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City, county may ban bias based on sexual orientation
Shalersville, Richfield towers are links to 1949 cross-country marathon
Can DNA tests free ex-Akron captain?
Zips' Porter creates culture of success
Health reform passes hurdle in Senate
Lawyers compare four cases to Prade's
Visiting new Navy ship brings back memories for Doylestown man serves on USS New York in 1930s
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Police accuse bank robbery suspect of gobbling up note (with dashcam video)
Victim of beating in Kent last week is declared dead at Akron hospital
Dad accused of forcing son into field, killing him
Can DNA tests free ex-Akron captain?
Man found dead in North Akron home is identified
Browns' roster nearly devoid of consistent players
Does it work? Test team returns to try out new products advertised on television
Coventry man killed in crash at I-77 ramp
Blogs:
Pets:
Cat-loving chihuahua suckles seven abandoned kittens
The Heldenfiles:
Friday Night Notebook
Patrick McManamon:
Browns vs. Lions live …
Akron Zips:
Akron trounces Howard to reach .500
Tribe Matters:
Seven players added to Tribe’s 40-man roster
Cleveland Browns:
Robiskie, Harrison inactive
Kent State Sports:
Kent State blown out in second half, loses to Temple 47-13
Cleveland Cavaliers:
Gameblog: Cavs vs. Philadelphia 76ers
Buckeye Blogging:
OSU – Michigan college football rivals meet in Baghdad
Varsity Letters:
Four area football teams play tonight
All Da King's Men:
The Sunday Sanity Challenge
Blog of Mass Destruction:
Will Health Care Reform Pass?
Akron Law Café:
Health Care Financing Reform: (69) The Brookings Institute Study on "Bending the Curve" – Four General Strategies
See Jane Style:
Vintage Chic
Car Chase:
TIME TO GET YOUR COLLECTOR CARS WINTERIZED
Let's Talk Real Estate:
Silverdome Potentially SOLD!
Ohio Travels with Betty:
George is looking for a Thanksgiving buffet in Akron.
Sound Check:
Steely Dan Plays "The Royal Scam" at E.J. Thomas Hall
HRLite House:
A Random Rant on Testing
Akron Gamer:
Nintendo's Mario endures even as games come and go
Revised $700 billion bill to help economic crisis passes House after stock market plunges and wage earners, business leaders besiege Congress for rescue package
By Dave Montgomery
McClatchy Newspapers
Published on Saturday, Oct 04, 2008
WASHINGTON: A $700 billion bailout package designed to ease the nation's worsening economic crisis cleared Congress and was signed into law Friday after the House of Representatives approved a revised version of the bill that it had rejected days earlier.
Thirty-two Democrats and 26 Republicans switched positions to vote for the Senate-passed bill, pushing it through the House by 263-171. President Bush quickly signed the measure, praising Congress for rallying behind the rescue package.
''By coming together on this legislation, we have acted boldly to help prevent the crisis on Wall Street from becoming a crisis in communities across our country,'' Bush said during a five-minute statement in the White House Rose Garden. Later, he walked next door to the Treasury Department, where he thanked Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson and the building's employees for their hard work during the financial crisis.
Rep. Betty Sutton, D-Copley Township, was among the Democrats who changed their minds after voting against the earlier version of the bill.
''Today's legislation is better than the bill presented on Monday,'' Sutton said. ''It is not perfect, but it now contains some real relief for American families that I will support.''
Reps. Ralph Regula, R-Navarre, and Tim Ryan, D-Niles, also voted in favor of the bill.
Rep. Steven LaTourette, R-Concord Township, voted against the bill after saying Thursday that he was considering a switch in favor. He angrily spoke out against the legislation Friday on the House floor, and decried spending for pet projects that slipped into the final version.
''I know something had to be done,'' LaTourette said after the vote. ''But we had an opportunity to do a better bill, and one that wasn't so costly to taxpayers.''
Stock prices slid on Wall Street despite the bill's passage as new data from around the world made it clear that the economic outlook is darkening rapidly. For example, U.S. employers shed 159,000 jobs in September, the highest monthly number in five years.
The Dow Jones industrial average dropped another 157.47 points to close at 10,325.38. It ended the week down 817.75, or 7.35 percent, its
worst weekly loss since July 2002.
Friday's vote reversed the House's rejection of the bill Monday on a 228-205 vote, and came two days after the Senate passed a revised version of the original plan by 74-25. It included $110 billion in unrelated tax breaks and other incentives aimed at converting House members into backing the bill.
