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

[tomfl78]

It's not nonsense it's the truth

[MsMontana]

The sky is falling, the sky is falling! Yes, this is a crisis, but Bush's threats and forceful rhetoric are way to reminiscent of his fear tactics that persuaded the dems to cave and approve the Iraq war.

[Msohio]

I can say that GW Bush created this problem with his rush to put more people in homes in any way that he could; then his contributors lined their pockets and left people hanging out to dry. Carter's principles were included the current quick schemes and lies that mirror everything else that the Bushies did. Clinton looking back to the Carter years? Try again!!!

[Hare]

Tom78. Home alone? go to entertainment site and get some distractions. Stopp peddleling nonsense and do take your friends portnoy and syona with ya!

[cariintexas]

We all know this is about the " Economy " but for reason people keep thinking about the lead up to the Iraq war. Perhaps it's the words, "BLANK CHECK".

[tomfl78]

The untold story in this whole national crisis is that President Clinton put on steroids the Community Redevelopment Act, a well-intended Carter-era law designed to encourage minority homeownership. And in so doing, he helped create the market for the risky subprime loans that he and Democrats now decry as not only greedy but "predatory."

[magicmary]

Do you have any kind of statistic that shows that it is primarily minority home owners who are being foreclosed on?

[WallStreetNobody]

This has been refuted by every analyst and every economist, even the right-wing ones. The only people pushing this nonsense are right-wing radio pundits and the mouthbreathers on Fox. You need to get your head out of the sand and come to grips with reality.

[mr gallian0]

President Reiterates Goal on Homeownership

http://www.whitehouse.gov/news/releases/2002/06/20020618-1.html

"The goal is, everybody who wants to own a home has got a shot at doing so. The problem is we have what we call a homeownership gap in America. Three-quarters of Anglos own their homes, and yet less than 50 percent of African Americans and Hispanics own homes. That ownership gap signals that something might be wrong in the land of plenty. And we need to do something about it. "

[Synoia]

Dear Mr Paulson:

Please contribute $350,000,000 of your fortune to the Wall St bailout.

Sincerely

The Voters.

[soupson52]

From your mouth to Paulson's checkbook. Maybe carly'd like to donate a little of her golden parachute too. Hmmm...so many possibilities, so little time.

[magicmary]

I'm telling you instead of getting the dough from the government/ the taxpayer, the wall street fat cats need to start having a garage sale to raise the money. Like sell all the faucets from the bathrooms of their yachts and sell the sink cabinets and the ceramic tile from their luxury bathrooms. I bet they could raise the money if they just sell off the parts and pieces of their luxury lifestyles. If they break it up in little bits and pieces, then those of us with just a little bit of money in our pockets could buy some of their stuff. I would dearly love to see an offer of $50 be accepted for a $3000 flat screen TV. Everything must go! Once in a century bargain prices!

[tomfl78]

Clinton crony Franklin Delano Raines took the helm in 1999 at Fannie Mae, for example, he used it as his personal piggy bank, looting it for a total of almost $100 million in compensation by the time he left in early 2005 under an ethical cloud.

Other Clinton cronies, including Janet Reno aide Jamie Gorelick, padded their pockets to the tune of another $75 million.

Raines was accused of overstating earnings and shifting losses so he and other senior executives could earn big bonuses.

In the end, Fannie had to pay a record $400 million civil fine for SEC and other violations, while also agreeing as part of a settlement to make changes in its accounting procedures and ways of managing risk.

But it was too little, too late. Raines had reportedly steered Fannie Mae business to subprime giant Countrywide Financial, which was saved from bankruptcy by Bank of America.

[kasinca]

Hey Bucko. This is all about deregulating the financial institutions. You can bring up all you fantasy bs but you are not painting a full picture. You can believe non-sense all you want but I am old enough to have lived through and witnessed this philosophy of deregulating all the regulations we put in place to end the last Great Depression. Now ask yourself why they were necessary. Now look at the result of removing them. Now go away and read something besides some reichwing think tank that is trying to justify their failed policies. If you are able to understand this readk it and try to understand this is bigger than a reichwingnut article falsely accusing a couple fo poeple in the opposing party.

http://www.frbsf.org/publications/banking/gramm/index.html

[Citizenofreality]

Keep spinning this as hard as you can, the fact is that the Republicans have been screaming deregulation and free market for decades, you reap what you sow. The American people should refuse this bailout unless we are guaranteed control over it and reap the benefits from it.

