Financial Bailout Talks Head Into Weekend
Britain's Queen Elizabeth II holds a bouquet of flowers as she returns to Buckingham Palace after attending a service of thanksgiving and a lunch in honour of the Diamond Jubilee in London,Tuesday June 5, 2012. (AP Photo/Carl Cort, Pool) / CARL COURT
The Bush administration and Congress anxiously revived negotiations Friday on a $700 billion financial bailout, one day after the largest bank collapse in U.S. history provided a brutal reminder of the risks of failure. Democrats talked optimistically of agreement by the end of the weekend.
"I'm convinced that by Sunday we will have an agreement that people can understand on this bill," predicted Massachusetts Rep. Barney Frank, a key Democrat in eight days of up-and-down talks designed to stave off an economic disaster.
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi added that "progress is being made," although the day came and went without senior lawmakers from both parties sitting down together.
Neither she nor Frank divulged details at a late-afternoon news conference in the Capitol, though there was word of one fresh Democratic concession.
Pelosi told fellow Democrats during a closed-door meeting that the idea of letting judges rewrite mortgages to help bankrupt homeowners avoid foreclosure won't be a part of the emergency legislation. That provision, pushed by several Democrats, would be a deal-breaker for Republicans whose votes are needed to pass the measure, she said, according to lawmakers at the meeting.
Democrats and Bush administration officials also said they were willing to include House Republicans' idea of having the government insure distressed mortgages - but only as an option, rather than a replacement for the administration's more sweeping approach.
All sides continue to warn of severe economic aftershocks if Congress fails to pass a bailout bill, but the deal hinges on whether the President Bush can turn back a revolt by members of his own party, reports CBS News correspondent Bob Orr.
Democratic and Republican staff aides met into the night on Capitol Hill. They were going line by line through legislative proposals in an attempt to clear the way for lawmakers to bargain over the weekend even as presidential contenders John McCain and Barack Obama agreed during their presidential debate Friday night that Congress must act soon.
Asked directly whether he intends to vote for a rescue plan taking shape in Congress, McCain said, "I hope so. ... sure."
"We haven't seen the language yet," Obama said. "I do think there is constructive work being done."
Meanwhile, new details emerged of a remarkably tumultuous White House meeting on Thursday. With the session breaking up in disarray, according to two participants, President Bush issued an appeal, saying, "Can't we just all go out and say things are OK?" The group around the table, congressional leaders as well as McCain and Obama, spurned the presidential request for a publicly united front.
Earlier in the White House meeting, Democrats peppered House Republican leader John Boehner of Ohio with questions about the details of an alternative he was backing. "I don't know what the hell they are," Bush said at one point," recalled one person who was in the room. All the participants spoke on condition of anonymity, saying the meeting was private.
Bush sought to coax the talks back to life on Friday, prodding lawmakers in a morning appearance to "rise to the occasion" - and quickly.
"We want to see a deal happen - there's no doubt about it," said Rep. Eric Cantor, R-Va.
The legislation the administration is promoting would allow the government to buy bad mortgages and other sour assets held by investors, most of them financial companies. That should make those companies more inclined to lend and lift a major weight off the national economy that is already sputtering.
But a significant number of lawmakers, including many House conservatives, say they're against such heavy federal intervention. Under the GOP plan, the government would insure the distressed securities rather than buy them. Tax breaks would provide additional incentives to invest.
"I think what we're expecting in these negotiations is looking for ways to really protect taxpayers and to make sure that Wall Street pays its fair share of this problem," House Minority Leader John Boehner told CBS Evening News anchor Katie Couric. "I just don't think it's fair to take $700 billion of taxpayer funds, put them on the line without Wall Street also stepping up to me solve this problem."
Key Democrats were just as adamant about not giving the president too much latitude in negotiations.
"I can only tell you what we're being told by others, that if we don't step up, these problems we're seeing in our economy could go far worse," Sen. Chris Dodd, chairman of the Senate Banking Committee told Couric. "I'm not going to give this president as blank check for $700 billion without some conditionality on it. I won't do that and I don't think my colleagues will either."
The crisis was hardly limited to the U.S.
Bush held a lengthy Oval Office meeting with British Prime Minister Gordon Brown that focused on how the problems were spreading, then said, "I told him the plan is big enough to make a difference, and I believe it will be passed."
Presidential politics weighed heavily and unpredictably on the election-season effort to stave off a full-blown economic crisis.
After announcing earlier in the week he would suspend his campaign and return to the capital until there was an agreement, Republican McCain abruptly reversed course and departed for Friday night's debate with Democratic rival Obama.
© 2009 CBS Interactive Inc. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. The Associated Press contributed to this report. "I'm convinced that by Sunday we will have an agreement that people can understand on this bill," predicted Massachusetts Rep. Barney Frank, a key Democrat in eight days of up-and-down talks designed to stave off an economic disaster.
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi added that "progress is being made," although the day came and went without senior lawmakers from both parties sitting down together.
Neither she nor Frank divulged details at a late-afternoon news conference in the Capitol, though there was word of one fresh Democratic concession.
