With House Republicans in revolt, Bush, Cheney scramble to rescue the $700-billion rescue plan

With public calls and e-mails to congressional offices running sharply against the administration's $700-billion bailout of the nation's financial services sector, the White House is scrambling today to rescue the rescue plan.

Republicans in the House are in revolt, calling on Wall Street to pay for its own bailout by purchasing insurance on mortgage-backed securities and advocating tax cuts and relaxed regulations for Main Street. After eight years of bowing to White House pressure -- eight years in which their numbers dwindled as they stood loyally behind Bush on the war in Iraq and on the runaway spending that marked this administration -- they seem at the breaking point.

"We will not agree to a bill that sells taxpayers out," Republican Leader John Boehner of Ohio said today.

The fight to secure House Republican support may be embarrassing for the White House -- these are their troops -- but it's also imperative. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi has said she will not bring a bill to the floor without their support. Democrats have enough votes to pass the bill without the Republicans. But they are not about to make themselves vulnerable to a Republican attack in the fall elections, something along the lines of, "They sold you out!"

So Vice President Cheney canceled his plans to attend Republican fundraisers in the West. As spokeswoman Megan Mitchell said:

Due to the current situation in the U.S. capital markets, the vice president has decided to cancel his previously scheduled trips to New Mexico and Wyoming so he can assist with the pending legislation on Capitol Hill.

And President Bush sought to calm jittery markets -- and jittery tempers on Capitol Hill -- this morning with his own call for Congress to make progress. In a statement at the White House he said:

Anytime you have a plan this big, that is moving this quickly, that requires legislative approval, it creates challenges. Members want to be heard. They want to be able to express their opinions, and they should be allowed to express their opinions.

There are disagreements over aspects of the rescue plan, but there is no disagreement that something substantial must be done. The legislative process is sometimes not very pretty, but we are going to get a package passed. We will rise to the occasion. Republicans and Democrats will come together and pass a substantial rescue plan.

-- Johanna Neuman

Photo: Chris Greenberg / White House

Comments

[ted in pdx]

What is not being reported in the media is that the voters in this country do not want this bailout, particularly in the hands of George W. Bush. The on-line community is 95% opposed. CNN reported that congressional office phone calls are 90-1 opposed. The fact that the Congress just raised the debt ceiling $800-Billion less than a month ago has not been reported. It begs the question: is this about money, or about who decides who gets the money? Obviously Bush and the Congressional leadership want legislative authority to distribute $700-Billion to their preferred constituencies. Why is that? What's wrong with letting the FDIC handle bank failures using the structure setup for that purpose?

The erratic behavior of the financial markets is due to the hysteria deliberately worked up by George Bush, with complicity of the Congressional leadership. The meltdown in the banking industry equates to a meltdown in the power base our so-called representatives in Congress have established for themselves, and they are attempting to plunder the credit of this nation in order to protect it.

Go on-line and see if you can find any pockets of support for this. The best you're going to do is on wsj.com, forbes and some specialty insider trade websites. Even in those venues, opposition dominates in the forums. This is a rebellion by the electorate, and what we are going to discover at the end is that we have no more influence over the conduct of our government than the Russians do.

If you want to win this fight, call this number 202-225-3484 (the Texas Rep leading the opposition) and tell the No Bailout.

[jane]

Reading a speech prepared by a professional writer is different from speaking without prepared notes or a prompter. Listening to Governor Palin answering Katie Couric’s questions last night was like listening to my twelve year old niece, trying to explain a complex subject to me - - the choice of words, the incomplete sentences, muddled thinking, dangling sentences, quality of reasoning and the tangents taken in answering simple questions was awful, especially taking into account of her age and the title that she holds in Alaska. Of the most recent VP picks in the general election, she closely reminds me of Dan Qualye who made a number of self-contradictory and logically redundant statements such as "We don't want to go back to tomorrow, we want to go forward" and "The future will be better tomorrow".

I have not been to Alaska and do not have many Alaskan friends but I would like to believe that Sarah Palin represents the middle third of Alaskans and that there is a third out there who are smarter or intelligent than their Governor. Deeds, actions and choices of a man/woman are a reflection of his/ her thinking. Based on the three interviews that Gov. Palin has had, I now understand what has caused her to adopt certain positions on social and political issues. It also sheds some light as to why she had to make five or six transfers in order to finish College.

I fully realize the voters' lack of interest on candidates who are smart, intelligent or appear to be intellectual. Based on the dumber criterion alone, it appears to me that among the four honorable individuals currently contesting for the highest office in the land, Sarah is the most favorite. However, I would like to urge that upon putting her into office and presumably stepping in as a President, insurance is to be taken against potential poor policies and decisions that she will likely make. Otherwise, all tax payers regardless of political affiliation are to be ready to bail out the nation. We are to accept responsibility for our choice.

Although Kathleen Parker has written a piece in one of the leading Republican/conservative voices, National Review indicating that Palin can serve John McCain, GOP and the country that she loves by bowing off the ticket, it is my strong opinion that she should stay. Nevertheless, I still believe that the selection of Governor Christie Whitman, Senator Olympia Snow, Senator Elizabeth Dole, Senator Bailey Hutchinson, Secretary Candi Rice or Governor Mitt Romney would have highly suited McCain’s motto of “Country First”.