Over the past two days, Bush, top administration officials and corporate executives joined forces with thousands of struggling wage earners to besiege House members with calls on behalf of the bill.
Presidential candidates Sens. John McCain, R-Ariz., and Barack Obama, D-Ill., both of whom voted for the measure in the Senate, also made calls to members in their respective parties urging support for the measure.
More changes needed
Congressional leaders in both parties said the legislation would help unfreeze distressed credit markets, and they called for further changes to correct abuses in the financial system that helped cause the crisis.
''We've just performed emergency surgery, but unless the patient starts eating right and exercising, the problem's coming right back,'' said House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer, D-Md.
''The passage of this flawed but necessary bill is not cause for celebration,'' said House Minority Leader John Boehner, R-West Chester.
House members who changed their votes to yes said they were torn by the choice of accepting an imperfect solution or facing a deepening financial crisis if they failed to act.
Rep. Jim McGovern, D-Mass., summed up the feelings of many of his colleagues when he described the bill as ''far from perfect'' but said: ''The way I see it, we don't have much choice.''
Coming on the final day of the 110th Congress and just weeks before the Nov. 4 elections, the multifaceted rescue package is intended to ease distress across the economic spectrum.
Public opinion shifts
Public opinion initially ran strongly against the measure — widely perceived as a bailout for Wall Street — but sentiment shifted after the first House vote, when the stock market plunged and hammered millions of stock-backed 401(k) retirement plans.
Even as Congress approved the measure, there were strong signs that the public remains pessimistic about the nation's economic future.
Nearly two-thirds of the public doubts the government's ability to restore consumer and investor confidence, according to a new Ipsos-McClatchy poll, and 76 percent think that the economy will worsen.
Obama reached out to Democrats through conference calls and individually, reportedly persuading more than a half-dozen members to change their votes.
Similarly, McCain worked the Republican side of the aisle, at one point calling Minority Whip Roy Blunt of Missouri three times in a day for guidance on whom to call.
Rep. Michael Conaway, R-Texas, said he had several conversations with Bush, a former resident of Conaway's hometown of Midland.
Conaway, who originally voted against the bill, said he began changing his mind after town hall meetings in his district.
What bill would do
The bill essentially would create a $700 billion federal program to buy bad assets from banks and other financial firms at a steep discount.
The hope is that the government would recoup much or all of that money by selling the assets later, once the financial world stabilizes.
The measure includes strong terms to ensure legislative oversight of the Treasury-run bailout, and it gives the government an ownership stake in the firms that it aids. That will give taxpayers a share of any profits once the companies return to profitability.
It also limits the pay of executives in firms that benefit from the bailout.
The Senate version made one significant change to the earlier financial-rescue package: It more than doubled the insurance that the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. provides on customer deposits to $250,000 from $100,000.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
WASHINGTON: A $700 billion bailout package designed to ease the nation's worsening economic crisis cleared Congress and was signed into law Friday after the House of Representatives approved a revised version of the bill that it had rejected days earlier.
Get the full article here.
Comments
Click here to post your comments
Posted 06:46 AM, 10/04/2008
i have applied for my loan for $250,000 already. the bank said it looked real good cause the FDIC will pay it back if i don't. that's how it works, right?
Posted 11:02 AM, 10/04/2008
I'd look for this sort of thing to become more common as our venerable leaders continue to mismanage our country.
Tepplin, DC
Posted 11:05 AM, 10/04/2008
It. Won't. Work.
Posted 11:52 AM, 10/04/2008
Don't go on here though and post anything negative about anyone who voted for this legislation because it won't be posted.
Posted 03:29 PM, 10/04/2008
All that matters is McCain, Obama & Village Idiot Biden voted for the bill, along with about seventy other communists.....
Posted 09:38 PM, 10/04/2008
Why is Pelosi smiling? Is it because she had invested thousands in "Puts" right before her speech last week which was typically classless and clueless which slammed Bush and the GOP in an over the top fashion for their role in the credit crisis? And her raking-in the dough on those "puts" the day after the bill failed the first vote, which she knew it would?
This is the same trashy woman who voted and fought time and time again in favor of gay marriage while a legislator in California.
Get out of politics, Nancy. You're stinking-up the place more than you know. As Barack says, it's time for a change. Go away!
Posted 10:53 PM, 10/04/2008
If you want the truth about what caused the housing crisis, listen to this video on You Tube: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1RZVw3no2A4