Pelosi told fellow Democrats during a closed-door meeting that the idea of letting judges rewrite mortgages to help bankrupt homeowners avoid foreclosure won't be a part of the emergency legislation. That provision, pushed by several Democrats, would be a deal-breaker for Republicans whose votes are needed to pass the measure, she said, according to lawmakers at the meeting.
Democrats and Bush administration officials also said they were willing to include House Republicans' idea of having the government insure distressed mortgages - but only as an option, rather than a replacement for the administration's more sweeping approach.
All sides continue to warn of severe economic aftershocks if Congress fails to pass a bailout bill, but the deal hinges on whether the President Bush can turn back a revolt by members of his own party, reports CBS News correspondent Bob Orr.
Democratic and Republican staff aides met into the night on Capitol Hill. They were going line by line through legislative proposals in an attempt to clear the way for lawmakers to bargain over the weekend even as presidential contenders John McCain and Barack Obama agreed during their presidential debate Friday night that Congress must act soon.
Asked directly whether he intends to vote for a rescue plan taking shape in Congress, McCain said, "I hope so. ... sure."
"We haven't seen the language yet," Obama said. "I do think there is constructive work being done."
Meanwhile, new details emerged of a remarkably tumultuous White House meeting on Thursday. With the session breaking up in disarray, according to two participants, President Bush issued an appeal, saying, "Can't we just all go out and say things are OK?" The group around the table, congressional leaders as well as McCain and Obama, spurned the presidential request for a publicly united front.
Earlier in the White House meeting, Democrats peppered House Republican leader John Boehner of Ohio with questions about the details of an alternative he was backing. "I don't know what the hell they are," Bush said at one point," recalled one person who was in the room. All the participants spoke on condition of anonymity, saying the meeting was private.
Bush sought to coax the talks back to life on Friday, prodding lawmakers in a morning appearance to "rise to the occasion" - and quickly.
In a sign of progress, House Republicans dispatched their second-ranking leader, Rep. Roy Blunt of Missouri, to join the talks after their objections to an emerging compromise had brought negotiations to a standstill the day before. They demanded "serious consideration" for their plan.
"We want to see a deal happen - there's no doubt about it," said Rep. Eric Cantor, R-Va.
The legislation the administration is promoting would allow the government to buy bad mortgages and other sour assets held by investors, most of them financial companies. That should make those companies more inclined to lend and lift a major weight off the national economy that is already sputtering.
But a significant number of lawmakers, including many House conservatives, say they're against such heavy federal intervention. Under the GOP plan, the government would insure the distressed securities rather than buy them. Tax breaks would provide additional incentives to invest.
"I think what we're expecting in these negotiations is looking for ways to really protect taxpayers and to make sure that Wall Street pays its fair share of this problem," House Minority Leader John Boehner told CBS Evening News anchor Katie Couric. "I just don't think it's fair to take $700 billion of taxpayer funds, put them on the line without Wall Street also stepping up to me solve this problem."
Key Democrats were just as adamant about not giving the president too much latitude in negotiations.
"I can only tell you what we're being told by others, that if we don't step up, these problems we're seeing in our economy could go far worse," Sen. Chris Dodd, chairman of the Senate Banking Committee told Couric. "I'm not going to give this president as blank check for $700 billion without some conditionality on it. I won't do that and I don't think my colleagues will either."
The crisis was hardly limited to the U.S.
Bush held a lengthy Oval Office meeting with British Prime Minister Gordon Brown that focused on how the problems were spreading, then said, "I told him the plan is big enough to make a difference, and I believe it will be passed."
Presidential politics weighed heavily and unpredictably on the election-season effort to stave off a full-blown economic crisis.
After announcing earlier in the week he would suspend his campaign and return to the capital until there was an agreement, Republican McCain abruptly reversed course and departed for Friday night's debate with Democratic rival Obama.
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Instead of government being able to devote the time necessary to solve the problems that they should be solving, we have come to expect it to care for us, and baby us from the crib to the grave. With ever added control and regulation that is enacted, we create a new level of bureaucracy that in the long run creates more problems than it solves.
Cont.
Every time there is a problem, whether it be at a local, state or federal level, we add a new level of bureaucracy to handle the problem instead of using agencies already in place to solve the problem, we have come to a point where we no longer know what agency and level of government actually has the controls and the powers to deal with the problem. Hence what we have is a situation where our government at all levels has become gridlocked.
Cont.
The further that this whole crisis goes, the more we come to realize that there is something that smells awful in Washington, and it isn''t the garbage. Over the past eight years, one crisis after another in America has become so common place that we have become a crisis driven society. We have been bouncing from crisis to crisis here in the United States faster than a super ball bounces on a hot concrete drive. It would take me a week to mention them all, but what has become clear is that our government, and the various departments that should be protecting us from these crisis is failing miserably. We can hardly think of any department within the federal government that has not had its share of turmoil, and scandal. What should be plainly evident to every American is that our government is failing miserably at both protecting us, and doing the job that it is there to do. These crisis, in reality are the fault of both parties, and their origins can be traced from one administration to another as far back as we want to look. Anyone that believes that our government is not failing miserably, must either be wearing blinders, or hiding in a closet.
Cont.