Republicans sink bailout bill, Dow down 500

Republicans once again show they are a good opposition party that can not lead anything without rhetoric and rubber stamps. Yes Nancy Pelosi made a bone- headed arrogant speech and the Republicans acted like teenagers to spite her and protest. The constituents? No matter, their little teenage agos was all that mattered and even though the President of the United States ...I believe would not have voted for this bill for the same reason he let the regulators abdicate their responsibilities, we all recognise that as disconnected as he has seemed over the years ...sometimes even sounded outright dumb, HE GOT IT. The rest of the party did not and instead leaned on an ideological silliness to explain away everything BUT OFFERING NOTHING. Oposition not leadership. Discussion not vengeance Repubs, that is the grown up thing to do
Oooy!

Prior to the bailout vote, the majority of Americans did not surpport it. Hooray to both Republicans and Democrats that voted no. They were representing the people they serve. Remember the 207 congressmen who voted yes this November, for they have other interests as their priorty.

House Democrats delivered by securing a majority vote. Democrats voted 140 to 95 in favor of the bill – a bill proposed by the President of the Opposition Party. A quick note to Republicans: 40 percent is a minority. Republicans, on the other hand, voted 133 to 65 against a bipartisan bill supported by their own party’s President and with strong bi-partisan support. The point here is that – going in – there were enough “secured” votes to pass the measure, until the GOP flip flop at the eleventh hour. Are you seriously telling me that the House members in question altered their vote because Nacny Pelosi hurt their feelings? How statesman-like of them. The real reason extremist Republicans opposed this bill is because, in their view, it overly favored regulation. This is the end result of Supply Side (that’s “trickle down” to the GOP) economic theory. So spare me the crocodile tears over how “mean old Nancy” hurt the GOP’s feelings and made them cry, spare me the self righteous cries of “economic socialism” and spare me any continuation of failed Republican financial and political philosophies.

Blog comments on the bailout bill, sadly, continue to be party biased. I don't care if McCain is posing or Obama praising, but I do care about this country. At some time Congress and all of us have to get by the party bias which is so evident - particularly from Republicans. I note that basic understanding of Congress is bereft is so many. Sure, Dems "control" Congress by have a slight majority in House and Senate. But it takes 60 votes in the Senate to pass a bill and the Republicans have consistently had enough votes to thwart Democrat favored legislation. It's gridlock, folks. The reason I am for Obama is simply becuase I believe that each party should be accountable for their actions - and if the Democrats control all three branches, then we have a clear way to judge effectiveness. With a Republican president, a Republican controlled cabinet, a Republican controlled Justice Dept and a Democratic slight majority in Congress the s tage is set for endless bickering and lack of accountability. I have no briefs for either party, but I am voting for a Democratic controlled government solely to ensure I can judge their proposals and actions and, ultimatly, results. Weihe

I don't think the world will end if this bill isn't passed within days. We have already passed a couple of deadlines and whoops we are still here.
I'm glad there are Republicans (and a few Dems0 that can think of their constituants. This massive bailout is not the only way to go and we need to fight for this one.

Well you can be sure of one thing .....there were some Republican congressmen and senators that made millions today. They are playing with the market with their votes, and they were the only ons that knew how it was going to go today, and don't you know they were positioned just right.

Now let me get this straight and all you
idiots listen up. The vote on the bill went like this;
For the bill-- Democrats 141
Republicans 66
Total 207

Against the bill--Republicans 133
Democrats 95
Total 208
Now some of you that can't count say the Republicans killed the Bill, well if the
Democrats were so hell bent on passing the bill why didn't the 95 that voted against it change their vote and the Bill
would have passed 302 to 133. C'mon now you democrat hypocrites who's trying
to kid who? The reason 95 democrats did
not vote for this bill was because an election is coming up and they didn't want voters blaming them for passing a
very bad Bill. This is another of the democrats trickery but this time it's not
going to work. Democrats control both houses and didn't need the republican vote to pass the Bill, they scuttled this Bill on purpose so they could try to blame
McCain and the republicans. I'm an independent and I can see through their scam and so can others who have common sense. Why did Pelosi fail in
controlling the majority party? Bad leadership that's what.

Every worker with a 401(k), IRA, or other retirement plan has a stake in this mess. That is why it must be good legislation. Wall Street is no longer just "them," it is also "us."

