Friday, October 03, 2008

UPDATED: House passes bailout bill, Kaptur and Latta say no

The U.S. House of Representatives passed the bailout bill: 263 yea to 171 nay.

According to their office staff just a moment ago, area Representatives Marcy Kaptur (D) and Bob Latta (R) both maintained their previous 'no' votes.

Kudos to our Northwest Ohio reps!

Sidenote: market tumbles on vote - so can someone please explain to me how this 'bailout' is supposed to save the economy if the result of the vote is a huge drop in the Dow???? Dow started at 10,483.96, went up to 10,796.26 until the voting began and then began falling off to finish the day at 10,310.25, a 52-week low. Thanks a lot, Congress!

LATTA STATEMENT ON H.R. 1424

Washington, DC -- Congressman Bob Latta (R-Bowling Green) made the following statement after the House of Representatives considered H.R. 1412, The Financial Economic Stabilization Act of 2008:

“Minority Leader John Boehner and House Republican leadership were successful at turning a bad bill into a better one when the bill was first voted on Monday in the House of Representatives. The Senate added many tax reduction provisions during the negotiation of this bill that I support, including the important alternative minimum tax patch that I voted for earlier this year, which will protect 21 million taxpayers from a tax increase.

Unfortunately, the core language of this bill did not change from the bill that we voted on earlier this week. This is still a $700 billion package with few details on how taxpayer money will be spent and how the Treasury Department arrived at the $700 billion figure. In addition to the price tag of this legislation, there is still questionable language within the bill that fails to define financial instruments. Without a clear definition, the Treasury Secretary has the authority to purchase almost any debt that he determines the purchase of which is necessary to promote stability. Because these issues were not resolved during the latest negotiations, I could not support this legislation. It is my firm belief that Congress must do all it can to protect the taxpayers’ money and the bill fails to do so.”

2 comments:

Dan @ Necessary Roughness said...

Kudos indeed to the Northwest. Tiberi didn't like $700 billion version but liked the $810 billion version.

Timothy W Higgins said...

I was just outside, convinced that these two agreeing again was the signal for Armageddon. Dogs and cats were not living together however, so I am forced to conclude that we will have to live with this giant step on the road to socialism.

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