The LuLac Edition #586, Sept. 29th, 2008

PHOTO INDEX: THE NEW DOLLAR BILL.

IMPOTENCE

The House on Monday defeated a $700 billion emergency rescue for the nation's financial system, ignoring urgent warnings from President Bush and congressional leaders of both parties that the economy could nosedive into recession without it. The prevailing wisdom concerning this issue is that one word can sum up this failure: IMPOTENCE. The Bush White House was unable to bring along recalcitrant members of their own party and the Dems were not able to pull enough votes to get passage.
Stocks plummeted on Wall Street even before the 228-205 vote to reject the bill was announced on the House floor.
House sources said lawmakers would reconvene Thursday.
Ample no votes came from both the Democratic and Republican sides of the aisle. More than two-thirds of Republicans and 40 percent of Democrats opposed the bill.
The overriding question for congressional leaders was what to do next. Congress has been trying to adjourn so that its members can go out and campaign. And with only five weeks left until Election Day, there was no clear indication of whether the leadership would keep them in Washington. Leaders were huddling after the vote to figure out their next steps.
Locally, in the 11th Congressional district, Paul Kanjorski voted Yes for the bailout but 10th District Democrat Chris Carney voted no.

ELECTION TOP 40

BAILOUT #36

The following statements were issued by the two Presidential candidates on the bailout rejection by the U.S. Congress.

FROM JOHN McCAIN: "Barack Obama failed to lead, phoned it in, attacked John McCain and refused to even say if he supported the final bill. ... This bill failed because Barack Obama and the Democrats put politics ahead of country," he said. The economy has dominated the campaign trail this month, and both candidates have been trying to convince voters that they will do a better job of getting the financial crisis under control.
Earlier Monday, McCain told voters that Obama isn't being honest about his tax votes and said the Democrat is "always cheering for higher taxes. "Two times, on March 14, 2008, and June 4, 2008, in the Democratic budget resolution, he voted to raise taxes on people making just $42,000 per year. He even said at the time that this vote for higher taxes on the middle class was 'getting our nation's priorities back on track,' " McCain said at a rally in Columbus, Ohio. "Then something amazing happened: On Friday night, he looked the American people in the eye and said it never happened. My friends, we need a president who will always tell the American people the truth," McCain said.
McCain said a vote for Obama would "guarantee higher taxes, fewer jobs and an even bigger federal government" and charged that "these policies will deepen our recession."
Shortly after McCain finished his speech, the Obama campaign accused the Arizona senator of lying.

FROM BARACK OBAMA: "This is a moment of national crisis, and today's inaction in Congress as well as the angry and hyper-partisan statement released by the McCain campaign are exactly why the American people are disgusted with Washington. Now is the time for Democrats and Republicans to join together and act in a way that prevents an economic catastrophe. Every American should be outraged that an era of greed and irresponsibility on Wall Street and Washington has led us to this point, but now that we are here, the stability of our entire economy depends on us taking immediate action to ease this crisis," said Obama-Biden campaign spokesman Bill Burton.