It appears that the bailout circus and sideshow is moving to the the other house.
The Senate has scheduled two votes on the bailout for 7:30 pm. The first vote will be on a slightly revised version of the bailout bill that was defeated by the House on Monday. The second vote will be on an amendment from Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT) to levy a 10 percent surtax on the income of individuals above $500,000 a year. Both votes will require a 60 votes to pass.
Gotta love Senator Sanders, he never quits trying. Included in the Senate bill is an increase of FDIC’s insurance limit from $100,000 to $250,000. It’s touted as a way to assure citizens that their deposits will be safe. It’s a good start.
Harry Reid is working the process. The bailout version the Senate will vote on is a substitute amendment to a mental health parity bill. This bill would mandate mental health coverage provided by an insurer cannot be more restrictive, in any way, than the treatment they provides for medical and surgical benefits.
Also included in the bailout amendment will be a package of tax extenders that Congress has been working to pass. The tax extensions include a renewable energy and conservation tax credit bill, tax relief for disaster victims, a one-year patch of the alternative minimum tax, and more. Again, if the bailout passes, the tax extenders pass as well.
Including the alternative minimum tax patch is supposed to give the bill more Main St. appeal. If Congress doesn’t pass an ATM patch, it could increase taxes on about 20 million middle-to-upper class Americans next year. “Adding this tax relief will ensure that regular working Americans get the financial help they need in this time of crisis,” Max Baucus (D-MT), the chairman of the Senate Committee on Finance, said in a statement on Tuesday. And since the ATM patch is basically a big tax cut, Republicans like it as well.
How is this received in the House?
Speaker Nancy Pelosi endorsed the Senate move, but made no promises about the next House vote.
“The Senate has made a decision about how to proceed and what can pass that body,” Pelosi said. “The Senate will vote tomorrow night and the Congress will work its will. House Democrats remain strongly committed to a comprehensive bill that stabilizes the financial markets, restores confidence, and protects taxpayers, and we hope Congress can agree on legislation in the very near future.”
I hear that there’s a progressive alternative out there, but I haven’t seen the details yet. I trust I’ll see that later today.
Will the Senate’s version move Americans to support this latest attempt at bailout. Maybe, but despite this move by Senators we are still going to have to deal with the Blue Dogs and the Conservatives in the House. Will they buy in? Will anybody convince the public this is necessary?
TalkLeft has an AP article on other ideas for inclusion in the bailout (Hey, why not call it a rescue? That way we have get our hero on and everyone will buy in).
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Mike Harmon wrote,
Nice site. Theres some good information on here. Ill be checking back regularly.
Link | October 1st, 2008 at 6:38 am
Bryant Arms wrote,
I wouldn’t be surprised if the recent overhaul of bankruptcy legislation was designed for this economic situation; it turns human debtors into indentured servants. And that is necessary for the following reason:
The ’sssssss’ we are noticing with this credit crunch is just the leak before the big burst. This credit bubble has been inflated by a logorithmic base 10 scale of dollar creation.
The practice of using 90% of ‘real’ wealth for lending that can then be invested and re-deposited for recycling again and again for more and more credit probably has the same effect of simply printing more money. The difference between those two ways of creating wealth is that creating money by credit inflation redistributes wealth for the benefit of financiers. And printed money is real; not fake.
This credit bubble burst should, then, be creating a shortage of money. And the cure may be as simple as the government printing more money. The only problem with that scheme is that there would not be another bubble to burst to correct for over-inflation. Printed dollars don’t evaporate away like the ones the financiers are trying to sell taxpayers now.
And that is why those who have engineered this bubble need those new draconian bankruptcy laws. Only wage earners can turn this fake money into real wealth. And that is why the Bush administration and other supporters of the great bailout plan are adamantly against giving bankruptcy judges the right to restructure debt according to who is most responsible for making bad loans.
Bryant Arms
Link | October 1st, 2008 at 7:43 pm