Lawmakers Claim Progress In Bailout Talks

Congressional Leaders Hopeful Of Striking Deal Before World Markets Open

(CBS/AP)  Both presidential candidates are trying to position themselves to take at least partial credit if an accord is reached. Obama spokesman Tommy Vietor offered new details from Thursday's contentious White House meeting that underscored the divisions among lawmakers trying to reach an agreement.

He said Obama encouraged Paulson to work with House Republicans. Since then, Vietor said, Obama has urged negotiators to find a compromise with enough options so the treasury secretary has the flexibility "to act in an effective manner to stem this crisis."

The Bailout On The Campaign Trail

In an Associated Press-Knowledge Networks poll, only 30 percent of Americans surveyed expressed support for Bush's package. Forty-five percent were opposed, with 25 percent undecided. The survey was conducted Thursday and had a margin of error or plus or minus 3.8 percentage points.

With the backroom negotiations moving ahead on an unpopular bill for a hard-to-define financial crisis, the bailout package is becoming a political football for those running for office (or trying to keep theirs).

National political watchers say depending on how Congress acts and how the economic crisis unfolds, the outcome could spell trouble for Republicans and incumbents Nov. 4.

"My sense is that the intensified focus on the economy will work to the advantage of all Democratic candidates, even if Congress acts soon on a bailout package with broad bipartisan support," Thomas E. Mann, senior fellow at the Brookings Institution in Washington, wrote in an e-mail. "By a decisive margin, the public trusts the Democrats to deal with serious economic problems more than the Republicans."

In New Mexico, Reps. Steve Pearce (R) and Tom Udall (D), who are running for the Senate seat being vacated by the retiring Pete Domenici, disagree on what the federal government's role should be in the current crisis, but both said they want more time to deliberate on the issues.

"We've done more Justice Department work on Martha Stewart for $4,000 than we've done on this whole economic crisis," Pearce said.

Udall said pressure from the Bush administration to complete the economic bailout this week has him "very worried."

"I'm going to insist that we are careful and take the time to deliberate on this," he said.

But, Candice Nelson, chairwoman of the Government Department at American University in Washington, says incumbents should not deliberate too long if they want to get re-elected, because voters want to see Congress act to resolve the nation's economic woes.

"There will be a lot of angry folks if we don't have a deal by the end of the weekend," she said Friday. "The longer this drags out, the worse this is going to be, both for the country and the Congress."

Staffers in both congressional offices say they have been swarmed with hundreds of phone calls and e-mails this week from concerned constituents.

Pearce said he has spoken with House leaders about allowing small investors to buy shares, spending $1,000 or even as little as $100, in troubled mortgage company stock to raise capital.

"I think we would solve the problem with private capital almost immediately," Pearce said. "I'm very hesitant to turn this over to government solutions."

Rather, the government needs to facilitate private market solutions, Pearce said.

Udall said he thinks the federal government needs to guarantee protections for taxpayers by taking temporary ownership of failing Wall Street firms.

"I would like to see ownership so that when we see a comeback, these taxpayers get their money back," Udall said. "The intent is not to own the companies forever, it's an attempt to stabilize the economy to get the taxpayers protected."

In Oregon, Republican Sen. Gordon Smith said his Democratic opponent, Jeff Merkley, is using the current financial crisis for partisan gain.

Smith said late Friday that Merkley tells a "lie" about Smith's record in a new TV ad on the crisis. The ad accuses Smith of supporting a "trillion-dollar blank check for Wall Street."

Smith called that a low blow that shows Merkley is unfit to serve in the Senate.

By running the ad - and attacking Smith on the campaign trail - Merkley "is putting his personal and partisan interest above that of scores of thousands of Oregonians" and other Americans, Smith said last night.

Merkley's spokesman, Matt Canter, said Smith's anger "should be directed at himself for voting with George Bush to end accountability on Wall Street."

A Contentious White House Meeting

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 George W. 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 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.

