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

[SantaFeStars]

The electorate asked for it and now they have it! Republicans in charge of the WH for almost 8 years and Congress for another 14 years! People, oh people, where are your brains? You've all created the biggest mess since the Great Depression!!!

[nhplanner]

This bailout plan is nothing but a very expensive parting gift from Bush to his buddies on Wall Street. This fleecing of the American taxpayers is just postponing the inevitable. The government can't continue to borrow its way out of this mess by taking out a trillion dollar loan from China. Regardless the claims of Bush and his cronies, we are in a recession and trying to stave this off by "freeing up the credit markets" is only adding to the problem (and creating a huge burden of debt for future generations). The only thing that is going to help get us through this is some bad tasting medicine and a lot of pain. It's time to raise interest rates; credit markets should be tight right now. Loose credit created this problem. I'm glad Obama is getting advice from Paul Volcker, because he has the experience and knowledge to get us back on track.

[Lion24]

P a u l s o n: former aide to h e n c h m a n of N i x o n -- J o h n E h r l i c h m a n.

Personal fortune: 7 0 0 million dollars.

Answer to you proposal, P a u l s o n. NO.

[boing007]

Answer to you proposal, P a u l s o n. NO Way, No How, No Bailout King Henry.

[funnyman26]

Here's a thought. lets vote in a Republican and have him provide tax breaks, kick backs to all is friends. Let his VP be one of the most influential private CEO that has no interest in running for president. We'll throw in a few distractions, and blame all problems on terror. It will be great. The public will eat it up and even send there kids off to fight. We'll be involved with everything and encourage all citizens to invest in our companies, so they too will become a part of our scheme. Once made our BILLIONS, we'll liquidate and all will be able to declare bankruptcy. From here we'll ask our tax payers to bail us out. Everyone will be happy, and what growth we will produce!

[FatherKindly]

Andrew Sullivan cites Plato to see this current bailout as part of a move toward dictatorship by our current administration

"But this new move to create a de facto dictator for the financial markets, to invest a Treasury secretary with unprecedented powers to buy and sell at close to a trillion dollar level - with no oversight or accountability: this is a new collapse in democratic life and constitutional norms.

These measures are enabling acts of a sort. And they are what Plato feared. I have been derided as a hysteric for my fear about what this administration has done to the constitution and to ancient liberties. My current worry is that I haven't been afraid enough."

http://andrewsullivan.theatlantic.com/the_daily_dish/2008/09/how-democracies.html

[MsDoc]

We have become so accostomed to our daily flog ging that we no longer see it for what it is. It is frightenly reminiscent of pre-WWII Europe.

Maybe, just maybe, the great bea st that is the American public is awakening and we won't have to spend the next five years online exchanging chicken recipies and 25 Ways to Cook Potatoes.

[boing007]

FatherKindly

Andrew Sullivan cites Plato to see this current bailout as part of a move toward dictatorship by our current administration.

He's probably right. Don't trust Dubya!

[ObamaEdwards]

Now, more than ever: IMPEACH. Kick this fool and his thugs out of the White House before his term ends. IMPEACH this wannabe dictator.

[nirek]

If we say yes to the bailout we will have a dictator !!!

[Tismo]

Clearly we should allow the captain who crashed our ship into the iceberg to set the course for leading us out of peril. /s

Would someone please inform the President that he lacks the relevancy and authority to make demands of and/or threats to anyone?

Can't he go clear some brush or engage in some otherwise benign activity where he can only do harm to himself?

[StarfishusBovinae]

Doctor John McCain has problems with morality and reality. One day he had intercourse with one of his patients and felt guilty all day long.
No matter how much he tried to forget about it, he just couldn't.
The guilt and sense of betrayal was overwhelming.
But every once in a while he'd hear an internal, reassuring voice in his head that said, "John, don't worry about it. You aren't the first medical practitioner to have intercourse with one of their patients and you won't be the last. Just let it go, John."
But invariably another voice in his head would bring him back to reality whispering, "Geez, John, but you're a veterinarian..."

