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Political notes from Free Press staff writers Terri Hallenbeck, Sam Hemingway and Nancy Remsen


10.03.2008

 

Bailing out

The bailout package that failed earlier this week passed today (with bows and ribbons added by the Senate). Rep. Peter Welch voted for it. Sen. Bernie Sanders still thinks it's a bad idea. Here's some of what they had to say:

Welch:

“For the past two weeks, I have been fighting in Congress to make this
flawed bill better. Some of what I and others fought for we achieved:
aggressive congressional oversight, a crack down on rip-off executive pay and
golden parachutes, and protection for the taxpayer by securing equity in rescued
companies.

“In spite of these improvements, I opposed the original bill, supported
by House leadership, because it was still not strong enough. I urgently
wanted to establish a “stability fund” to make sure that the cost of this
program was ultimately borne by the financial industry, not the taxpayer.

“I will, however, vote for the new bill before the House today for
three significant reasons.

“On Wednesday, the Securities and Exchange Commission, acting on a
request by me and several colleagues, revised misguided accounting rules that
are putting unnecessary pressure on lending institutions and leading to further
instability in the financial industry. This is a positive and much needed
step forward that will reduce the price tag of this bailout by minimizing the
number of institutions needing taxpayer assistance.

“Also, the bill improves the Paulson plan by raising the ceiling on
federal insurance for bank deposits from $100,000 to $250,000. This
provision will provide much needed additional security to consumers and small
businesses worried about the stability of their financial institutions.

“And, on Tuesday, I spoke at length with Senator Obama. He shares
the reservations I have about this legislation. He assured me that, as
president, he will improve this bill in two essential ways. He is
committed to assisting struggling homeowners with bankruptcy protections, and
establishing a “recoupment” fund so the financial services industry, not
taxpayers, will ultimately foot the bill for this rescue.

“Passing this plan, imperfect as it may be, protects taxpayers and
gives us our best chance at stabilizing the economy and protecting the jobs,
savings, and retirement accounts of hard working Vermonters. Those were my
goals. That is my responsibility. And that is why I vote yes on this
revised bill.

“This is a bitter pill to swallow, especially for thrifty and
responsible Vermonters. It is my judgment, however, that a failure to act
would further aggravate economic instability for working Vermonters and
businesses.

“Our economic problems will not be solved with this new law.
There is no quick-fix. The path to a more prosperous future will take a
return to the core values Vermonters know: Our economic policies must
support our middle class. We can’t spend and borrow beyond our
means. And we must reward work and entrepreneurship, not speculation and
market manipulation.
“By returning to common sense values that have
been the foundation of our nation, we can help all Vermonters and all Americans
prosper. That is the hard work that lies ahead.”


And from Sanders:

“Today, the Bush administration and Wall Street bankers got what they
wanted – a $700 billion bailout with all the risk put on middle-income
taxpayers.

“To me, it is grossly unfair that the middle class,
whose standard of living is declining, is forced to pick up the tab for Wall
Street’s greed and irresponsibility, and not the top 1 percent who have
benefited from Bush’s reckless policies.

“In the midst of the
severe financial crisis facing our country it is clear that Congress must act,
but this legislation does not accomplish what must be done.

“In
addition to saddling the middle class with the cost of the bailout, this bill
does nothing to stimulate the economy and create good-paying jobs by rebuilding
our infrastructure; does nothing to undo the dangerous deregulation which caused
this crisis; does nothing to address the ‘too big to fail’ doctrine which will
likely repeat itself. And it does far too little to solve the housing
foreclosure crisis which is impacting millions of Americans, not only driving
them from their homes but creating more and deeper problems for banks and
financial institutions.”

- Terri Hallenbeck

Comments:
Hmmm, wanna guess which one has millions invested in Wall Street?

Hint: He voted FOR the bailout.

Shameless greed, meet shameless politician.
 
Awful vote
 
Well, Barney Frank's boyfriend is a top exec at Fanny Mae, but of course no conflict there - it's not like he was a Republican, straight, and had a wife over there in that den of thieves!
 
"Shameless greed" Need to inform yourself better. Peter Welch actually voted against the bailout the first time it was considered. He was one of the few who did. Did so, as he explained in this blog, because he felt there were better alternatives which held those responsible for the debacle more responsible. Since these were no longer viable options later in the week as they did not have sufficient other support. After speaking with Senator Obama who said he would back legislation, if elected, that held Wall Street more accountable, Welch reluctantly cast a "yes" vote the second time around.
 
Ah, so he only voted for it after he had voted against it.

Guess he has all his bases covered!
 
Hmmmm, what famous quote does that remind me of . . . oh wait, I remember!

"I actually did vote for the $87 billion before I voted against it."

who said that again?
 
