Although I am not an ardent supporter of the so-called "bailout plan", I feel that something should be done to prevent a meltdown of the economy that will take us - OFFICIALLY - into a recession, a word that George Bush and the White House have been avoiding, similar in fashion to Ronald Reagan refusing to acknowledge the AIDS epidemic in the 1980s.
Not all Republicans NOR DEMOCRATS were in favor of the bill. A lot of congressmen/women from both parties were angry at being railroaded into voting on a escape plan for greedy Wall Street leeches. But, according to consensus over the past week it seemed that the correct thing to do - for the good of the country - would be to vote to pass an amended version of the bill to prevent a run on the stock market.
Democrats delivered - as promised - their end of the bargain with over two-thirds of their voting power IN FAVOR of the bill.
Republicans - for reasons being discussed ad nauseam on news networks - decided NOT to back the bill, and votes two-thirds AGAINST the bill, leading to the defeat of the bill.
The Dow Jones fell by 777 points - the largest one-day fall in the history of the stock market.
The estimated value of the loss is a staggering $1.2 TRILLION DOLLARS.
Although this is only paper worth, it translates into pain for the various 401K plans and other such retirement instruments heavily invested in the stock market.
When the effect that the defeat of the bill had on stocks became known, House Republican began pointing fingers to a speech that House Majority Leader, Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D- California), made earlier that morning that harshly criticized the Bush administration for wanton deregulation without supervision.
Quote:
"[W]hen was the last time someone asked you for $700bn? It is a number that is staggering, but tells us only the costs of the Bush administration's failed economic policies — policies built on budgetary recklessness, on an anything-goes mentality, with no regulation, no supervision, and no discipline in the system."
She continued:
"Democrats insisted that legislation responding to this crisis must protect the American people and Main Street from the meltdown on Wall Street. The American people did not decide to dangerously weaken our regulatory and oversight policies. They did not make unwise and risky financial deals. They did not jeopardise the economic security of the nation. And they must not pay the cost of this emergency recovery and stabilisation bill."
According to House Republicans, these were some of the words that changed their minds in support of the bill.
HORSESHIT.
The Republican Party endorsed presidential candidate himself has expressed the same sentiments. As late as September 15 during a rally in Florida McCain lashed out at[sic] "the current administration's regulation of Wall Street as ''out-dated'' and ''tax burden-built'' vowed to "end the old boys network" that is crippling America's financial markets."
Same message, just a different messenger.
Partisan statements on the floor of the House is NOT irregular, but commonplace. House Republicans, sticking to their party's cowardly policies of taking no blame - cried "Fowl!" and used Pelosi's speech as a distraction for their true motive: voting against the bill only for political gains.
NOT because they thought it was wrong - or they would have been more vocal and have delayed voting until Wednesday (an option not exercised).
NOT because they thought that voting NO was in the best interests of the county.
They voted to save their political asses.
The current analysis of those - both Democrats and Republicans - who voted against the bill showed (not so surprising) that those who voted against the bill were up for heavily-contested seats back in their home states. They took the safe road and voted against the bill in line with the angry feedback of their constituents.
The next few weeks will see if their gamble pays off.
And they are playing with very high stakes.
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