Bush Pushes To Pass Bailout Package.... Dems Say Not So Fast

Bush urged Congress to move fast on the $700 billion bailout package for Wall Street. Democratic lawmakers urged caution, citing warrantless wiretapping as an example of what happens when a bill is passed in haste. Below is an excerpt on Bush's statement regarding the rescue plan. Underneath the excerpt is a quote from Senator Leahy, comparing Bush's urgency today with his push to pass the Patriot Act, legislation that has been criticized for giving the government enhanced powers to spy on the public.

From The Washington Post:

President Bush this morning warned lawmakers against trying to make too many changes to the proposed financial bailout legislation, saying the plan needs to be passed quickly and relatively intact to stem damage to global financial markets.

Weekend negotiations "made good headway" in crafting a bill to bolster a system weighed down by problem home mortgages, Bush said. But with proposals circulating to include provisions for homeowners in the bill or to use it to limit executive compensation, Bush cautioned that too many added provisions could impede approval of critically needed legislation.

Patrick Leahy on the bailout package:

"We will do something this week -- but if we learned anything from right after 9/11, it's that the biggest mistake is to pass anything they ask for just because it's an emergency," Leahy says.

The Senate Judiciary Committee chairman knows of what he speaks. He sponsored the original Patriot Act, only to feel betrayed later when the Bush administration used it to justify domestic wiretapping.

Katharine Zaleski is the Senior News Editor at HuffingtonPost.com. She can be reached at [e-mail]

Comments

[KQuarksSuperKollider]

You tro//s are not fooling anyone in the latest polls Americans correctly blame the financial crisis and bad economy on the Rethuglicans by a margin of 2 to 1.

What happened to conservative principles like personal responsibility?

You tro//s are the most pathetic bunch of faux Americans we have ever had in this country.

The fact is Republicans have been in control of congress for 12 of the last 14 years and the white house for the last 8 years and 20 of the last 28 years. Instead of admitting trickle down economics is wrong and unfettered business is wrong you try to blame things on the Democrats like a bunch of whiners.

How dumb do you think Americans are?

[KQuarksSuperKollider]

"Sept. 22 (Bloomberg) -- For the first time since 1932 a presidential election is taking place in the midst of a genuine financial crisis. The reaction of the candidates was revealing.

John McCain, railing against the ``greed and corruption'' of Wall Street, won the first round of the sound-bite war. He came out with a television commercial on the ``crisis'' early on Monday of last week, and over the next three days gave more than a dozen broadcast interviews. He and running mate Sarah Palin would reform Wall Street and regulate the nefarious fat cats that caused this fiasco.

It was a great start. It then went downhill as he stumbled over his record of championing deregulation, claimed the economy was fundamentally strong, and flip-flopped over the government takeover of American International Group Inc.

For his part, Barack Obama didn't come across as passionately outraged and wasn't as omnipresent or as specific.

More revealing, though, was to whom both candidates turned on that panic-ridden morning of Sept. 15, and how the messages evolved before and after that day.

McCain called Martin Feldstein, the well-known Republican economist and Reagan administration adviser, John Taylor of Stanford University, who served in President George W. Bush's Treasury and Carly Fiorina, once the chief executive officer of Hewlett-Packard Co.

Obama called former Federal Reserve Chairman Paul Volcker, and former Treasury Secretaries Robert Rubin and Larry Summers.

It was a mismatch. "

http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601070&sid=alfUj1r0Z10o&refer=politics

[KQuarksSuperKollider]

McCain & the GOP Own This Mess

America just watched as The Financial system was Raped, Pillaged & Burned

Gramm-Leach-Bliley Financial Services Modernization Act.

53 Republican Senators plus one Democrat - AYE

44 Democrats no Republicans - NAY

Economist Robert Kuttner has criticized the repeal of the Glass-Steagall Act as contributing to the 2007 subprime mortgage financial crisis. Economists Robert Ekelund and Mark Thornton have made similar criticisms, arguing that while "in a world regulated by a gold standard, 100% reserve banking, and no FDIC deposit insurance" the Financial Services Modernization Act would have made "perfect sense" as a legitimate act of deregulation, under the present fiat monetary system it "amounts to corporate welfare for financial institutions and a moral hazard that will make taxpayers pay dearly".

"John McCain voted FOR the bank laws that led to the current credit crisis. John Mccain's economic advisor (Gramm) WROTE the law. 53 Republicans voted YES to the law. When you're in danger of losing your house, can you take a chance on more of the same from those who wrecked out economy?"

How The Senate voted

http://www.senate.gov/legislative/LIS/roll_call_lists/roll_call_vote_cfm.cfm?congress=106&session=1&vote=00105

Top Industries of McCain Bundlers

1. Securities & Investment $11,350,000
2. Real Estate $9,500,000
3. Lobbyists $6,250,000
4. Lawyers/Law Firms $4,900,000
5. Misc Finance $4,500,000

http://www.opensecrets.org/pres08/bundlers.php?id=N00006424

[researcher]

the demos will fold like a deck of cards they always do

let me repeat the demos will fold like a deck of cards they always do'

ie they are spineless and lack anything that looks like courage

they worry they will be wrong come nov

you want spineless vote demo

you want war and bankruptcy vote repub

take your choice americans

third party anyone??????????

if I were writing commericals for obama he would be ahead by 20 points

example: four more years of mc same is like going down a dead end road except in this case you cannot turn around and drive back out instead you are forced to drive off the cliff and while falling off that cliff you can hear mc same yelling degregulation no regulation no deregulation no regulation no etc etc etc

the man never saw a lie he did not want to tell even hired a person his soulmate that lies like him ie perfect soulmates.

instead we get professor lecture talk from obama instead of one liners that most americans can understand.

the most winable election in history and the demos may very well lose it. :-)

[eden4barack08]

Third party's sure gonna start looking good if the Dems sign that check!

