Bailout legislation price tag goes up
Senate hopes costly items give House incentive to vote yes
12:38 p.m. Thursday, October 2, 2008
Top congressional negotiators are congratulating themselves today after getting the Bush administration's bailout bill passed through the Senate in the midst of a heated presidential election.
"We have been able to put that aside come together and do something important together. I think it is one of the finest moments in the history of the Senate," Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell said.
But the Senate vote was only part of the battle. The House rejected an earlier version of the bill Monday, so lawmakers made some changes in hopes of ginning up more support from the GOP rank and file. The changes include increasing FDIC insurance limits to protect money in depositors' bank accounts and offering tax breaks to encourage research, development and renewable energy. But those sweeteners added $130 billion to the $700 billion price tag, and some critics still cannot justify this huge government intervention.
"This is adding over $1 trillion to our deficit. The value of the dollar is going down. We need to use the market, not the government, in order to solve this problem," Ohio Rep. Marcy Kaptur said.
Add to that a growing outcry from fiscally conservative House Democrats who don't like the tax cut provisions because there's no plan to pay for them.
"I personally am not very happy about that. I think there are aspects of the package which make the debt worst. Debt is the problem. That's why we're here," House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer said.
Hoyer says he'll vote for the bill regardless because it's the best way to quell the crisis.
The House is expected to vote on the revised bill Friday.
Economic Emergency 2008
- Senate adds some incentives to bailout legislation (October 1, 2008)
- Monday's economic news and how it affects you (September 30, 2008)
- Despite today's market gains, investors still nervous (September 30, 2008)
- Bush, Congress try to figure out what's next with the bailout plan (September 30, 2008)
- The Great Recession? (September 29, 2008)
- Politicians fail to put the bounce back in the economy (September 29, 2008)
- Against expectation, House votes down bailout plan (September 29, 2008)
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