Posted on 09/27/2008 7:50:20 PM PDT by TFine80
House Republicans said they want to eliminate several provisions from a working version of the financial rescue bill as principles from both sides of the Capitol went into negotiations Saturday afternoon.
House GOP Leader John Boehner (Ohio) said a number of issues must still be settled as Congress tries to reach a deal quickly.
“There are a lot of [issues] still on the table and while I think there’s good will between both chambers and both parties there are a lot of conversations still occurring” Boehner said.
Republican Policy Chairman Thaddeus McCotter (R-Mich.) said earlier on Saturday that putting an arbitrary deadline on a final bailout bill would lead to electoral disaster in November.
McCotter warned against raising the expectations of investors, who would react poorly and “spark” a downturn if congressional negotiators were not able to reach a deal on legislation by Sunday. He said that, if the hypothetical deal failed because of House Republican misgivings, they would ultimately face the wrath of voters if an economic meltdown ensued.
"The irresponsible desire to meet a deadline solely for the sake of meeting a deadline will produce an ‘agreement’ that does NOT protect taxpayers from this bailout,” he said. “Thus, the public will be outraged a month before the election; principled House Republicans will view any internal whip count as a political dead pool; and the irresponsible, anti-taxpayer ‘agreement’ will fail. … This avoidable outcome, too, could lead to a catastrophic economic meltdown.”
Minority Whip Roy Blunt (R-Mo.) laid out several items his conference want kept out of a final bill at a press conference held by GOP House leaders minutes before a negotiating session in Speaker Nancy Pelosi's (D-Calif.) office.
GOPers also want to eliminate a Democratic provision that would dedicate a portion of any profits from the eventual sale of purchased assets to an affordable housing fund the GOP has said would benefit groups tied to Democrats.
Blunt said negotiators traded calls into the evening Friday on the potential details of the bill as staff worked into the early hours of the morning.
“My last discussion last night was at 11:30, my first discussion this morning was at 6:30, I’ve been on the phone with Chairman [Barney] Frank more than once and with others who are involved with this,” Blunt said, referencing the Democratic chairman of the House Financial Services Committee.
Pelosi, Sens. Chris Dodd (D-Conn.), Judd Gregg (R-N.H.) and Blunt met in Pelosi’s office around 3 p.m. Saturday afternoon.
Earlier, McCotter criticized Republican negotiators for rushing to build a consensus.
“With some Republican leaders of Congress imposing an arbitrary deadline of Sunday at midnight on negotiations, the results could prove disastrous for all Americans,” he said.
McCotter is part of the group of House Republicans, led by Rep. Eric Cantor (R-Va.), working on an alternative bailout proposal. His objection could signal early issues with members of the Republican Conference who initially balked at the $700 billion bill, causing their leadership to pull back from early compromise negotiations.
Blunt told ABC's Good Morning America on Saturday that, while Sunday is the goal, the quality of the product would take precedence over any hard and fast deadline.
“The Sunday deadline is an important deadline,” Blunt said. “But it more important to get this right than it is to meet a deadline… We hope we can get this done this weekend.”
He said on Fox and Friends later in the morning that the bill could take until Thursday or Friday to take shape.
“Well, it needs to happen by Sunday, if it doesn't happen by Sunday, it could be Thursday or Friday of next week,” Blunt said. “There may be a point when we realize that the majority that’s in control isn’t going to do this on their own and come up with the bill that Republicans in the House can vote for.”
Good for them. Stand strong!
The Republicans should only sign on if the deal includes the resignations of Frank, Dodd and Schumer.
So, the ACORN pork it is still in the bill. Mark my words, this will make it to the President's desk and he will sign it.
Pelosi said she wanted to “save the planet.” This is her big chance. She doesn’t need the GOP. She already has all the votes she needs with the DemocRATS.
Why doesn’t McCain go before TV cameras and say, “At this time when our financial system is teetering on the brink of disaster, the Democrats are trying to funnel billions of taxpayer dollars to a leftwing group associated with Senator Obama?”
The markets won’t like it but as long as there is action towards a resolution then the world won’t end. No action and allowing the financial system to collapse would be negligent though. There are some solutions out there that won’t completely screw the tax payer.
The question I ask is will the markets wait until Thursday? Will the economy wait until Thursday? If this goes until Thursday, how much further will McCain/Palin fall in the polls or doesn’t that matter?
Fear and dread of mentioning the acronym, "ACORN!" Gasp!
The longer it takes the better, might even be able to stretch it into never. Then we need to work on getting back the money paulson has already thrown away to his friends.
Fear and dread of mentioning the acronym, "ACORN!" Gasp!
The longer it takes the better, might even be able to stretch it into never. Then we need to work on getting back the money paulson has already thrown away to his friends.
Schumer was the one who insisted that we not give them the full 700 billion, he wants to dole it out according to results. Right now he appears to be thinking straight.
If the market crashes Monday morning, it’ll be Pelosi’s fault. She had the votes and she failed to pull the trigger.
He's being bipartisan. Means about the same as Bush's compassionate conservative.
After all, even the gung-ho bailout boosters will tell you it's not going to cure the patient, the best it can do is stave off a seizure for a few months or years.
So six weeks after the bailout, economic life on Main Street will be no better than today.
Positioning the House GOP (and Senate GOP if they had any nads) to say - "The Dems gave their corporate benefactors $700 billion of your money - notice any improvements in your life?
Given public sentiment, seems like a winning position to me.
ROFLOL
The reason the system will “Crash” is because of the runs on the money markets and the weaker banks (like Wachovia).
Why the money runs? Because people are concerned on their monies safety.
We can prevent this by simply raising the FDIC insured deposit amount to $1 million per account. Charge the banks a higher premium.
Most of the “runs” at least by individuals and small businesses is stopped.
Then we can sort this out without tossing $700 billion to Wall Street and foreign banks.
The just want them on board for political cover.
The are afraid the GOP would use it against them in November. That's why McCain should oppose it and let Bush and the Democrats defend this piece of tripe.
And those premium costs would be? I talked with someone today who has been in banking for 32 years, and she says increasing the premium costs of the FDIC insurance would likely cause several more banks teetering on the edge to fail. I don't we can afford that many more failures.
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