"I actually did vote against the $700 billion before I voted for it"
 
Nancy Pelosi's Cabana Boy . . .
 
Asked how they came up with the figure for the fat cat bailout, Republicans sponsoring it explained that they didn't have any analysis to back up the 740 billion, they just selected a number they felt was sufficiently large to ask of the rest of us. Perhaps you all should be directing your anger in that direction--to those responsible and their Republican cronies.
 
No he was against it before he was for it and no logical choices were available. How does that justify calling him a cynical voter. How about those who arbitrarily chose a large number which would benefit themselves and their cronies (read Republican administration)? One last raid on the Treasury before they leave office. After all, Halliburton and the oil companies had gotten theirs, now it was Wall Street's turn.
 
The individual who pushed hardest for this outrageous bailout was George W. Bush and his former Wall Street insider Secretary of the Treasury. Those are the facts, like it or not.
 
You Repubs just make yourselves look absolutely foolish pointing fingers at individual congressmen when your administration came up with the plan accepted and refused to consider any other proposal that would actually benefit taxpayers over the fat cats.
I guess reality is very hard for you to face.
 
Oh, I thought the Democrats controlled both chambers.
 
By what one vote? This was the
BUSH ADMINISTRATION's solution to the problem which their supporters on Wall Street created!!! Open up your closed mind and look at reality for the sake of the country and vote them and their cronies out.

Bush must have been waiting outside the House chamber, he signed it so quickly after passage and would have vetoed anything different. Look at reality for a change.
 
Do you even know what it takes in votes to overcome a veto?
 
I wish the media pundits would Stop calling this a $700 billion bailout. About another $150 billion in pork was added to change Republican votes in the House of Representatives so this boondoggle would pass. The pols in Washington are scared to admit they don't understand the financial markets; they swallowed this whopper hook, line and sinker. Well we've got bridges to sell them in Vermont. And they've been neglected for so long that they qualify as toxic waste. Maybe we can convince Wall Street capitalists to sail a flotilla of their yachts to D.C. to show their gratitude for this socialist "rescue." Whoops! I forgot Wall Street is too busy bilking Main Street now.
 
Yeah it was Bush who pushed for it, but it was Obama who called a bunch of Dems to get them to vote for it.

Obama more of the same lies.

Pro-Nuclear,
Pro-Coal-there is no such thing as clean coal.
Pro-war (except Iraq)
Pro-Wall Street

What is the difference with him becoming President if we have little Welchies handing over the checkbook and the credit cards.

Revolt and never vote a Democrat or Republican ever again.
 
Still can't assign the blame where it belongs. How pathetic.
 
George Bush is a genius. This plan of his is awesome. We're all going to live in prosperity thanks to him and this great plan of his.
 
19 posts and not one fact.... you all are pitiful. You make JW look like Einstein.
 
Anonymous said...

"Ah, so he only voted for it after he had voted against it.

Guess he has all his bases covered!"

In other words, you're still dumb, you're still scum and your ignorant anonymous ass still doesn't know what the hell it's talkin' about.

You and the ignorant anonymous trash community guess most everything, little nameless-nitwit fella.

You're not real good at guessin' right, schmuck. Ya really oughta be better for all the practice your ignorant anonymous ass gets, little fella.

Always a pleasure.
 
There are several facts there. Just can't accept them or deny them, can you?
 
Anonymous...

"There are several facts there. Just can't accept them or deny them, can you?"

There are, eh? Such as?

I'm shocked.

The Senate Bill was different from the original House Bill, bonehead, so he wasn't against it before he was for it.

He said no to one bill and yes to a different one.

Big difference.

Moreover, apart from the fact that none of you nameless-nitwits will address the fact that you're slaggin' a Dem for bailing out an incompetent gop-scum President and the brain-dead, gop-scum policies that caused this mess in the first place because incompetent gop-trash let it come to this, Welch is for Bush's Brain-dead Bailout Bill the way somebody who's just been told their kid has cancer is for chemo and radiation.

Assuming, of course, they still have a job and their HMO isn't tryin' to sleaze out of their coverage, what's the alternative?

They're not putting their kids through hell because they want to. They're doin' it because they have no choice.

Ya gonna just stand there and watch your kid die because the free market has spoken, schmuck?

That's why the scum vote continues to shrink as cluelessly-corrupt, incompetent-trash gops and their brain-dead policies have brought us to this point, and why the Dems are gonna get to clean up yet another gop-scum mess.

Lucky them.

This is a band-aid. Once we fumigate the joint and get a legitimate, competent President in the White House, the Dems have a filibuster-proof majority in the Senate and there's no more whack-job judges bein' placed on the Supreme Court and the Federal Bench, they can start fixin' the problem in earnest come January or February.

