Spending
Senate Republicans show America they still have a pair and kill auto bailout
Update (12/11/08 - 11:12pm): Senate fails to invoke cloture with a vote of 52 Yeas to 35 Nays, 8 short of the required 60 votes.
This means that both bodies will have to take this issue up again in January, as the rest of the Senate’s sessions will be pro forma, where nothing really happens.
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It looks like the efforts of Senator Bob Corker (TN) and the leadership of Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell have paid off and the Senate Republicans have grown a pair, standing up to the Democrats and the White House.
It appears that the Senate wont have the 60 votes needed for cloture, which means that the auto bailout is dead for now.
Some quick quotes from Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid:
“I dread looking at Wall Street tomorrow, it’s going to be a terrible sight”
“It’s going to be a very bad Christmas for a lot of people”
The vote on cloture is expected to happen in the next few minutes; I’ll have details upon it’s conclution.
House of Representatives Passes Auto Bailout
This seems to be the thought process of many of the elected officials in DC today…
Step 1: Pass Auto Bailout in the House. Check.
The United States House of Representatives just passed the latest round of government handouts (237-170), this time with the taxpayers money directed towards the troubled automakers.
Step 2: Pass Auto Bailout in the Senate. coming soon.
Step 3: Adjourn Congress, go back to districts and receive praise. Then come back to Washington to find out this “bridge loan” didn’t do as much as they had hoped and start this whole process again.
Step 4: Write a book.
While today’s proceedings were fairly dry, I’m convinced that things in the Senate will definitely be more colorful tomorrow (Thursday). This is probably the last time the GOP will be able to flex some muscle on the Senate floor for awhile, so it could definitely be a good show.
Congress tries to gamble, market drops 777
I too lost money today, but there is some humor in the fact that the Dow Jones Industrial Average was down 777 (lucky 7’s) after Congress voted against taking a gamble on the Wall Street Bailout.
Maybe it’s a sign that the American taxpayers finally won one, or maybe I just think about gambling too much.
The Day the American People Bitch Slapped Washington
“Bitch Slap”: The act of unexpectedly slapping someone across the face. Usually done in front of several people in order to humiliate the slappee. - UrbanDictionary.com
Monday was definitely an interesting day in Washington.
The day started with an address from President George W. Bush, urging Members of Congress to pass what he thought was a strong piece of legislation that was designed with the best interest of the American people in mind. This address to the nation was so important that it was held at 7:35am EST (4:35am PST), ensuring that maybe 1% of the population would actually see it. That 1% however, was targeted very carefully to a demographic that is very important to Bush Administration: Wall Street and Politicians.
Following the President’s remarks, the media went into full spin mode, rallying behind the President and Congressional leadership, leading the American people to believe that this bill was expected to pass, and that both sides of the House thought that they had the votes needed to move this on to the Senate.
Of course this is exactly what the spin machines from within the Bush administration and the Congressional leadership wanted the American people to think.
Unfortunately for them, there was no amount of PR tricks, and no number of feuxservative think-tanks that the White House could sell on this Socialist plan that would lead the American people to trust something that obviously didn’t have the best interest of taxpayers in mind.
Did an Administration with an approval rating of 27% and a Congress with one of 17% really expect the American people to trust them with $700,000,000,000 bailout package? Unfortunately, when you drink too much of the Potomac Kool-Aid, it appears that hallucinations and bad judgment follow.
Luckily, through the efforts of some true free-market, limited government organizations like FreedomWorks, National Taxpayers Union, Campaign for Liberty, and even some groups on the left, coupled with good ole’ American common sense, taxpayers rose up and told Congress how they feel.
I’m happy to be able to say that with one strong backhand, the American people were able to forcefully reach back and bitch slap both the Bush Administration for pushing this bill, and Congressional leadership on both sides for trying to sugarcoat what was obviously a flawed piece of legislation.
Just on one petition alone, NoWallStreetBailout.com (created by FreedomWorks), nearly 30,000 people signed up within days of this bailout being announced.
Even as John McCain and Barack Obama jumped on board with something they obviously didn’t understand, the American people said they weren’t going to stand for it.
Throughout the day on Monday, Congressional switchboards were jammed by phone calls coming in from all corners of the United States, with the overwhelming majority having a similar message to their Members: Hell No.
I’m going to have a lot more on this as it all unfolds, because it obviously isn’t over it yet. But the very fact that a traditionally apathetic American public rallied against this legislation in overwhelming numbers, on both sides of the aisle, sends a strong message to Congress.
Their games are over.
Blogs also discussing the bailout:
- Odd But Not Unusual
- Right Minds
- Mrs. Silence Dogood
- Heavy-Handed Politics
- Bankrupt Banks
- Emanuel Collado’s Weblog
- Whose Ox is Gored?
- Promethean Equality
- Politics of Poppycock
- Gray3’s Thirdsphere
- Riders Paradise
- Feminisn’t
- GoldSilver
- Joshua James Brown
- The Maverick Conservative
- CT Blue
- Media Concepts
- Disillusioned Words
- US PIRG Consumer Blog
- NOVAHomeGuy
- Portfolio.com
- The Tennessee ConserVOLiance
- Just a girl in short shorts talking about whatever
