Bush Administration, Congress Getting Nearer to Big Wall Street Bailout Plan

September 25, 2008 RSS Feed Print

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By Larry McShane
Daily News Staff Writer

Optimism over the proposed federal bailout package helped the Dow Jones industrial average jump more than 200 points Thursday morning.

The early trading surge came hours before President Bush is to meet with both presidential candidates and Congressional leaders.

Investors hope approval of the $700 billion bailout, one of the costliest since the Great Depression, will help stabilize the economy.

Earlier this week, Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson and Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke urged federal lawmakers on to quickly approve the plan.

Bush, in a speech to the nation last night, stressed the urgency of the proposal. And GOP presidential nominee John McCain said today that a deal needs to be in place before Monday's opening Wall Street bell.

"It is difficult to act both quickly and wisely, but that is what's required of us now," McCain said at the Clinton Global Initiative. "Time is short, and doing nothing is not an option."

White House officials have agreed to a key demand by congressional leaders regarding the bailout. They wanted limits on pay packages for executives whose companies benefit from the rescue plan.

More political coverage from the New York Daily News

Tags:: Wall Street,; New York Daily News,; Bush administration,; economy,; government intervention,; Congress

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Your frustration is certainly warranted. Unfortunately its too late to change the course of action that has gotten us to this point. Now, like it or not, our government must act. I totally agree that executive pay is ridiculous, and that corporate greed has fueled this problem. As far as the American consumers, in my opinion their responsibility for this crisis lies mainly in their decision to vote into power lawmakers (overwhelming Republican) who have championed continued deregulation of the banking industry. After the Great Depression the conventional wisdom for the next 60 years was that banks needed to be tightly regulated to ensure solvency of our financial systems. Unfortunately this wisdom was usurped by the Republican led cry for deregulation. It is naive to assume that the same people whose salaries are paid by short term profits and careers often hinge on quarterly results can also be tasked to consider what is in the long term best interest of the consumer, much less the economy as a whole. But lets not forget that none of this could have ever happened if the lawmakers in Washington had not relaxed the banking laws and regulations that restricted banks from engaging in the types of securitization of assets that have created this mess. So there it is JF , there are a lot of people to blame, least of all the American consumer. However, that still does not change the fact that IF WE DO NOTHING, THE WHOLE ECONOMY WILL LIKELY FALL APART. With that said, a Bail Out has to happen. What the taxpayers can and should be talking about is how we are going to make sure our lawmakers enact the proper legislation to ensure that this type of catastrophe never happens again.

Brendan B of KY 2:28AM September 27, 2008

BILL CLINTON SAYS DEMOCRATS TO BLAME FOR FANNIE MAE MELTDOWN
President Bill Clinton told ABC News That the blame for the Fannie Mae Meltdown Lies squarely at the feet of DEMOCRATS who blocked efforts to regulate and investigate Fannie Mae. You have to admire his candor -
See The Jim Angle Report Which Links To The Clinton Interview-
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AHj8-HSi5AA&eurl=
Watch The Clinton Interview On ABC News ---
http://blogs.abcnews.com/politicalradar/2008/09/bill-clinton-do.html --
Hear Barney Frank On Video Stating That There Is No Crisis At Fannie Mae -
http://mypetjawa.mu.nu/archives/194210.php -
I think there are 2 former CEOs of Fannie Mae, a former assistant CEO, at least Two United States Senators and at least one member of the US House of Representatives who should GO TO JAIL for this! They were involved in BRIBING members of Congress to block investigations of Fannie Mae Abuses.

GeraldD of AL 11:19AM September 26, 2008

For those of you who are so quick to insist that we need a "bailout" on Wall Street's terms, citing some sort of financial ignorance on the part of those who disagree, I have no choice but to assume you are unaware that we are in this situation due solely to the shyster conning of those who are now asking for more money. This situation is not due to a turn of good old fashioned "bad luck" or any sort of incalculable financial variables, no--it exists only because of the greed and exceptionally short-sighted policy making practiced by our nation's lenders and investors. We already went through this *exact* same nonsense 20 years ago with the S&L scandal (when the previous Bush was in power) except that it was business loans and not personal ones. So those on Wall Street and in the White House are wholly without excuse, and it is *their* responsibility to rectify it. Everyone had an "I'll make my money and then get out, who cares what happens after I've made my dollar" mentality, and now that it's backfiring because the pond has run dry, they want to threaten what sort of bad things will happen to us if we don't allow them to take even more...? You must be joking.
The outstanding commenter who mentioned "everyone is to blame, so everyone should pay the price" is about the most ignorant person alive. Here's a thought for you: I am *not* to blame--I have worked 50 hours a week incessantly, borrowed nothing from anyone, and still have to suffer every day because those in the top 1% of our nation's financial tier want to stay there. So, sorry, those who have brokered this insanity should "pay the price." I seem to remember a model (capitalism) whereby making poor decisions results in your personal demise, and not collateral damage for everyone in a 2000 mile radius. So let's start with our Fortune 500 executives' salaries: that should be more than enough to weather this crisis.

JF of CA 6:57PM September 25, 2008

Bush Administration, Congress Getting Nearer to Big Wall Street Bailout Plan

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