if there’s a crash, what happens to the dollar – and all of out colossal debt? Do the creditors come in and seize what few hard assets we have?
No doubt pensions and 401ks would be seriously dented, but if we’re giving money out, why not to the pensioneers? As for the dollar, that’s going down unless we start taxing the rich big time. If we keep printing money to fix our deficits the dollar has no place to go but down.
BTW I’m not an economist either
Re the dollar, via email I get:
People who know more about this than I do tell me there’s really no way to work with or manipulate the value of the dollar to cushion this either. We’ve come to the end of our credit line.
Part of the drop in the Dollar is further expectation of Debt stop the war now means less debt than expected so that would strengthen the Dollar.
OT: Thanks.
On topic, there’s just no way the deleveraging process can be stopped. It was based on a bubble; there’s no way on earth housing prices wil do what people bet then would forever, and the CDO’s are just about worthless. “Mark to market” just means making up fantasy future prices, ie, lying.
So, this bailout won’t prevent the ultimate crackup. It will just leave the country with fewer resources to deal with the big bills that come due, because the top 1% of people will have run off with 30% of the wealth.
Oh, and health care, alternative energy? Kiss them goodbye. The next president will spend his term running from one financial crisis to the next with no financial room to maneuver.
My condolences on your loss as well.
If Obama wins, both of these items will be addressed.
Maybe not as fast as we would like, but he’s made them core issues of his campaign. As this bailout has shown us, they can always find the money.
Here’s Obama’s statement. He’s saying he likely to be for it, but has to read it. But the process has his blessing, and his people have been quietly shaping the process behind the scenes:
That says it all. So much for democracy. They know the people don’t want this, but in their infinite wisdom, they will give it to them anyhow. For once fanaticism is a virtue. I hope free market republicans stick to their guns.
read Digby.
More needs to be discussed with different people at the table.
As soon as I heard that Rahmbo was one of the 2 dems from the House doing the negotiating, I knew we were going to be screwed.
As soon as I heard that Rahmbo was one of the 2 dems from the House doing the negotiating, I knew we were going to be screwed.
yep.
Don’t we also have Rahm to thank for caving to the R demands on the V.P. debate?
(it would be nice, sometime before the day is over, to talk about a subject I feel confident in *g*)
The Veep debate is gonna be short questions and answers, no cross-talk, no *debate*. Just a matter of memorizing the responses ahead of time.
Sarah’s gonna do fine, I’m afraid.
Thanks, Rahm.
Michel’s Iron Law of Oligarcy seems very prescient
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Iron_Law_of_Oligarchy
I think the first step in getting a plan that is better is rejecting this plan show wallstreet that we can walk away. Then we get a better offer, but what would be a better offer is the question?
From Reuters: U.S. Senate vote Wed. at earliest on bailout-sources
Hi Parachutec good write up. How will millions of jobs be lost? When the matkets come back so will the retirement funds. How is this different from a recession. Where is the emergency, The big capitalist went to commodities and jumped back in the market. It is there casino let them rescue it. K street is behind this gambit. Wall steet is always looking for a sucker now the treasury policy is to make bad bets for the taxpayers and let Wall street get the good bets. I vote no until I see how throwing good money after bad gets the economy back.