Hopefully, we won't need a 21st Century New Deal like we did when gop-swine gave us the Depression, but if it comes to it, it comes to it.

Say goodnight, greasy.
 
Just do us all a big favor JW.

Take a shotgun and blast that rotten pumpkin off your shoulders. It's stinking the whole joint up.
 
September 30, 1999. This is the date that the Administration announced easing of all requirements for minorities and all others that had credit ratings too low to be eligible for home loans. The agency involved was Fanny Mae. The President was BILL CLINTON. Do we need to hear any more about who was responsible for this economic disaster? jw?
 
The problem isn't just the mortgages issued; it's also what the issuing banks and others in the financial community did with the paper. Look at the whole picture not just the part that suits your prejudices.
 
The core problem is the deregulation of the financial services industry which began when Reagan's administration gutted regulations that applied there.
 
Anonymous said...

"19 posts and not one fact....
you all are pitiful. You make JW look like Einstein."

In other words, it's just another day in ignorant anonymous trash with bupkis land.

Nice try, little ignorant anonymous trash/nameless-nitwit fella.

Given the level of competition the lunatic-fringe likes of you and the ignorant anonymous trash community, it's kinda hard not to look like an MIT Department Head.

Always a pleasure.
 
bubba said...

"September 30, 1999. This is the date that the Administration announced easing of all requirements for minorities and all others that had credit ratings too low to be eligible for home loans. The agency involved was Fanny Mae. The President was BILL CLINTON."

It was, eh? Then I'm sure you'll have no trouble provin' it, little fella.

Gee, still more bupkis from bubbakis. Imagine that.

Again, I hate to keep confusin' your ignorant anonymous ass with the facts, little fella, but both Houses of Congress were in the hands of incompetent gop trash who did nothing to alleviate the problem but poor jet fuel on the fire as is their clueless-cretin custom.

Moreover, the CRA that you racist gops and brain-dead bigots with bupkis are trying to pin this on has never been any more mandatory than gop-scum environmental regulations.

Actually, they're more guidelines than regulations and have all the practical and legal effect of a nameless-nitwit's New Year's Resolution to confine himself to the facts.

Your ignorant anonymous ass couldn't make it to 12:01AM

"Do we need to hear any more about who was responsible for this economic disaster? jw?"

Well, again, bubbakis, given the fact that incompetent gop-trash was in the White House when the gop-slop hit the fan, and gop-scum ruled Congress and the Courts for the last six years of Clinton's eight years in office and all three branches of the Federal Government for the first six years of Bush's 8-year reign of error.

Moreover, you still can't point to one piece of legislation that the Dems have passed that shrub hasn't vetoed or the gop-slime minority in the Senate didn't filibuster so, as usual, bubbakis, your delusional-dreck lies just don't fly.

Take it where facts don't matter and the climate suits your sheet, schmuck.

Always a pleasure.
 
Anonymous said...

"Hmmm, wanna guess which one has millions invested in Wall Street?

Hint: He voted FOR the bailout.

Shameless greed, meet shameless politician."

Gee, another nameless nitwit with bupkis spewin' psychotic slop he can't substantiate.

Gee, what are the odds.

Tell your story walkin', schmuck.
 
jw says that because the GOP controlled Congress when Bill Clinton was president then the dims are absolved of the Fanny Mae-Freddy Mac criminal enterprises. If so, then maybe he can remind us what the stock market was at two years ago JUST BEFORE the dims took over Congress, with a GOP President!
 
Anonymous said...

"Just do us all a big favor JW."

In other words, you're still dumb, you're still scum, your ignorant anonymous ass has still got bupkis, and you remain caseless, clueless and incapable of substantiating your psychotic slop.

Thanks for clearin' that up, little fella.

Again, little factually-challenged/fundamentally-dishonest/nameless-nitwit fella, who is this "us" your ignorant anonymous claims to speak for and do they approve of your meshuggah message, moron?

"Take a shotgun and blast that rotten pumpkin off your shoulders. It's stinking the whole joint up."

Ignorant trash with bupkis, heal thyself.

Again, gop-slop for brains, this joint is not gonna go back to the good old days when the lunatic-fringe likes of you, bubbakis, nekwit and the ignorant anonymous trash community had the run of the joint to spew your factually-challenged delusional dreck with impunity and ran roughshod over anyone who dared challenge your neo-nazi nitwit nonsense and ask for evidence in support of your psychotic slop.

Those days are gone forever, little nameless-nitwit fella. You'd best just let 'em go.

If your ignorant anonymous ass is gonna continue to be dumb, to be scum, to have bupkis, and to keep provin' you're caseless, clueless, don't know what the hell you're talkin' about and can't substantiate the psychotic slop ya spew, that's your problem.

Get to the part where I'm supposed to give a damn.

