Facing Resistance on Hill, White House Pushes Hard for Bailout Plan

[babylonsister]

Facing Resistance on Hill, White House Pushes Hard for Bailout Plan
By Joseph J. Schatz, CQ Staff


Facing an angry American public and a restive Congress, the Bush administration launched a full-court press Tuesday to win approval of its proposed $700 billion rescue plan for the nation’s financial system.

But lawmakers made clear they would insist on a number of changes to the plan the administration first presented. Specifically, they were demanding greater accountability, more help for home owners and curbs on executive compensation in companies that participate in the bailout. Many also supported giving the government an equity stake in those firms so that taxpayers share in any profits resulting from the government’s help.

Treasury Secretary Henry M. Paulson Jr. and Federal Reserve Chairman Ben S. Bernanke went before the Senate Banking, Housing and Urban Affairs Committee to explain in public what they had told top congressional leaders in private last week: The global finance system faces a crisis of confidence of unprecedented scale, and the government must act urgently to get credit flowing through the system again.

Vice President Dick Cheney and White House Chief of Staff Joshua B. Bolten rushed to the Capitol to cajole balky Republicans into supporting the plan to have the government buy up troubled, unmarketable assets now clogging the books of financial institutions across the country. Democrats took to the floor of the House to assail the proposal.

They faced a daunting task. Emerging from a House GOP Conference meeting at which the pair spoke, Rep. Zach Wamp , R-Tenn., said, “It’s a heavy task to convince people six weeks before an election that this kind of plan is necessary. I don’t know where Congress stands right now. It’s going to be a close call at this point.”

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http://www.cqpolitics.com/wmspage.cfm?docid=news-000002958088

[bdamomma]

1. we need to push our Senators and Reps not to do this.

financial shock and awe.

and did bush's rebate checks ever do anything for the economy that some of us received. NO I GUESS NOT.

[gateley]

2. I've contacted mine (and others) and will do so again -- Many members on

the committee have referred to the input they're receiving from their constituents.

[SteveM]

3. Cheney & Bolton: highly intelligent, superior bullies who win:

They will whip the GOP into line and cow down the Dems on most every aspect of the bail out. This is rigid 100% Bush/Far Right strategy and it works. There is little opposition to their goal: complete economic power given to corporations with only the executive branch in place to aid, comfort and protect them; imperial status in the Mid-East; authoritarian government at home.

They will do this -- effectively -- until the day they leave office. That day I am unsure of.