For once I have to take umbrage with the people who state unequivocally that Rep. Pelosi was the cause of this bill not passing. I stand firmly against the way that she has run the House, in point of fact would rather see Nancy Sheehan in Nancy Pelosi’s house seat.
It is not without precedent that the Republicans blame someone, anyone for their own problems. Rather than face up to the fact that this was an entirely ill-crafted and uncalled for measure, the GOP would rather resort to name calling and blaming.
I do not agree with Ms. Pelosi on the majority of issues that have come before her in the House, she has consistently voted to give the shrub a blank check when it comes to the war and funding the Dept. of War, but in this instance, Ms. Pelosi, was pointing out the failed policies that have brought the world to the brink of destruction, in the banking profession and that the people of America are tired of bailing out the so-called, “Free Market Capitalists,” for whom government intervention is anathema, except on their own terms.
Handing Secretary of the Treasury Henry Paulson, a $700 Billion check is like giving a diabetic the keys to the candy store.  Sec. Paulson, former head of the largest scam artist corporation and one of the leading causes of this financial meltdown, Goldman Sachs, would be covering his own ass and protecting his own investments in doling out this money.
Sorry, but I believe that the ethics of this supposed financial crisis STINK like a bag of manure on fire on the front step of their door. I do not remember a time in our history when, the free market crapitalists have cried so much about the economy failing, if they do not get the money that one of their own kind says they need. And this in the face of more and more bailouts by the American taxpayer, which by the way that these people do not pay taxes in the first place, because of the policies of the shrub and the neo-cons.
Should this bill or any bill pass that does not contain protection for the middle class and working poor homeowner than you will see homelessness and poverty like never before. That timeline, would make the “Great” depression look like a cake walk compared to what would be happening in America.
For while Main Street burns, these venture crapitalists and their cronies the speculators and their banks, fiddle away your hard earned tax dollars.
The government makes one more claim, that it would be buying into the markets and the banks would then be sold off to other stable banks and financial institutions; I beg to differ with that assumption! For once the government buys something with taxpayer money, it becomes a worthless commodity and must be sold at a loss, there would be no way that this money would ever be recovered by the Treasury and to boot the American taxpayer would be left holding the bill hoping that someone, anyone would help him/her get a job. While these fat-cat men and women would be sitting on Easy Street with larger bank accounts than when this mess all started.

He Russ,

I thought, according to you it is only I who would have thought Bush lied? Not only do I believe he is a liar, if Bush was Pinocchio, his nose would be up all of our ass’s.

Well maybe Pelosi’s speech didn’t change those Republican votes.  And maybe Gingrich didn’t shut down Congress to screw Clinton because Clinton was - or so G. thought - the guy who made him leave AirForce I by the back door.  Any other beasts and I’d say not likely, but political beasts are a whole different kind of beast.

(When it comes right down to it, politicians are low-lifers.  Lyndon J. got Congress to do his bidding because he ‘had’ something politically (usually sexual escapades or fraud or bribery) damaging on most of them.)

Let’s face it the Senate is less beholding to the people and are supposed to represent the elite, so they could try and shove it through tomorrow, hell because lets face it,  they may be connected at the hip with Wall Street? Well we will find out? What war?

http://www.democracynow.org (site) not link has an interesting interview with Dennis K who opposed this; said Bush & coherts busying calling & running around to banks telling them to STOP giving out credit to “confirm” that “credit is tight”. Kinda like the WMD huh. He said it has a very bad smell to it & is just once yet again directing all the money to the top; *******on the http://www.pbs.com; jim loury (sp) hour: 4 congressmen gave their views; said certain items could be done right away RATHER THAN what was “set up” in this plan; (check it out)****another flash! heads up alert! on C span another house member said light up the switchboards tomorrow as the Senate may try & sneak it through as it is while the House is out for the day;

Richard,

You’re spot on. The $700 billion plan was crap from the get go. I strongly suspect it was George Bushes parting gift to the country: to completely empty the Treasury into the private sector. I wonder if he is getting a commission for that.

Seriously, I do not understand why we have become fixated with a $700 billion dollar bail out. Because Bush asks for it? When had anything that man has asked for worked out right?

The house should scrape the whole thing and build it from the ground up and have it adress the problem as it is assessed by someone OTHER than Paulson and Bernanke.

The reason this bill went down was because everybody on the Hill knows it’s crap and thank God that there were 40 Dems and 2/3’s of the GOP in the House had the guts to vote for what was right instead of what the were being told to do.

The core concept proposed by Bush is flawed.  Call some hearings and ask some economists.  Google Sweden 1992 banking crisis.  They had good success promptly steering their financial institutions back to safety.  Learn the lessons, write it for the Democratic base, and own it.  The “compromise” tweeking that was done to the Bush proposal resulted in a toothless and weak 100 page bill that tried to bury and hide its weakness from the voters.  Rather than condescendingly claiming that the American people didn’t understand (Cf, McSame of Obama at first debate), or that the leadership didn’t explain it well enough, the reality is that public outrage finally made the Republicans blink, to borrow from Palin.  If they vote in favor of bailing out the bad actors, they lose votes from constituents in five weeks at the next election.  That is their only moral hazard.  The bill that failed would not have prevented one of the 10K daily foreclosures, could have been filibustered until Bush spent all $700B, would only have made some parachutes non-tax-deductible, merely required a report “suggesting” how the taxpayer will be paid back, and allowed the same bunch of lobbyists to set prices for their trash that the taxpayers would pay.  As a final insult, instead of providing more confidence through transparency, the failed bill would allow Paulson to suspend the mark-to-market rule.  This is intellectual dishonesty that will further erode confidence in our banking system.  Do a better job on all these issues and allow bankruptcy judges to implement the rewriting of loans, or face the wrath of the voters.  I think many voters would accept a temporary governmental equity position in the banking sector as long as the bad guys aren’t seen as maintaining their ability to subvert the programs and continue to rip off the system.  Don’t pull another FISA cave.

diamone,

Monkeys throw dirt and so do Republicans. Just a quick side note, farmers farm in soil not dirt, wanted to clear that up.

Why in the name of all that’s holy and unholy are you turning this into a discussion on what Pelosi did or did not do or said or did not say? Why are you defending her from the crap the Republicans are throwing like apes throwing crap in a zoo? Newsflash: Pelosi didn’t do it! The Republicans had control of both houses until 2006-2007 and pursued a reckless and ruinous agenda, militarily, socially and economically. Everyone knows this. “Republicans say Pelosi’s speech didn’t sway them’? Who freakin’ cares. Do the bailout and then vote the bastards out of office so some form of sanity can prevail in the world again. Is that too much to ask? People are losing thousands from their superannuation all over the world (while supporters of Kucinich and Nader muddy the waters on truthdig, pretending they know something about economics.) We all have a stake in this now. Focus on the Republicans because when the shit hits the fan I think you’ll find it’s their shit and only an idiot would need a DNA test to make that judgement.