Too Busy
10-02-2008, 01:20 PM
The Senate approved the bailout plan last night 74-25. Unfortunately this plan is worse than the first proposal. The government needs to get out of the way of the private sector. Below is an excerpt from an MSNBC.com article. The fulla rticle is available at http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/26973888/
The bottom line. A bad plan now has an additional $100B of CRAP attached to it.
This makes me want to :--|
Can House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and her GOP counterpart John Boehner find the dozen votes necessary to pass a “tweaked” bill?
Three crucial factors are working to Pelosi’s advantage:
Time: House members are feeling even more restless about the economic uncertainty, the fast-approaching elections and their need to campaign back home.
Some House Republicans are rethinking their “no” votes.
Most of the 95 Democrats who voted “no” on Monday don't come from electorally competitive districts, so it's not risky for them to switch. And Pelosi needs to convince only a few of those safe Democrats to vote with her.
But the focus Wednesday was entirely on wooing House Republicans .
House leaders “are bringing in the small business lobby and the banking lobby to buy the 12 Republican votes they need,” said Bob Borosage, the co-director of the progressive group Campaign for America’s Future.
Additions to the rescue plan package are designed to attract House Republican votes.
These include a $100 billion package of tax “extenders” — provisions set to expire at the end of the year, including tax credits for research and development and one for producing windmill electricity.
“I’m personally disappointed that the Senate has chosen to add the so-called extenders bill to this recovery package," said Hoyer. “...We’ve been told on the extenders: 'take it or leave it. So in all likelihood, the House will take it."
The importance of the recovery package is exactly why the Senate did add the extenders bill to it.
Stare-down politics
This is old-fashioned stare-down politics: It was just two days ago that Hoyer told Senate leaders that the House would not accept the extenders, rebuffing what he described as the upper chamber’s attempt to legislate by “blunt force.”
Now it seems that the tax cut extenders package will pass, because it is grafted onto a bill many see as imperative to the banking and credit system.
Referring to his own Democratic members, Hoyer said, “Certainly there are people who are upset with the fact that we are making the deficit worse."
The tax cut extensions are not offset with revenue increases or spending cuts elsewhere in the budget.
The bottom line. A bad plan now has an additional $100B of CRAP attached to it.
This makes me want to :--|
Can House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and her GOP counterpart John Boehner find the dozen votes necessary to pass a “tweaked” bill?
Three crucial factors are working to Pelosi’s advantage:
Time: House members are feeling even more restless about the economic uncertainty, the fast-approaching elections and their need to campaign back home.
Some House Republicans are rethinking their “no” votes.
Most of the 95 Democrats who voted “no” on Monday don't come from electorally competitive districts, so it's not risky for them to switch. And Pelosi needs to convince only a few of those safe Democrats to vote with her.
But the focus Wednesday was entirely on wooing House Republicans .
House leaders “are bringing in the small business lobby and the banking lobby to buy the 12 Republican votes they need,” said Bob Borosage, the co-director of the progressive group Campaign for America’s Future.
Additions to the rescue plan package are designed to attract House Republican votes.
These include a $100 billion package of tax “extenders” — provisions set to expire at the end of the year, including tax credits for research and development and one for producing windmill electricity.
“I’m personally disappointed that the Senate has chosen to add the so-called extenders bill to this recovery package," said Hoyer. “...We’ve been told on the extenders: 'take it or leave it. So in all likelihood, the House will take it."
The importance of the recovery package is exactly why the Senate did add the extenders bill to it.
Stare-down politics
This is old-fashioned stare-down politics: It was just two days ago that Hoyer told Senate leaders that the House would not accept the extenders, rebuffing what he described as the upper chamber’s attempt to legislate by “blunt force.”
Now it seems that the tax cut extenders package will pass, because it is grafted onto a bill many see as imperative to the banking and credit system.
Referring to his own Democratic members, Hoyer said, “Certainly there are people who are upset with the fact that we are making the deficit worse."
The tax cut extensions are not offset with revenue increases or spending cuts elsewhere in the budget.