From the NYTimes:
The day began with an agreement that Washington hoped would end the financial crisis that has gripped the nation. It dissolved into a verbal brawl in the Cabinet Room of the White House, urgent warnings from the president and pleas from a Treasury secretary who knelt before the House speaker and appealed for her support.
When Congressional leaders and Senators John McCain and Barack Obama, the two major party presidential candidates, trooped to the White House on Thursday afternoon, most signs pointed toward a bipartisan agreement on a grand compromise that could be accepted by all sides and signed into law by the weekend. It was intended to pump billions of dollars into the financial system, restoring liquidity and keeping credit flowing to businesses and consumers.
Mr. Boehner pressed an alternative that involved a smaller role for the government, and Mr. McCain, whose support of the deal is critical if fellow Republicans are to sign on, declined to take a stand.
The talks broke up in angry recriminations, according to accounts provided by a participant and others who were briefed on the session, and were followed by dueling news conferences and interviews rife with partisan finger-pointing.
It was the very outcome the White House had said it intended to avoid, with partisan presidential politics appearing to trample what had been exceedingly delicate Congressional negotiations.
Senator Christopher J. Dodd, Democrat of Connecticut and chairman of the Senate banking committee, denounced the session as “a rescue plan for John McCain,” and proclaimed it a waste of precious hours that could have been spent negotiating.
But a top aide to Mr. Boehner said it was Democrats who had done the political posturing. The aide, Kevin Smith, said Republicans revolted, in part, because they were chafing at what they saw as an attempt by Democrats to jam through an agreement on the bailout early Thursday and deny Mr. McCain an opportunity to participate in the agreement.
If anyone wants to claim that it is Chris Dodd and the evil Dems blaming McCain, then he should not have given them the opportunity.
A more serious, less snarky way to put this is that McCain (and Obama), since they are running for President, obviously and inevitably bring even more partisan baggage to the table, if only in the way that their opponents might characterize their actions.
John screwed the pooch. Big time.
“John screwed the pooch. Big time.”Not hardly. If McCain had anything at all to do with forcing further negotiations, he should be congratulated.
Why don’t the Dems just pass the legislation? It appears they have enough votes.
“and Mr. McCain, whose support of the deal is critical if fellow Republicans are to sign on, declined to take a stand.”See, he doesn’t know much about economics.The guy is, however, a grandstanding As*hole.At this point I opt for Stephen’s bottom up solution. Screw Wall Street, and their Republican enablers.
“At this point I opt for Stephen’s bottom up solution. Screw Wall Street, and their Republican enablers.”The “enablers” appear to be the Democrats in Congress in conjunction with the Bush administration. The “bottom up” solution appears to be very similar to what House Republicans are proposing. From the Washington Post:”Under the alternative Republican plan, the government would set up an expanded insurance system, financed by the banks, that would rescue individual home mortgages. The government would not have to buy up the toxic mortgage-backed assets that are weighing down financial institutions.”http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/09/25/AR2008092500268.html?hpid=topnews
“an expanded insurance system, financed by the banks,”This is where I go tilt. I don’t trust anything left to private sector banking in connection with the solution to this mess. My innate distrust of “conservative” Republicans in Congress is a major factor too: in fact, the Repubs are so screwed up now that it’s almost impossible to ascribe any political-economic philosophy to them at all, other than naked self-interest. They’ve done such a great job over the last 8 years.
I don’t trust any of them. They have no idea what they are doing, and are simply acting because they feel the need to do something. There’s nothing so bad that the government can’t make it worse.Back on Tuesday, Forbes asked a Treasury Dept. spokesman how they came up with the 700 billion figure. His response?”It’s not based on any particular data point,” a Treasury spokeswoman told Forbes.com Tuesday. “We just wanted to choose a really large number.”