Moreover, clearly, it's just one of many. Gee, that's a shame.

I'm gonna, metaphorically speaking, rip your clueless cabeza off, kick it around the soccer pitch until I grow bored with the activity and boot it back to ya.


Always a pleasure.
 
bubba said...

"jw says that because the GOP controlled Congress when Bill Clinton was president then the dims are absolved of the Fanny Mae-Freddy Mac criminal enterprises. If so, then maybe he can remind us what the stock market was at two years ago JUST BEFORE the dims took over Congress, with a GOP President!"

Sure, and I can tell ya what it is as we speak with the same incompetent gop-scum President, too, bubbakis.

According to CNBC, the DOW is off 445 points, at 9880 - it's lowest point in four years when the same incompetent gop-trash had an incompetent gop-scum rubber-stamp Congress.

What's more, according to CNBC it's off more than 30 percent from its all-time record high set on 10/9/07 when a Dem Congress was on the case and shrub was vetoing everything they sent and the gop-scum minority was either filibustering or threatening to filibuster every measure the Dems tried to take.

In short, this situation is the result of the same gop-scum policies that were in effect four years ago, so the Dems really can't be blamed for gop intransigence and incompetence.

So, does your face wanna launch any more "homicide-bomber" attacks on my steel-toed boots using your tooth as a battering-ram now, little fella, or have ya gotten it all outta your gop-slop for brains system for the time being?

Either way, you're ignorant anonymous trash with bupkis and without a case or a clue, bubbakis.

Of course, that's a given.

If anyone, anywhere ever questions your clueless-cretin capacity for consistency, little fella, just tell 'em to give me a call.

I'll be happy to vouch for ya, little fella.

Always happy to heal the sick, raise the dead and help the halt and the lame, bubbakis.

Clearly, your ignorant anonymous ass is a three-time loser and you've gone down swingin', schmuck.

Bubbakis, if you, nekkie boy and the ignorant anonymous trash community are gonna continue to lie your sorry butts off, at least put some effort into it.

You can show yourself out.
 
Once again, I repeat: WHO has run Congress since that high of 10/07?

I thought so.

Have a nice day.
 
Who has run Washington for the past 8 years?

I thought so.

Have a nice day.
 
Well, bubbakis, if you're gonna hold the Dems responsible for the market declining in the wake of the DOW's 10/9/07 all-time record high, you've gotta give them credit for being there during the run up to the DOW's 10/9/07 all-time record high since they'd been in power then, too.

Of course, Shrub was President then, too, bubbakis.

Then again, Shrub was the President four years ago when the DOW tanked and plunged below 10,000 when he had an incompetent-trash, gop-slime rubber-stamp Congress greasin' the skids for him.

The DOW was at 10587 on 1/20/01 when the Supremes installed this illegitimate trash on the throne, Bubbakis.

Of course, we had a balanced budget and a budget surplus then, too. We don't have either one of those any more.

Like the Crash of '29 and the Great Depression that resulted from it, this is a gop-slime disaster from top to bottom and start to finish, bubbakis, and those facts just ain't gonna change, chump.

That's why McCain's gone totally racist trash in his campaign.

The brain-dead bigot card is all the scum vote has left.

Oh well, at least you'll always least you'll always have Dixie, deduce bag.

Always a pleasure.
 
JW,

That's just about enough of that kind of language. Anymore of that and you will lose your internet privliges again.

Now play nice with your friends.

Mom
 
What we need to solve our economic problems is to raise taxes in the midst of a downturn, as Herbert Hoover did after the crash of 1929! Oh yea, I forgot - we have a candidate that wants to do that in Barack.
 
As I recall, Brattleboro wants to have bush tossed in jail.
For those of you in are interested, Vincent Bugliosi , "The Prosecution of George W. Bush for Murder is a fact filled book of dates, events, legal or not type things.
He is an Atty. a prosecutor, and has written several books.
He states every A.G. in the USA can try BUSH, Cheny, rice etc. for murder.
Its worth reading, the volume of lies this adm. has told must not continue to go unchallenaged, the citizens of the great country need to push this, he is correct, bush is a criminal and needs to stand trial on several matters.
justjim
 
Brattleboro - the land of fruits and nuts and naked pervs. I would deem it an honor to be "impeached" by those deviants!
 
bubba said...

"Brattleboro - the land of fruits and nuts and naked pervs. I would deem it an honor to be "impeached" by those deviants!"

And it would be an honor for them to oblige and honor your ignorant anonymous ass, bubbakis.

Is it really your clueless-cretin contention that everyone in Brattleboro is "fruits and nuts and naked pervs" or do you consider all of Southeastern Vermont to be populated with exclusively deviants, little factually-challenged fella?

Gee bupkis from bubbakis. Go figure.

You can show yourself out.
 
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