[mjtaylor22]

THEN renegotiate lower mortgage payments for those on the verge foreclosure. Re hab the others and rent them as affordable housing in good communities.
The govt should run a portion of the rehab work and then contract the other work out to small businesses in the communities. JOB CREATION PEOPLE!
It can be done and done well If it is thought out. The markets can wait a few days to hear the final plan.
WE CAN JUMPSTART MANY LOCAL COMMUNITIES IF THIS IS DONE SMART AND IS THOUGHT OUT.
START RECOVERY WITH THIS RIGHT NOW !
A TRILLION DOLLAR MOVE SHOULD BE ABLE TO BENEFIT EVERY BODY ESPECIALLY THE TAX PAYERS WHO WILL FOOT THIS BILL.
WE NEED A THINKING PRESIDENT
NOT A RINESTONE COWBOY....­.........!
VOTE
OBAMA/BIDEN

[mjtaylor22]

IS THE 700 BILLION THE WHOLE DEBT, ARE THEY LOOKING TO BUY THE DEBT OF THESE COMPANIES AT COST, OR AT A REDUCED RATE.
People it is called a BUYDOWN. You do not ever give the asking price on a home, you NEGOTIATE,
To get a better return for yourself.
This NEEDS TO BE A LOAN FOR A PORTION OF THE LOSSESS TO REMOVE THE DEBT,
NOT A PAYOFF SO THEY CAN TURN A PROFIT AND COLLECT BONUSES ANY WAY.
If their obligation is $1 Trillion dollars, and we the people are going to basically buy this debt.
We The People then negotiate with the creditors to take a 'BUYDOWN OR OBTAIN IN REAL ESTATE TERMS A PAYOFF QUOTE.
AND NEGOTIATE A PAYOFF AMOUNT LEES THAN THE ACTUAL DEBT. THE COMPANIES CANNOT PAY THEM ANYWAY. I SAY IF 1 TRLLION IS THE TOTAL, WE CAN BUY IT FOR half a billion
50%. EASILY.
That way the savings can be used to turn the mortgaged properties into affordable housing, GREAT IDEA !

[eden4barack08]

Dems, PLEASE, DO NOT give in to another bogus emergency shotgun decision request. You had better learned a lesson from what this President has made you sign to ruin our country. I believe there's more to this than meets the eye. Remember who voted for you, and represent the people!
Just say: NOT THIS TIME!!! NO BLANK CHECK!!!

[gconners]

To paraphrase Phil Gramm (former/current? economic advisor to McCain): Wall Street has a "mental" problem. It's all in their heads. The market will self-correct. It always does, right? Wall Street has become a group of "whiners...you just hear this constant whining." I guess they just want to join the rest of us in this "nation of whiners." Well, I say, welcome aboard. We missed you as you "masters of the universe" stood high above the fray.

[eden4barack08]

How about B ush saying Wall Street "got drunk", back in July? It would appear they had some idea something was going on, yet no action then, and now want to rush Congress.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bT29fq0slGc

Why isn't anybody bringing this up BTW??

[Lotus19]

And adding insult to injury, the package also bails out foreign banks. What's *that* about?

[esquire07]

The Dems gave Bush a blank check for the so called "War" in Iraq and it is just a matter of time before the do nothing coward Democrats give him a blank check for this so called "financial crisis."

Democrats, helping Bush bankrupt America.

[triplbee]

Bush's push to pass this legislation is almost as corrupt as he bid for war in Iraq. If Democrats do not finally, for once, for the love of God say hell no to this man, then they deserve to lose this election. They need to stand up to the most unpopular president in the history of the United States and say there is no #$%@ing way that they are going to give him a blank check and sole authority to fix a problem that is largely his creation. They did to craft their own bail out plan and tell Bush to kiss their collective ass if he threatens to veto it. I need the Democrats to stick up for me this time.

[kbunkboy]

I hope someone will report the salaries paid this year to the top executives of these companies that need a government bailout to remain solvent. Also, if one looks back over the past 35 years you will find the only time bailout were needed for private companies were during Republican administrations (a chart showing just that ran in Sundday's Boston Globe).

I contend Republicans are more socialistic then Democrats ... these bailouts smack of Facism to me.

[doctorwang]

Repugs=CommiePinkos

[CaptainStormfield]

Just Remember Folks.. If you are not happy with this bailout BS...
Call your congress's and complain. Tell them No Gold Parachute.
No blank check.
No No No..
Its easy..

[MindyIsHot]

McCain will pass anything...

http://myrealitytelevision.com/2008/09/mccain-versus-obama-immigration-is-the-us-the-melting-pot/

[maggsa]

Don't give Bush the money he will waste it or spend it on keeping his friends rich. Don't trust him or his government anymore - they are crooked as they come. Wake up and let the dominos fall into place. Stop Bush Now!