[MsDoc]

LOL Thanks, I needed that....

[Jim--C]

i think the american electorate will get what it deserves. any thinking person knew that reagonomics and "trickle down" was a pile of crap. yet there were enough uninformed, politically ignorant , and "morals value" voters out there to vote ronnie in. now we are all reaping what we have sown. we can blame bush. we can blame wall street. we can blame congress. however, we have no one to blame but ourselves.

[sagopalm]

Hey you jokers in the House and and Senate!!! Don't give this man another solitary thing he wants!!!

Impeach this waste of space!!!

[nirek]

Please IMPEACH NOW !!!!!!

[dawlishgal]

(the rest)

The taxpayer gets stiffed with responsibility for the debt of the bigshots AGAIN, as they did in the S & L bailout in which the Bush sons walked away with multimillions in graft, and even got their fines for excessive greed and corruption paid by pals o'Poppy Bush, by corporate thugs who were seeking to buy influence with the president of the US.

And McCain, a participant in the Keating 5, screams that NOW he is the maverick who will reform things, and people are stupid enough to believe it. even after he has done nothing even remotely substantial or remotely decent for almost 3 decades in power. Nevermind that he never even advocated reform of any kind of misbehavior that he hadn't already lined his own pockets by engaging in himself.

When are the American people going to stop believing the self-serving blather that Republicans are on the side of the ordinary guy? If this latest scam isn't enough, what WILL it take? Will they have to get caught sliming children? Lying about honorable combat service of courageous men? Whoops, they already got caught doing those things too, and apparently even that isn't enough to wise up the gullible, self-destructive (and, sadly, destructive of the rest of us too) antiAmerican dupes.

[sacrebleu]

If I may make a no-cost, no-obligation suggestion for the next time:

Post your first 250 words and then when it appears, reply to yourself with the rest of the comment. That way, when traffic is heavy you won't have a 2 or 3-page gap playing havoc with continuity.

[sacrebleu]

Like this.

Great post, btw.

[Steve69]

At what point do the American people say "ENOUGH!!!!" "I AM SICK AND TIRED OF BEING SCREWED!!!"

They say it when they cast their vote for Obama in November. That's when!!!

OBAMA/BIDEN 08

[TiffanyHusseinBanned]

Have any of the powers that be endorsed McCain's nineeleven commission idea?

[FatherKindly]

They all recognize that this is merely kicking the can down the road, so that when you come across it in a couple of years, you can kick it again. It will take months to form a commission, years for them deliberate, and no time at all to ignore their conclusions, just like Bush did with the 9/11 Commission.

[MsDoc]

I certainly hope not.... I don't think a plan designed over the next three years would be all that much help.

[kenergy599]

I thought his proposal was highly interesting...sounds to me like he knows the truth about
911.You and I are the only ones that noticed that proposal...interesting how his comment
wasn't picked up by the media.

[trucap]

no limit to excutive compensation,,,!!!!!! thats one of items that bush obejecting to be included in the bailout plan bill. Immagine !!!!!!!!!!

[MsDoc]

WOW...OUR GWB??? Never.... couldn't happen....not our GWB.

Words fail...all I can do is sputter

[sacrebleu]

More transparent fear mongering from the Bush administration.

ECONOMY: "Failure to act would have broad consequences far beyond Wall Street. It would threaten small business owners and homeowners on Main Street"

WAR: "Facing clear evidence of peril, we cannot wait for the final proof -- the smoking gun -- that could come in the form of a mushroom cloud."

[socalclint]

NEWSFLASH FOR bush: Too late! Small business owners (like me) & homeowners (me, again) are ALREADY threatened by you, your posse of thieves and wall street. Move on, you and your ilk are on borrowed time!

NEWSFLASH FOR DEMOCRATS: You're just as bad, if not worse, than the crime syndicate (aka: republicans) if you cave YET AGAIN. Grow a pair or borrow Madonna's & stand up for US (your employers) for a change. Get a clue!