(AP Photo/Pablo Martinez Monsivais)

(Clockwise from Left: White House Chief of Staff Joshua Bolten; Vice President Dick Cheney; Secretary of Treasury Henry Paulson; Rep. Spencer Bachus, R-Ala.; Rep. Barney Frank D-Mass.; House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer, D-Md.; Republican presidential nominee Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz.; House Minority Leader Sen. John A. Boehner, R-Ohio; Speaker of the House Rep. Nancy Pelos, D-Calif.; President Bush; Senate Majority Leader Sen. Harry Reid, D-Nev.; Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky.; and Democratic presidential nominee Sen. Barack Obama, D-Ill.)

The legislation the White House 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 already sputtering U.S. economy.

But a significant number of lawmakers, including many House conservatives, say they're against such heavy federal intervention. Under the Republican plan, the government would insure the distressed securities rather than buy them. Tax breaks would provide additional incentives to invest.

[tbuckl]

Thomas Jefferson was so right when he said the following, I sincerely believe, with you, that banking establishments are more dangerous than standing armies; and that the principle of spending money to be paid by all future generations, under the name of funding, is but swindling the state of being yet to come on a large scale. Now the American banking system and its Barbaric CEOs have taken the American people to the clearers. Thomas Jefferson correctly used the word SWINDLING when writing his thoughts about banks and aristocratic tyrants that would infect our soceity. He knew these aristocratic tyrants would infest our soceity just like they did so many centuries ago. I wish he had been wrong, because I am starting to think something else he said may also be true. "The tree of liberty must from time to time be refreshed with the blood of patriots and tyrants. It is its natural manure."

[txgrouch2006]

TERM LIMITS FOR ALL MEMBERS OF CONGRESS

[jt_lancer]

tapsettle - ''It is America''''s political class that, by embracing the dangerously simplistic ideology of deregulation, has responsibility for the present mess.''

It''s not deregulation that caused the mess. Nothing was deregulated. It''s government regulation and political manipulation of the markets that caused the mess.

For starters, Fannie and Freddie (government sponsored enterprises whose loans are ''insured'' by taxpayers) were mandated to make riskier loans to lower income families in order to ''boost'' home ownership in America.

Secondly, the Fed sharply reduced interest rates after 9/11 and kept them artificially low for an extended period, creating a huge amount of credit for the markets to absorb. This triggered a surge in real estate investing (people flipping homes, etc).

Furthermore, it is estimated that applicants for no doc loans LIED about their income 70% of the time. A recpie for disaster.

[bstambo]

Pay them with credit
Take out a loan,
The IRS doesn%u2019t care
Their hearts colder than stone

I have to decide
What to buy at the store,
Medicine, clothes or food
Which do we need more?

My mortgage has defaulted
The bank is a%u2019knocking,
The end of my rope
My world is rocking.

The Feds are all gathering
The Congress is too,
To help out the rich
As they are prone to do.

They need to save Wall Street
They need to save face,
They need billions of dollars
To come from someplace.

They tout of a plan
To keep the economy afloat,
To look good in the eyes
Of the people who vote.

But the real plan is
And always will be,
To reach in our pockets
To pay their big fee.

Pay credit with credit
The answer is plain,
The problem%u2019s on hold
And nothing is gained.

But I live on Main Street
And I%u2019m dying too,
But no one is listening
What will I do?

I have nothing left
But have done nothing wrong,
But I pay the price
Of a government gone wrong.

At the end of my rope
I have nothing more,
I appeal to Congress
I take the floor.

I get their attention
I stand up and SHOUT,
Mr. President, Congress
COME BAIL ME OUT!

[bstambo]

This is what I think of the whole disaster....wouldn''t fit on one comment, so please read both together....

Middle Class Blues

My life wasn%u2019t that bad
Or so I believed,
The bills were all paid
But I was deceived.

My job left for India
Without me of course,
Now I%u2019m no longer part
Of the US workforce.

My child is sick
But my insurance went too,
I can%u2019t afford Cobra
My options are few.

The job market is empty
The positions are few,
No one is hiring
My savings won%u2019t do.

So much for the extras
And money to bank,
The Oil Man%u2019s greedy,
Now it%u2019s all in the tank.

Wall Street is tumbling
My investments have dwindled,
And I can%u2019t help but think
That I%u2019ve somehow been swindled.

My car payments have lapsed
The Repo Man came fast,
And now I don%u2019t worry
How to pay for the gas.

