Pls call,fax,email them again. Bush intends to push it thru on Thursday!! 2nd round

[Guest guest]

http://biz./ap/080930/financial_meltdown.html

AP

White House, lawmakers plan new bailout deal

Tuesday September 30, 6:15 am ET

By Jim Kuhnhenn, Associated Press Writer

White House and congressional officials scramble to structure new

financial bailout plan

WASHINGTON (AP) -- Top congressional and White House officials, stunned

when the House rejected a massive rescue plan for the nation's economy,

scrambled to structure a new bailout proposal that would attract

reluctant lawmakers and still soothe the unnerved financial

markets.

" Doing nothing is not an option, " House Majority Leader Steny

Hoyer, D-Md., said after seeing the $700 billion emergency package for

the nation's financial systems fail 228-205 on Monday.

With the House not scheduled to meet again until Thursday, congressional

leaders and Bush administration officials promptly sought to assess what

types of changes could win over enough votes to guarantee success.

President Bush planned to make a statement on the rescue plan at 8:45

a.m. EDT Tuesday.

The outcome of Monday's vote fed a huge sell-off in the stock market,

sending the Dow Jones Industrial Average into its biggest single-day

plunge, 777 points. The House vote and the market's terrified reaction

shook Washington and New York centers of power -- even overseas markets

-- but no immediate solution seemed at hand.

The bill's failure came despite furious personal lobbying by Bush and

support from House leaders of both parties. But the legislation was

highly unpopular with the public, ideological groups on the left and the

right organized against it, and Bush no longer wielded the influence to

leverage tough votes. Even pressure in favor of the bill from some of the

biggest special interests in Washington, including the U.S. Chamber of

Commerce and the National Association of Realtors, could not sway enough

votes.

The legislation the administration promoted would have allowed the

government to buy bad mortgages and other deficient assets held by

troubled financial institutions. If successful, advocates of the plan

believed it would help lift a major weight off the already sputtering

national economy.

Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson emerged after the vote and warned of a

credit crunch that would affect American businesses and said families

would find it harder to get student loans and car loans.

" We need to work as quickly as possible, " he said gravely.

" We need to get something done. "

The sense of urgency was not universal. Many opponents of the bill argued

that the package amounted to a too-costly commitment of taxpayer money to

bail out financial institutions for their own mistakes.

Rep. Dean Heller, R-Nev., offered a typical sentiment. " I cannot

with good conscience put Nevada's taxpayers on the hook for the foolish

excesses of Wall Street, " he said. " Congress should pass

legislation that protects the taxpayer, assists with bad assets and

allows the market to correct itself. "

Immediately following the vote, Republican leaders blamed their failure

to secure more votes on the partisan tone of Speaker Nancy Pelosi's

pre-vote speech on the House floor. " There were a dozen members who

we thought ... we had a really good chances of getting on the

floor, " said Minority Leader John Boehner of Ohio. " And all

that evaporated with that speech. "

Rep. Barney Frank, D-Mass., the gruff but quick-witted chairman of the

House banking committee, countered, " Give me the names of those 12

people and I'll go talk uncharacteristically nice to them. "

Behind the bluster, lawmakers pledged to work again. Hoyer met with House

Republican Whip Roy Blunt of Missouri, one of the lead GOP negotiators

from the House.

Blunt, noting that the House would break for the Jewish holidays until

Thursday, said, " We are going to have a couple days to see how the

marketplace reacts to all this, and maybe that's a good

thing. "

House members weren't going home to campaign for re-election " until

this is addressed, " Hoyer vowed.

Both Blunt and Hoyer suggested that the Senate could vote first on a bill

then send it to the House, but Senate leaders showed no inclination to

take up a bill without being certain of its fate in the House.

" What would be wrong, I think, would be to act without some kind of

clear indication from the House about how they're going to proceed, "

said Sen. Christopher Dodd, D-Conn., the chairman of the Senate Banking

Committee. " We don't need to start all over. "

The two men campaigning to replace Bush watched the situation closely --

from afar -- and demanded action.

In Iowa, Republican John McCain said his rival Barack Obama and

congressional Democrats " infused unnecessary partisanship into the

process. Now is not the time to fix the blame; it's time to fix the

problem. "

Obama said, " Democrats, Republicans, step up to the plate, get it

done. "

The burden for votes fell more strongly on Republican leaders. About

three out of five House Democrats voted for the legislation; only a third

of Republicans backed it.

Republicans, already seeking possible votes, floated several ideas. One

would double the $100,000 ceiling on federal deposit insurance. Another

would end rules that require companies to devalue assets on their books

to reflect the price they could get in the market.

Associated Press writers Andrew Taylor and Julie Hirschfeld Davis

contributed to this report.

 

 

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