Exciting news folks. It looks as look the progressive caucus in the house burned the midnight oil and came up with a far superior plan than the one being pushed by Bush, Paulson and tinkered with by Frank and Hoyer.
The full text of the legislation will be released at the press conference at 3pm today. It sounds like it will address the key issues driving the acute problem of the short term credit crunch. It also goes a long way to setting up a populist progressive framework for a new era of government and democratic capitalism management.
I am very eager to see the full contents of this plan. I hope we can get Krugman and Roubini to side with the goals of this legislation.
From Matt Stoller diary on www.openleft.com
U.S. Rep. Peter DeFazio (OR-04), an outspoken critic of the Bush/Paulson bailout, along with Rep. Kaptur (OH-09), Rep. Scott (VA-03), Rep. Cummings (MD-07), Rep. Doggett (TX-25), Rep. Holt (NJ-12), Rep. Edwards (MD-04) and Rep. Hirono (HI-02), will introduce legislation today to address the failures in the financial markets. DeFazio believes that the Paulson/Bush proposal is based on a flawed premise: if the American taxpayers spend $700 billion to buy Wall Street's toxic assets - a plan pundits are calling "trash for cash" - it will create liquidity in our financial markets and will somehow trickle-down to Main Street.
DeFazio's plan is not in any way based on the Paulson/Bush plan. Instead of throwing taxpayer dollars at the program and crossing our fingers that the plan work, the measure will direct the Administration to take five simple steps, suggested by noted economist and former head of the FDIC, William Isaac, to re-regulate the markets and move America towards a healthy financial future.
The legislation will be available at the press conference.
Who: Rep. DeFazio, Rep. Kaptur (OH-09), Rep. Scott (VA-03), Rep. Cummings (MD-07), Rep. Doggett (TX-25), Rep. Holt (NJ-12), Rep. Edwards (MD-04) and Rep. Hirono (HI-02)
What: Press Conference to introduce legislation to fix financial markets
Where: House Radio and TV Gallery
When: 3 pm TODAY
Regardless of what one may think of the details, it is exciting that forward thinking progressives such as these took the time to approach the crisis with new, innovative thinking. Instead of working from the 2 1/2 page piece of crap that was dropped on the Congress a week and a half ago.
As Matt states in his openleft post, this is true leadership. I was alarmed by a yahoo news story that indicated the leadership was looking to tinker with the bill to get the needed 12 Republican votes. And I'm thinking WHAT THE FUCK. The Republicans just jacked us fucking yesterday, because all they really want to do is run against this damn bill. The GOP thinks it will fail, they want it to fail, they are just teeing up for the election and then for 2010.
Thankfully, we have progressive leaders that are addressing the concerns of the public and lobbying the public for support. Because we need the public's support to help the legislation succeed. Tepid support from the public will likely lead to the legislation's failure because other than not seeing thier 401k drop, they could care less about bailing out Wall Street. Hopefully the leadership will not give this effort a short shrift. It would be beyond dense to tinker with the bill to win conservative votes. Uh, Nancy, they blamed YOU for voting against the bill because you fixed the blame on hard right ideology. Don't kiss conservative ass to win GOP votes. The GOP burned you but they also handed you a gift, an opportunity, SIEZE IT.
Update:
Here's a hint and half that tacking to the right to get the votes to pass yesterday's piece of shit would NOT be in the Democrats or America's best interest.
The Republican National Committee's new advertisement critical of the the Wall Street "bailout" was produced and sent to television stations in key states before the package failed, officials at two stations said.
"Wall Street Squanders our money. And Washington is forced to bail them out with -- you guessed it -- our money. Can it get any worse?" asks the ad's narrator, as the words "BAILOUT WITH OUR MONEY" cross the screen. (The answer: Obama's plans would make it worse.)
The ad, however, seems to assume that it can safely attack a successful plan. And the reason may be the timing: Though it started airing this morning, the spot was released to stations yesterday morning, ad executives at stations in Michigan and Pennsylvania said.
Kae Buck of WLNS in Lansing said her station received the at at 7:55 a.m. Monday. Luanne Russell of Pittsburgh's WTAE said her station received it at 10:49 Monday morning.
The GOP planned to run against this bill, somebody fucked up and released this ad assuming it would pass yesterday.
HELLO, LEADERSHIP, NANCY, I LOVE YOU, AS AN ITALIAN, I'M VERY PROUD OF HAVING AN ITALIAN-AMERICAN WOMAN AS SPEAKER OF THE HOUSE. BUT PLEASE LISTEN, THE GOP IS TRYING TO SCREW AMERICA AND THE DEMOCRATIC PARTY. PUT TOGETHER LEGISLATION THAT HAS PUBLIC AND DEMOCRATIC SUPPORT. HAND THAT TO THE PRESIDENT. DON'T LET "THE MARKETS" INTIMIDATE YOU OR THE LEADERSHIP!
UPDATE II: Action Alert
If you support these goals, please go to Progressive Future's website and send an email to Nancy Pelosi telling her that you expect a fair, progressive solution to this crisis.