Lawmakers likely to scale back bailout

[GinaMaria]

Source: politico

Funding for Treasury’s ambitious $700 billion rescue plan for the financial markets appears increasingly likely to be scaled back or divided into tranches to help win the votes needed from nervous lawmakers in Congress

No decisions have been made, but this is one of the options now actively being considered by congressional leaders and the White House Wednesday as they try to cobble together majorities in both parties in the House.

“That’s been suggested by some,” said Speaker Nancy Pelosi (DCalif.), who met with Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson Wednesday. More than in the past, the speaker left open the possibility that House action will now slip into next week, given the need for further adjustments.

“We’re going to get it right,” Pelosi said. “We’re going to do what we have to do. We’ll finish it when it’s ready. I would hope that it would be sooner rather than later.”



Read more: http://news.yahoo.com/s/politico/20080924/pl_politico/13838

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Considering the House was supposed to have this signed and ready to go this week, we are making progress. Keep the pressure on. Continue to email and call your Rep and Senators in DC.

[soothsayer]

1. i see they've already changed 'bailout' to 'rescue plan'

[radfringe]

5. whatever they decide to call it we all know that this name change is

LIPSTICK
ON
A
PIG

[radfringe]

2. not that my vote counts, but I prefer to call it

the scam or rip-off

[GinaMaria]

3. You get to call it whatever

you want in your letters and calls! I've referred to it as a Steaming Pile.

[RUMMYisFROSTED]

4. Class war.

[99th_Monkey]

6. If Congress gives the Fed any mony at all (which I'm not convinced they should) I like Shumer's plan

the best. Only give these weasels $150 Billion now, then come back in Jan 09 to review progress, with tough oversight measures in
place. Like I said, I don't necessarily think this is the BEST plan, maybe NO plan is the best, but they shouldn't get one dime more
than $150 Billion now, because they don't even fucking need anymore than that for next three months, by their own admission.

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=389&topic_id=4070612&mesg_id=4070612

[HopeHoops]

9. They still haven't provided details on what they would do with even that much!

Paulson said they only plan to use $50b or so a month and he can't even explain for what! I read earlier that they've had this "bailout" in the planning stage for months (so shocking, I know) but the best they can come up with is "give me a bag of money the size of Toledo and don't ask any questions."

The sky is falling!
Wolfs in the sheep pen!
Fox in the hen house! - No wait, that's the Bush administration."

The whole thing seems to be designed to revive the tired "do nothing Congress" label to attempt to shift the blame to the Democrats for not wildly flinging money around like good liberals. They can't escape the truth. Bush is just last in line for the failed GOP financial policies and McCain is perhaps the greatest cheerleader for them.

Now McCain wants to delay the first debate out of some fake "love of country" feeling, but it is obvious he's filling his Depends with golden bricks wondering how he'll answer questions about his proud record of supporting any and all deregulation.

I say not a dime for Wall Street until there is a detailed plan with GOOD REASONS for how and why the money will be spent. If Congress wants to do something to help, they should stop and/or reverse any and all foreclosures that have any ties back to the failed institutions.

[Alcibiades]

7. Can't the private sector handle this better?

Why the rush to create a massive new federal entitlement program? If this is really that important, can't the private sector handle this? After all, the private sector is entrepreneurial and innovative: the government will simply introduce a lot of red tape that could hamstring the rescue.

Won't this plan entail raising taxes? Won't that suck money out of the productive economy and discourage investment, furthering our current economic downturn? If no taxes are to be raised, won't that mean we will have to borrow the money, and haven't Chicago School economists shown that government deficits kill economic growth?

If the government buys all these mortgage backed securities, it would be setting prices. Government should not be in the business of setting prices. Let the market work! If the market has decided that the fair value of these securities is zero, or a few pennies on the dollar, then maybe, maybe the government should buy them on our behalf. These Wall Street people who came up with these types of investments are allegedly quite smart, however. Cannot they figure out a way out of this without involving the government?

Where the hell are all the pissed off libertarian free market types when you need them? Oh, that's right, they are our decrying socialism. Socialism for the poor is wrong, as it creates a culture of dependency. Socialism for the rich is good, because, oh, well, it's just good.

[Sam Ervin jret]

8. I have a new plan! Let's call them all whiners, tell them it's all in their heads and ask them to

work harder and be more productive for less pay.

[HopeHoops]

10. LOL - It is all just a mental financial meltdown, yeah, that's the ticket!

[LatteLibertine]

11. D.C. stands for Disaster Capitalism

I'm going to watch how Senator Obama and Senator McCain deal with this issue. That will be deciding my vote in November.

I expect President Bush to be beating the disaster capitalism drum tonight.

