Bailout - H.R. 3997 rejected! Well, not yet...

A few minutes ago, I spoke with an economist friend. He said all of this started under Jimmy Carter in 1977. I didn't feel like getting too much into it because I have been watching the Congress in session all morning. I did find the "Amendment to the Senate Amendment to H.R. 3997 linked here... which I found at the Democratic Underground site. A letter from the Congressional Budget Office is also linked here. Thomas (The Library of Congress) has interesting information. It seems H.R. 3997 is a bill introduced by Charlie Rangel back in 2007 dealing with amending the IRS code of 1986 "to provide tax relief and protections for military personnel, and for other purposes." H.R. 3997 "will be used as the vehicle for the Emergency Economic Stabilization Act of 2008." Chavez smelled "sulfur" when our President spoke at the UN last year. Even with all of the hard work that many Congressmen did with this bill which was sprung on them by the White House, the Secretary of the Treasury, and the Fed Chairman, the House Chamber must reek of "Socialism". I agree that we law-abiding, hardworking citizens should not be punished due to the greed of money-manager manipulators but this current "crisis" was a long time coming. And I believe it is patently unfair to give "bad loans" to anyone when the lending person knows the person getting the loan is bound to default, to give out loans with no credit history of successfully repaying loans. That is theft and it further disenfranchises and kicks down many people who otherwise are hardworking. There is plenty of blame but there are people involved who I don't think set out to default. The vote was just completed: 205 (yes) to 228 (no), 1 Republican not voting. The bill was defeated and with Democrats in the majority, Democrats as well as Republicans voted for the defeat of the bill. Congressional roll call votes can be found here. Here's about how the vote went - Yes = 205 (140 Dems/65 Republicans); No = 228 (approx 94 Dems/134 Republicans) So the NO votes were split about 50-50 between the Dems and the Republicans. (I know I'm off a few numbers with the "No" vote but the www.house.gov site is being swamped so I'll have to wait to find out how the Congressmen voted.) Very intersting vote... I wonder that so many Congressmen of both parties bucked their respective leadership. For one thing, the bill/amendment actually was cobbled together and the urgency to "cram the bill through" so rapidly was itself interesting. As I mentioned, this "crisis" has been building for a long time. Well, with 95% of all Americans of all ethnicities paying our mortgages each and every month like clock-work, one may have to wonder why the rush all of a sudden? Whatever the reasons, 228 Democrats and Republicans said, "Let's take a step back and look at this thing." Hmmm... No one can say this was not a bi-partisan vote for both the Yes and No votes. For me this is good news because those Democrats bucked their leadership for some reason - their constituents maybe. There will probably be another vote and more folks may go along with the wishes of the House Leadership but one thing's for certain - those 228 Congressmen can say they are against the growing march toward Socialism - or at least such overt Socialism. Very interesting... But the vote has not been closed; it is still open, here as DOW tumbles to 10,639.67. I guess some big money men are angry that the bill, as yet, has not passed. Now the "horse trading" has begun in the closets of the House... I recommend this site and also Drudge. If or when such a bill is passed, it will be better than what was put before the Congress today. The Republicans did not cause this bill to fail. Ms. Pelosi's rant before the vote - spilling her guts and spewing forth partisan hatred - just got the better of her. She may not be the Speaker in the next Congress... Yes, of course, it's all the Republicans' fault going back to 2004 when the Republicans in Congress began warning of impending crisis...