Folks nows your chance to clean out Congress of the dead wood. This election
you should vote for the 95 Democrats and
the 133 Republicans that voted against the bailout bill. Then whatever district you are in everybody vote against the 141
Democrats and the 66 Republicans that voted for the Bill, clean house in one big
swoop. At least you'll be rid of 207 people
that try to pass a bad Bill against the will
of the people.

I have to correct a typo folks the vote
against the bailout Bill was 228 not 208
as in my previous post, Sorry about that.

Where are our leaders?

When Israel was attached during the Yom Kippur War, did Israel soldiers refuse to fight because it was a holiday?? Why is it that politicians take time off is such a serious problem for a religous holiday. What has happened to the seperation of Church and State?? I am a Catholic but if I were part of a business that had a serious event happen on Christmas Eve, I would certainly work through that time to come up with a resolution.

Also, whether Republican or Democrat, we all should be ashamed of our elected officials in the House of Representatives. It seemed all people were concerned with is finding reason why things were the fault of others.

Is there a better reason to re-energize the movement for term limits??

Don’t get it!! A lot of you will be out of a job, no credit or loans (school, house, cars, business. Etc…) companies will close all over (you will be laid-off), your house equity will disappear and your retirement plan is history. What's the up-side, more taxes! You don’t have to worry, you will be unemployed you will not have a tax liability, that means the government will have less for schools, police, more foreclosures…..Dam, no one likes it, but it is what it is.

Politicians, what's wrong with you for once do what is right. Quit pointing the finger at each other, you were all in the room when these sub-prime loans were going on and did nothing to stop it.

I have to agree with Nancy, posted at 4:15 today. She basicly said everything that many of us out here think. Bad bill! If you can't afford your 200,000+ house on your 15,000 / year income, you shouldn't have bought it in the first place. I don't agree with how it was packaged to sell it to you, at highly inflated valuation undoubtly, but common sense should have told you it was too good to be true or to last. I don't think the rest of the American people should have to pay for you to keep living above your means! Do like many of us do, rent or buy affordable housing that we can pay for! I'm an old person, make less than 13,000 / year on SS, and live in a rented mobile! If I can do this, so can you.

In a fit of unspoken agreement, a truly bi-partisan act took place today.

Yet, few can write about it without injecting partisan rhetoric and politically motivated diatribes. Sad, just sad.

Worse still, those representatives may have been following their hearts (and pandering to their constituents' votes), but they should have followed their heads and passed the measure.

Trickle Down Economics may not work very well, nor very often, in 'trickling' the positives downward, but I have an idea that the negatives will literally SWOOP downward.

As the savings and pension accounts dwindle, the same taxpayers that screamed NO, will be regretful. But it will be too late by that time.

So, by all means vote out the YES's that tried to do the best thing for all of us and be sure to vote the NO's back into office.

The funny thing about those Rep that voted NO... the majority of them aren't up for re-election this year. Wonder if that relates?

This headline should read...

Pelosi Belosi it with her own party....


But, Thank You! to the 95 Dems who made the RIGHT choice!!

The headline reads "Republicans sink bailout bill, Dow down 500." Of course, this is anything but the truth, as pointed out in other comments. This headline puts the author, Peter Cohan, in that growing fraternity of political hacks bent on making news, instead of reporting it. Cohan, turn in you "reporters badge," because you have no further credibility as a reporter of news.

Thanks for linking to the actual vote results, so that I could quickly verify your slant. Republicans were responsible for 58% of the no-vote, Democrats the rest.

I'm sure this bill was a long way from being the best it could be. Hopefully, something new can be put together that does more to let the free market play a bigger role. One of the biggest causes of this mess was the "mark to market" rule. It forced institutions to try to place a market value on assets for which there was no market. Some of these were performing assets that had to be sold at a fraction of the principal balance to shore up the balance sheet and meet margin calls. A simple maneuver like suspending this rule for 6 months to a year or even forever would go a long way towards restoring confidence and stability. The cost to taxpayers would be zero.

Is it possible that no having a bailout is a good thing? Is it possible that we need to readjust how we view and spend money. We have too much debt and now the government wants to take on a ton more?

Why not let the failing businesses fail?

And putting money into the global economy. Maybe we need to take this into consideration when we vote/