Posted on 09/27/2008 7:50:20 PM PDT by TFine80
House Republicans said they want to eliminate several provisions from a working version of the financial rescue bill as principles from both sides of the Capitol went into negotiations Saturday afternoon.
House GOP Leader John Boehner (Ohio) said a number of issues must still be settled as Congress tries to reach a deal quickly.
“There are a lot of [issues] still on the table and while I think there’s good will between both chambers and both parties there are a lot of conversations still occurring” Boehner said.
Republican Policy Chairman Thaddeus McCotter (R-Mich.) said earlier on Saturday that putting an arbitrary deadline on a final bailout bill would lead to electoral disaster in November.
McCotter warned against raising the expectations of investors, who would react poorly and “spark” a downturn if congressional negotiators were not able to reach a deal on legislation by Sunday. He said that, if the hypothetical deal failed because of House Republican misgivings, they would ultimately face the wrath of voters if an economic meltdown ensued.
"The irresponsible desire to meet a deadline solely for the sake of meeting a deadline will produce an ‘agreement’ that does NOT protect taxpayers from this bailout,” he said. “Thus, the public will be outraged a month before the election; principled House Republicans will view any internal whip count as a political dead pool; and the irresponsible, anti-taxpayer ‘agreement’ will fail. … This avoidable outcome, too, could lead to a catastrophic economic meltdown.”
Minority Whip Roy Blunt (R-Mo.) laid out several items his conference want kept out of a final bill at a press conference held by GOP House leaders minutes before a negotiating session in Speaker Nancy Pelosi's (D-Calif.) office.
GOPers also want to eliminate a Democratic provision that would dedicate a portion of any profits from the eventual sale of purchased assets to an affordable housing fund the GOP has said would benefit groups tied to Democrats.
Blunt said negotiators traded calls into the evening Friday on the potential details of the bill as staff worked into the early hours of the morning.
“My last discussion last night was at 11:30, my first discussion this morning was at 6:30, I’ve been on the phone with Chairman [Barney] Frank more than once and with others who are involved with this,” Blunt said, referencing the Democratic chairman of the House Financial Services Committee.
Pelosi, Sens. Chris Dodd (D-Conn.), Judd Gregg (R-N.H.) and Blunt met in Pelosi’s office around 3 p.m. Saturday afternoon.
Earlier, McCotter criticized Republican negotiators for rushing to build a consensus.
“With some Republican leaders of Congress imposing an arbitrary deadline of Sunday at midnight on negotiations, the results could prove disastrous for all Americans,” he said.
McCotter is part of the group of House Republicans, led by Rep. Eric Cantor (R-Va.), working on an alternative bailout proposal. His objection could signal early issues with members of the Republican Conference who initially balked at the $700 billion bill, causing their leadership to pull back from early compromise negotiations.
Blunt told ABC's Good Morning America on Saturday that, while Sunday is the goal, the quality of the product would take precedence over any hard and fast deadline.
“The Sunday deadline is an important deadline,” Blunt said. “But it more important to get this right than it is to meet a deadline… We hope we can get this done this weekend.”
He said on Fox and Friends later in the morning that the bill could take until Thursday or Friday to take shape.
“Well, it needs to happen by Sunday, if it doesn't happen by Sunday, it could be Thursday or Friday of next week,” Blunt said. “There may be a point when we realize that the majority that’s in control isn’t going to do this on their own and come up with the bill that Republicans in the House can vote for.”
Someone has to take the fall, why not Pelosi?.
The Republicans need to tell Nancy and Dingy that their Congress has a 9% approval rating. We’re going to sit this one out. We can’t afford to lose anymore seats.
“There are some solutions out there that won’t completely screw the tax payer.”
I suggest you call Nancy Pelosi and the democrats to remind them that they have the power and numbers to pass any bill they choose to pass...without the help of any Republicians.
“Means about the same as Bush’s compassionate conservative”
Which is = to a pile of u know what.
JAIL NOT BAIL FOR WALL STREET !
they are afraid of the elections, pure and simple - I am curious to hear what the Sunday morning talking heads will say...wish ACORN would be exposed in this mess...put Obama out front of a liberal fraud voter group stealing OUR hard earned tax payer money! Just 1 REPUBLICAN come forward and speak up PLEASE!
I hope they cut Acorn and LaRaza who have no business taking our money.
AND THOSE RESPONSIBLE IN CONGRESS !
ABSOLUTELY !!!
Not one penny of taxpayer money should go to ACORN.
So one of the questions that needs to be answered is how much were the problematic financial instruments purchased for. Until we have some rough idea of that, it seems we are guessing as to how much money is needed.
The next question is what is the total amount of the mortgages upon which the bad paper is based? In other words are we talking financial instruments that were purchased for $5 trillion that are based on mortgages that total $1 trillion. Again, some rough idea of the disparity between the purchase amount of the bad paper and the mortgages upon which they are based needs to be known.
Next, what pecentage of the mortages are actually in default. Is it 10% or 20% or some higher figure. From what I've read, it appears that a large portion of the mortgages upon which the bad paper is based are not in default. If that is the case, then the problem is purely one involving the aftermarket in mortgages
Given the lack of basic information on these issues, I am beginning to suspect that something like a ponzi-scheme was occurring in the aftermarket on mortgages. In other words, what happened was that a mortgage for $10 was sliced and diced and then sold in individual parts for a total amount well north of $10.
I hope I am wrong but I suspect the reason answers are not forthcoming on these basic questions is that Goldman Sachs was a central player in the aftermarket on mortgages on Goldman Sachs is now in charge of the Treasury Department.
If it makes it he will sign. He will sign anything they send him. He's done.
Call Capitol Hill or call your Congresscritters local number.
http://www.numbersusa.com/content/congress/phone-numbers-and-mailing-addresses-memb.html
We may have to swallow this bitter pill, true. We may even have to give in to some of the Dems stupid ideas on it. But we’d better not let the Dems off in the long run for bringing this about and promise I will not be voting for any GOP candidate that approve this bill with ACORN and similar groups still injected into the pork fat. Almost every aspect of this bill makes my bile flow, but if they conduct a laydown to the Dems I will lose faith in the GOP overall.
Are they going to FIX the Community Reinvestment Act by at least aboloshing the “Clinton enhancements”? Perhaps even eliminating the penalties for not issuing enough sub-prime loans? Not allow law firms to sue banks for not issuing enough sub-prime loans? Create caps on the maximum percentage of sub-prime loans a publicly traded firm or bank is allowed to hold?
Is ACORN off the bill??? Does anyone know?
“Schumer was the one who insisted that we not give them the full 700 billion, he wants to dole it out according to results. Right now he appears to be thinking straight”
My thinking is he’s thinking to use the purse strings to extort contributions for Dems as each set of results is announced.
GOPers also want to eliminate a Democratic provision that would dedicate a portion of any profits from the eventual sale of purchased assets to an affordable housing fund the GOP has said would benefit groups tied to Democrats.
Means it is still there in the bailout bill.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.