HR 1424 or HR 3997: Congress abort that "bailout" bill

If there were ever a case for abortion, HR 1424 (formerly HR 3997) screams out to be aborted. Talk about the "gang rape" of the House AND the American people by the Senate. (I'm not talking about whether we need a "free market" bill or not; I'm talking about outrage at the Senate as well as Paulson and the horse he rode in on.) The House started work on ONE issue and ONE issue only: an Economic Stabilization Bill. Why? To address the GREATEST economic crisis the world, no - the universe - has ever seen. Pelosi wails, "700B dollars!" Tsk, tsk, she beat her breasts and wailed at the outrage of the request brought about by the most HORRIBLE economic policies of the last 8 years. The House of Representatives is the body that must pass ALL spending bills, but never mind that little Constitutional provision. And now the Senate, usurping the authority of the House, "bitch-slaps" the peasants in the House of Representatives and takes another bill, HR 1424 and says, "We'll see that 700B and raise ya over 100B." The collectively "most deliberative body of morons in the universe" cannot even focus on ONE piece of legislation at a time and do that one job well. No, they show us how serious this "crisis of crises" is by dressing it up like Miss Piggy on holiday, lipstick and all. Shame on them. And shame on the Democrats in the House and Senate who scoffed at the calls for Freddie and Fannie to get Congressional oversight. (H/T to Liberally Conservative) I call on ALL Representatives in the House who have any knowledge of their appropriations responsibilities and any sense of the Senate's intervention into the "job" of the House and REJECT HR 1424. Find "free market" solutions - whether you are a Democrat or a Republican. For the sake of the people, come together in statesmanship just this once and draft a "free market" solutions bill to handle the Henny Penny mess dropped in your lap just before you want to go home for your campaigns. Talk about an October bribe... Well, are you men or children being taken to the woodshed by Daddy Bear and his Bully Brothers in the Senate? Can't either House of Congress focus on ONE issue and pass a clean bill addressing that ONE issue? No, given the chance, they have to muddy up the waters on EVERY bill. Well, come November 4th, maybe WE - the PEOPLE - should focus on getting rid of everyone in the House and Senate who votes to pass "this porky pig". Shame on all of the leaders of the Senate. At least we, the people, now know how seriously the Senate takes this "mother of all economic crises". Cross-posted at Eternity Road.

HR 3997, now HR 1424 moves US closer to Socialism

HR 1424, The Economic Stabilization Act of 2008, formerly known to us as HR 3997, has passed the Senate with a vote of 74 to 25. The only Senator not voting was Ted Kennedy. The Senators voting AGAINST this bill did so in a bipartisan was: 15 Republicans and 10 Democrats. http://thomas.loc.gov/cgi-bin/bdquery/z?d110:HR01424: H.R. 1424, Economic Stabilization Act is the vehicle used by the Senate to spend 700B dollars with the addition of several billion dollars for mental health legislation and money for rural schools. Here is the voting record for H.R. 1424: http://www.senate.gov/legislative/LIS/roll_call_lists/roll_call_vote_cfm.cfm?congress=110&session=2&vote=00213 The voting results can be found at: Senate Roll Call Vote on H.R. 1424 An additional name for the passed bill is: H. R. 1424 As Amended; Paul Wellstone Mental Health and Addiction Equity Act of 2007. Here is a link to the classification of Senators of the 110th Congress which includes when they come up for re-election. The Republicans voting against the encroachment of government into the housing market were: Allard, R-CO Barrasso, R-WY Brownback, R-KS Bunning, R-KY Cochran, R-MS Crapo, R-ID DeMint, R-SC Dole, R-NC Enzi, R-WY Inhofe, R-OK Roberts, R-KS Sessions, R-AL Shelby, R-AL Vitter, R-LA Wicker, R-MS The Democrats and lone Independent (Lieberman is classified as an ID-CT) voting against the encroachment of government into the housing market were: Cantwell, D-WA Dorgan, D-ND Feingold, D-WI Johnson, D-SD Landrieu, D-LA Nelson, D-FL Stabenow, D-MI Tester, D-MT Wyden, D-OR and Sanders, I-VT The Senators voting for the advance of Socialism and up for re-election in Nov. 2008 are: (I have not included those - to me knowledge - who are NOT running for re-election because they are leaving the Senate.) Lamar Alexander Max Baucus Joe Biden, Jr. Saxby Chambliss Norm Coleman Susan Collins John Cornyn (this one surprises me) Larry Craig Richard "Turban" Durbin Lindsey "Amnesty" Graham Chuck Hagel Tom Harkin John F. Kerry Frank Lautenberg Carl Levin Mitch McConnell Mark Pryor Jack Reed John D. Rockefeller Gordon Smith John Sununu I conclude only that some of the members of the "most deliberative body on earth" simply have little or no respect for the American people. As Diane Feinstein said, her office had 91K calls from her constitutents, 85K said "NO" to the passage of this bill and yet they keep re-electing her. But fret not, her future is secure with the millions her husband has made, as I understand it, from his commerce with Communist China. So, Di-Fi has no problem "blowing off" 85K of her constituents. She is up for re-election in 2012. Her constituents will have long since forgotten her dismal of them and their 85K calls and e-mails for a NO vote on this legislation. I would just end by pointing out that each constituent who takes the time to call or send an e-mail represents thousands of others who have the same point of view but did not call or e-mail. I don't know the ratio.

HR 3997 and Carter's Community Reinvestment Act of 1977

Here is a good resource for HR 3997 (H/T) to Taylor Norrish at ztay with a good link from Taylor Norrish: Govit.com is another good resource for HR 3997. It's got some good info, and you can vote on the bill, and send your vote to Congress. http://www.govit.com/HR_3997/Emergency_economic_stabilization_act_of_2008_-BD_Allow_the_gov/Comments Sound off! One more... Please take a look at the Housing and Community Reinvestment Act of 1977 at wikipedia: Community Reinvestment Act and Housing and Community Development Act of 1977 - Title VIII (Community Reinvestment. The wikipedia reference is short but it gives the history of the legislation from 1977 with changes made by George H. W. Bush, by Bill Clinton - when community organizers got involved and it appears that some folks made money by signing folks up for home mortgage loans, and by George W. Bush. There are very good articles listed in the references. So, our leaders as well as we - though more indirectly - have certainly been aware of this "train wreck" waiting to happen. PLEASE - at least read the wikipedia reference which is the first "Community Reinvestment Act" that I reference. I have to ask how community organizers - especially some referenced in Chicago - may or may not have been involved in signing up folks for "risky loans." ACORN, for example, got 760 million dollars under the act...