[nirek]

Lets just say no to big business and repugs.!

[Portnoy]

Say (D) Sen Chris Dodd...Can you name who in Congress has received more cash from Fannie Mae and Freddi Mac than you? Betchya you can't! Maybe we should cap Congressional Pay at $65,000 and see what happens.

Such is life in Obama Nation!

[cariintexas]

You need to do a little research before you start accusing, AGAIN> If you do, you will find where John Mc Cain and Chris Dodd received the same amount, $165,000. And you forgot to mention WHO was in the middle of it all. One Phil Gramm, Mc Cains CHIEF ECONOMIC ADVISOR.

[Citizenofreality]

Hey Portnoy here's my complaint with you. The lion's share of Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae money received by Obama came from EMPLOYEES in small dollar amounts. You guys can reinvent reality all you want but the American people are starting to wake up.

[boing007]

Portnoy
Say (D) Sen Chris Dodd...Can you name who in Congress has received more cash from Fannie Mae and Freddi Mac than you? Betchya you can't! Maybe we should cap Congressional Pay at $65,000 and see what happens.

Such is life in Obama Nation!

Hoo boy! Portnoy's complaint.

[tomfl78]

the bailout is not for President Bush's friends it's for the American People

[kasinca]

Who told you that? Bush or his appointee? Has Bush ever lied to you? Has one of his appointees ever lied to you? Why do you trust a Bushie?

[tomfl78]

"But it was the Clinton administration, obsessed with multiculturalism, that dictated where mortgage lenders could lend, and originally helped create the market for the high-risk subprime loans now infecting like a retrovirus the balance sheets of many of Wall Street's most revered institutions."

"Tough new regulations forced lenders into high-risk areas where they had no choice but to lower lending standards to make the loans that sound business practices had previously guarded against making. It was either that or face stiff government penalties." INVESTOR'S BUSINESS DAILY

[Hare]

Tom go post your nonsense in the Politico page. Same thing over and over, you just post and don't even read what others have to say. Go

[Soundofthunder]

Must be true because it's on the internet.

SOT

[cariintexas]

Yes, whatever. Evidently you slept through the 90's. President Clinton over 20 million new jobs, and left a surplus. We remember the Clinton years, and boy do we remember the 2000's. Spout nonsense all you want, however it doesn't equal one more vote.

[kasinca]

Tom. Think for yourself. I am pasting the law that led to the unraveling below. It was supported by Phil Gramm and John McSame and the boys on the reich.

http://www.frbsf.org/publications/banking/gramm/index.html

[oliv0128]

Yeah, those poor banks. Forced to go into low-income neighborhood and make wild profits off of a constellation of sub-standard financial services (including not only sub-prime lending but also check-cashing places and cash cards with astronomical fees).

Please.

Enough with blaming the victim and trying to make scapegoats. If we can keep our wits about us, hate out of our mind, and our eye on the prize, we'll soon be heading down a really scary road!

[RayMcD]

Senator Leahy, one of the few voices of reason in the Senate, is once again looking out for the American people. Thank you Senator, and please keep doing what you're doing. We need more like you!

[TiffanyHusseinBanned]

McCain: I was surprised by the mortgage meltdown…surprised by the dotcom bubble bursting.

Well how could Gov. Palin be correct when she claims McCain warned everyone that that we had an impending subprime mortgage meltdown?

[MsDoc]

See....now there you go....trying to make sense out of that pair. They can't even get their lies in synch.

[RaraAvis17]

I love how B00sh is trying to RUSH this through so that top management will get to keep their over compensated severance packages for doing a sh|t job.

Now it will become the fight of the GOOD and the EV|L. I am darn tired of EV|L winning out.

[SCG]

When the m.onkey on your back passes away, your load lightens.

[MsDoc]

Me, too. It's very weary making...

[boing007]

I just heard some tidbits on CNN at 5 P.M. this afternoon about the Democrats amendments. Not nearly enough. Keep writing to your senators and reps. Push Bush to the wall and see if he'll squeal and give in. Dare him to veto a watertight package that will ensure that Main Street gets treated fairly. Bush loves to shove it in our faces. Shove it right back. He might even respect you if you do. Grudgingly, for sure, but who cares.