As far as supporting the bailout that is highly conditional. They should only do enough to stabilize things. There should be very close oversight, accountability, no unlimited authority, and no "executive compensation".

[greyghost]

12. Right now they are TERRIFIED, Bush Co is out the door and they

will be left holding the bag. This is the famous Kobayashi Maru test from Star Trek. For those of you who are unfamiliar with the storyline, it is THE classic no win situation.

If they print more worthless money they will only devalue the dollar more, and create double digit if not hyper-inflation. If they do nothing they will be blamed for doing nothing, either way the economy is going to continue to fail. Either way they WILL be held accountable in the end.

That is the bottom line, the economy is going to continue to fail. My point is this, why dig a bigger hole by printing worthless paper? Keep up the pressure, our grandchildren will thank us for it.

[Joe Chi Minh]

13. I think they may be seeing the sense in that. I could understand their

fears at first, since I shared them - though I knew it would be futile even in the medium term - but with time to learn more about the issue and reflect on its ramifications, I'm now convinced by the unanimous or near unanimous consensus of so many real experts whom I particularly admire - not Republican think-tank bow-ties - that acceding to their "begging letter" would be, apart from anything else an anachronism.

They are all "yesterday's men", failures, liabilities, Olympic losers for their country. They need to be bundled out of office, asap. It's not rational to follow the prescriptions of the people who created a series of disasters to remedy the latest of them - one that presages a "derivatives" cataclysm, moreover. At the every least, the Democrats should sack Bernanke and themselves appoint an official to replace him at the Federal Reserve Bank again, and themselves appoint a new Treasury Secretary, in place of Paulson.

Surely, dealing with Paulson and Bernanke in this matter is like Obama having a discussion with Bush and McCain. What's to discuss? The latter had their chance for six years, in which, instead, they marginalised the Democrats and even their own party; just as Paulson and Bernanke ignored the warnings of the European leaders about the impending "derivatives" cataclysm.

[greyghost]

14. Very true, why trust the very people who got us here...

to get us out. They knew this was coming and did absolutely nothing to stop it. Both Paulson and Bernake should be shown the door.

[GinaMaria]

17. like trusting the tobacco companies to teach

your kids NOT to smoke. What a crock. Like waiting for the next hurricane to fix what the last hurricane damaged. Like engaging in War for peace....

[Joe Chi Minh]

21. I think I read that Paulson was nicknamed something like, "Mr Risk".

[GinaMaria]

16. I'm with you

There are rallies all over the country tomorrow. Go to True Majority to find one near you. And please keep the pressure on Congress. Live long and prosper my friend,
GM

[greyghost]

20. "Peace and long life."

[aquart]

15. Did anyone hear a $2 million limit on CEO's?

I don't want those boys walking with ANYTHING that has the word "million" in it.

They gambled but WE lose? Nuh uh. Strip 'em naked and send them home in barrels. And the idea that we need to pay them because they are valuable key personnel? ARE THEY KIDDING ME?

[prayin4rain]

18. you can't honestly expect them to suffer the INDIGNITY of making

anything less than a million dollars a year!!!! i mean these are human beings we are talking about!!! they are entitled to their mercedes and their convertible for weekend drives to their home in the country and frankly anything else their little heart's desire. They are our top people and without them we would all have nothing!!!! We owe them everything. Can't you see that? The rest of us our allowed to live in this country because of the kindness of these guy's hearts and the pennies they allow to trickle down on our heads, we all owe them our gratitude...... and about a trillion dollars (guess they even want those trickled down pennies back). :puke:

[BreweryYardRat]

22. Amen. They must get NOTHING!!!

In fact, we need to seize all their personal assets past a total $1-2 million. They fucked the economy over and expect us to PAY THEM FOR FUCKING UP?! HELL NO. Let them help clean up their own messes -- y'know, like the rest of us.

And if they whine about the asset seizures...start dropping hints about possibly prosecuting them for treason. They fucked over the economy everyone else depends on for their own greed -- that's pretty goddamn treasonous in my book. And treason can still get the death penalty in this country, last I checked.

[daleo]

19. tranches

A piece, portion or slice of a deal or structured financing. This portion is one of several related securities that are offered at the same time but have different risks, rewards and/or maturities. "Tranche" is the French word for "slice".

Tranche is a term often used to describe a specific class of bonds within an offering wherein each tranche offers varying degrees of risk to the investor. For example, a CMO offering a partitioned MBS portfolio might have mortgages (tranches) that have one-year, two- year, five-year and 20-year maturities. It can also refer to segments that are offered domestically and internationally.

http://www.investopedia.com/terms/t/tranches.asp
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It sounds like a way to cut the bailout up so that the less risky parts can be sold to their friends at a nice premium, and the real crap can be foisted on the taxpayer.