As the entire country agonizes over whether what’s left of its 401(k) would cover the cost of a grande latte, it’s not a surprise that some important news would have been shuffled to the airplane pages of the newspapers. Here are two big stories that under normal circumstances should have been on the front page: [...]
CNN is estimating it at $1.2 trillion. Which is $500 million billion more than the outlay for the bailout. Yes, I know they are not directly comparable. But still.
Americans for Tax Reform, the conservative group run by Grover Norquist, is suggesting that House leaders sweeten the package with (mostly unrelated) goodies. I doubt this will get very far, but someone has to find a way to get those 12 votes. Here is the release: Americans for Tax Reform President Grover Norquist today offered [...]
Nate Silver took a look, and while this isn’t surprising, it tells you a lot: Among 38 incumbent congressmen in races rated as “toss-up” or “lean” by Swing State Project, just 8 voted for the bailout as opposed to 30 against: a batting average of .211. By comparison, the vote among congressmen who don’t have [...]
I don’t blame John McCain for not rounding up enough Republican votes to get this bailout bill through the House of Representatives–he’s not a member of the House, he’s never held a leadership position and therefore doesn’t know how to whip votes and finally–well, uh–there is one tried and true method for getting members of [...]
So House members scuttled the bailout bill out of pique over the tone of the speaker’s speech? Does that remind you of something?
Madame Speaker’s incredibly offensive floor speech. NSFW!!!
I’ve been keeping a list of silver linings to come out of this credit crisis mess. So far, it’s a short list: • Increased use of the dirty-sounding word “tranche” • Barney Frank The first point obviously speaks for itself. And while he’s still on a roll today (as MS shows), I’ll let point number [...]
There was a lack of trust, a loss of confidence, a popular revolt. Nearly every major political leader in America supported the bailout bill. The President of the United States. The Vice President. The Treasury Secretary. The Chairman of the Federal Reserve. The Chairman of the Securities and Exchange Commission. The Democratic and Republican nominees [...]
When asked about Republican contention that Pelosi’s statement scuttled the bill, the Democratic head of the Banking Committe went after the heart of their argument: “Think of this: Somebody hurt my feelings so I am going to punish the country,” he said. He offered to make personal visits to the 12 “deeply offended republicans who [...]