My bank has collapsed
more jobs have been lost,
But the grand CEO
Has not paid the cost.

My taxes are due
This year higher than last,
I can%u2019t pay them all
The due date has passed.

(continued on next comment)

[livewire190]

I am writing this message to inform people of the injustice being perpretrated by Fox News against Barack Obama. For the past two weeks there has been nothing but negative reporting against senator Obama by the Fox News network, which is unfair to listeners and the candidate. This networks seemingly biased opinions are not of interest to us viewers. My concern is that negative reporting like this will influence voters that are undecided of which candidate best express their wishes. I depend on these news stations for fair, accurate and just reporting regardless of the outcome whether it be a debate or any other current event and if that cant be accomplished I feel that it is grounds for that station (Fox News network) to be boycotted until they learn and understand that those types of injustices will not be tolerated. If anyone else can relate to the unfair reporting of Fox News I suggest that you join us in a boycott of this news station. PASS THIS MESSAGE ALONG.




------------------------
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Posted by dicktracy200 at 04:06 AM : Sep 28, 2008

Know what I was just thinking the same way lately. I''''ve already expected it from people like Hannity and the like but its like lately they turned up the heat. I''''ve tried to give them a chance but they blew it for me mabey about a week ago. I will to be Boycotting.

[vivekgee]

Now we will have a party in the stock and oil markets on monday and yes, the bill will be paid by the american tax payers. The crude will get more costlier. Americans will again foot the bill.

Bloody vampires.

[tapsettle]

The root cause of the crisis is the busting of the housing bubble.
-----
Posted by testerling

"The populist rant about greedy banks that is being loudly ventilated in Congress is a distraction from the true causes of the crisis. The dire condition of America''s financial markets is the result of American banks operating in a free-for-all environment that these same American legislators created. It is America''s political class that, by embracing the dangerously simplistic ideology of deregulation, has responsibility for the present mess."

John Gray, The Observer.

[riddelup]

A bailout does not resolve the underlying cause of the current crisis. The root cause of the crisis is the busting of the housing bubble. The bailout only tackles the symptoms of the crisis and it only addresses the symptoms of one sector. This sector my be the loudest in the history of government. It has spread so much of it''s wealth around the government that many of our otherwise erstwhile representatives have misinterpreted their mandate. The cost of housing has been run up by those who profit or wish to profit from it''s engorged state. The fact is we cannot afford the prices of houses regardless the complicated structure ,deferred principle,or manipulated payments. The government should attend to the needs of the voter and address the problem. The bailout will enable the banks to deffer the consequences of their actions and give those who are responsible for their own demise a chance to withdraw their profits from the system. The bailout will not solve the problem simply put because it does not address the problem. Because it does not address the problem the problem will remain. Affordable housing is the problem. Paying the wolves who fleeced the sheep is not the solution.

[trrrorislamj]

HAVE ANY MONEY LEFT???

MARXIST HUSSEIN PLANS TO GIVE YOUR MONEY TO THE WORLDS POOR,,,

GLOBAL POVERTY ACT

http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&q=OBAMA+GLOBAL POVERTY ACT

YOU CAN KISS YOUR HARD EARNED MONEY GOOD BYE,,,

HUSSEIN SAYS THE WORLD POOR NEEDS IT MORE THAN YOU DO,,,

HUSSEIN PREFERS FOREIGNS OVER AMERICANS,,,

[tapsettle]

HUSSEINS OTHER RADICAL MARXIST HATE AMERICA ASSOCIATION
------
Posted by trrrorislamj

Still playing the fool I see. Shame as I think you could debate properly if you tried. Never mind, a fool it is then.

[trrrorislamj]

HUSSEIN PLANS TO STEAL THE ELECTION

WILL YOUR VOTE COUNT???

OR WILL ACORN VOTER FRAUD STEAL THE ELECTION???

HUSSEINS OTHER RADICAL MARXIST HATE AMERICA ASSOCIATION

http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&q=OBAMA+ACORN VOTER FRAUD

The Acorn Indictments
A union-backed outfit faces charges of election fraud.
http://opinionjournal.com/editorial/feature.html?id=110009189


ACORN Workers Indicted For Alleged Voter Fraud
http://www.kmbc.com/politics/10214492/detail.html

Inside Obama''s Acorn
http://www.aina.org/news/20080529155204.htm

[book54552134]

After being forced to pay for an expensive & unnecessary war in Iraq, the overwhelming majority of the American people did not want the costs of this Trillion dollar banking bailout foisted upon them.

