Listening to the bailout bill hearing, it seems they are throwing out a lot of ideas that we might hear about tonight that could be voted on tomorrow by the House. First proposition that they want to take to the House Republicans: dropping the amount of the TOTAL bill to $250 billion, the bill would last until the end of the year, and take out most of the pork. Don't confuse this with the bill on the table now that allows for $250 billion to be immediately available! Their idea in doing this would be to reduce the "sticker shock" and allow themselves enough time and money to actually come up with a permanent solution for the next president. Next solution (was mentioned very briefly): we allow the FDIC to use "special emergency powers" they have that have never been needed before. These were not completely elaborated on, so I don't have full details. Don't shoot the messenger here, I'm just telling you ideas I've heard these suits throw around. No idea if they will even be discussed with the rest of the House tomorrow.
Thanks for staying updated. How this thing plays out in the House will be interesting. The weight of the big boys in govt (Bush, Paulson, Leaderships in both houses) and many commentators is to get this done. Also as days go by, I'm reading that there is a growing volume of contacts to legislators to pass some kind of bill, negating the overwhelming first volume of contacts that said....don't pass this thing. I think they'll move to pass something. The groups that didn't vote for it were broken down into various types; House Conservatives, members of Congress up for tough reelections, the entire Black Caucas. Arguments against the bailout ranged from conservative views seeing it as govt intrusion into the free market system from the Right, to the Independant (one of the most lefty members of Congress) from Vermont calling it a gift to Wall Street. Blue Dog Dems don't like adding tax breaks (pork) into the bill without cutting expenses or raising taxes for it to balance the costs. Personally, I like adding the tax credits for solar and wind power, but don't give a rat's @ss about the other add ons. But frankly, if the thing doesn't get passed, IMHO, and the entire economy spirals downward into depression....who gives a rat's @ss about tax credits or tax cuts. They'll be a lot less Americans working who will be paying taxes. We will see how this thing goes.
Good point.... Well, so far today I haven't heard anyone bring these options up. But, when I heard them proposed yesterday (late on the east coast), they wanted to each representative contact other reps after the session ended to try to convince them to go for these options BEFORE the meeting today. The concern was that if they proposed something completely new at this stage in the game, the Senate wouldn't approve it because they are not scheduled to even come back into session until November 17th.
Rep. Brad Sherman claiming the administration is threatening martial law if the bill doesn't pass: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HaG9d_4zij8 Rep. Brad Sherman claiming the administration wants bill to bail out foreign investors: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ONUSxiGN4m4
California is out of money http://www.latimes.com/business/la-fi-calif3-2008oct03,0,5726760.story?track=rssn
And with all the taxes a person pays in California?!?!?!? With all the taxes, tolls, tax tax and hippie needs money taxes - how much does a Californian spend on taxes?