This is the result of the absolute & utter corruption endemic in the US government.

When one votes for the lesser of 2 evils, what one gets at the end of the day, is evil!

[tapsettle]

How symbolic yesterday that Chinese astronauts take a spacewalk while the US Treasury Secretary is on his knees.

[trrrorislamj]

Posted by Demongirl60 at 05:59 AM : Sep 28, 2008

NO BAILOUT FOR THE IRRESPONSIBLE FRINEDS OF THE DEMONIC-RATS!

FANNIE AND FREDDIE,,,

FANNIE AND FREDDIE OWN THE DEMONIC-RATS,,,

SAY NO TO MORE DEMONIC-RAT CORRUPTION,,,

[trrrorislamj]

Posted by gwjackie at 05:47 AM : Sep 28, 2008

UMMMM NANCY,,,

IT WAS THE DEMONIC-RATS THAT BLOCKED REGULATION OF YOUR FANNIE AND FREDDIE,,,

AND SUBPRIME LOANS,,,

DEMONIC-RATS REPRESENT MORE FAILED SOCIALISM / COMMUNISM POLICIES OF THE PAST,,,,

[gwjackie]

John McCain would take the american people to the pitts of HELL. He is stupid,stupid,stupid and Palin is dumb,dumb,dumb. A Republican is like a mushroom put them in a cave and feed them *******! and they still vote Republican. AND THINK IT WILL BE OK.

[gwjackie]

Lets not blame anyone but the Republicans and the deregulators that got us in this mess and who is asking for the money to bail the peices of shi! out BUSH YES MR.BUSH. He thought the 600.00 would keep it going till he got to the ranch and got in his hole.

[trrrorislamj]

Economists not keen on DEMONIC-RAT bailout

NO NO NO,,, GOD DAMNN THE DEMONIC-RATS,,,

DEMONIC-RAT CORRUPTION IS KILLING AMERICA,,,

MORE FAILED SOCIALIST/COMMUNIST POLICIES OF THE PAST,,,

Burning Down The House: What Caused Our Economic Crisis?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H5tZc8oH--o

COMMUNITY REINVESTMENT ACThttp://www.google.com/search?hl=en&q=COMMUNITY+REINVESTMENT ACT
http://search.yahoo.com/search?p=COMMUNITY REINVESTMENT ACT

Timeline shows Bush, McCain warning Dems of financial mess
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cMnSp4qEXNM&feature=related

S. 190 [109th]: Federal Housing Enterprise Regulatory Reform Act of 2005

http://www.govtrack.us/congress/bill.xpd?bill=s109-190

http://www.opensecrets.org/

http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&q=CENTER FOR RESPONSIVE POLITICS

http://search.yahoo.com/search?p=CENTER FOR RESPONSIVE POLITICS

Covering Your Fannie, Who Really Caused Our Economic Crisis?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AiEWCnpNnBQ&feature=user

HUSSEIN AND THE DEMONIC-RATS ARE BAD FOR AMERICA,,,

[brownellkm]

let the economy work itself out! we need to level it out, the rich got rich the middle class got poor, people thought making money was easy, just buy a house, but some of us just go work every day, pay our bills, get smacked with late charges and high interest rates when we don''t pay ontime because we set up bill pay wrong, fight credit bureaus because our identities are stolen,no bail out, more Bush chicken little act. What can happen? maybe mayhem for awhile, but we are families, friends and neighbors, we will be back to those values if we do it ourselves.

The people who worked for those failed companies will be welcome in the workplace, except the egotists who collapsed their entities.

We have let a few people run this country private and public officials, we have sold our real estate to other countries, we owe more money than we can pay back, our kids are spoiled and lazy.

I would like to see everyone get up monday morning join hands around the country and vow to help each other. We waste so much and keep making excuses, remember Grandma saving the baggies and aluminum foil to reuse? We think recycle so we don''t have to wash it. every jar is a glass, every effort to help