Now that the $700 billion bailout bill failed to become law. Politicians did not wait to start finger pointing and assigning blame. The Democrats who by the way are the majority in the House are blaming the Republicans for the bill's failure, however, let's see what the facts are.
The House of Representatives defeated the plan by a 228-205 vote.
A majority of Democrats -- 140 -- supported the bill.
95 voted against it.
Most Republicans -- 165 -- opposed the plan.
65 supported it.
Twelve members of the Hispanic Caucus voted against the plan and 8 voted for it.
21 members of the Congressional Black Caucus voted against the bailout package and 18 supported it.
As we can see members from both parties voted against the plan. The American people rejected this corporate bailout and yesterday the people's House did likewise. The Democrats hold the majority in the House, if they felt so strongly about this plan they certaintly did not need the Republicans to pass this bill. The truth is that they didn't want this plan to pass because they knew that it is wrong, it is wrong to bail Wall Street out without holding them accountable for the mess they got us in. Kudos go to those House members who had the backbone to stand against pressure and placed the interest of their constituents first. Now lets hope they don't succumb to pressure as they go back Thursday and try to hash out a new plan.
Tuesday, September 30, 2008
Monday, September 29, 2008
What Next???
I was totally shocked and surprised when while driving in a rainstorm to pick up my daughter from school i got an alert on my phone that stated "House defeats $700B financial industry bailout". I personally am opposed to the bailout plan but I didn't think the politicians had the backbone to do what their constituents were demanding. I still think that what did it was the fact that it is an election year and they are afraid of the backlash come November. The question now is, what next? As I write this the stock market is taking a beating down 721. There is a definite need for something to be done, I just don't think that a "bailout" is the answer. Bailout has the connotation of not holding those responsible for this mess accountable, and that is something that we must do. So where does our president stand on all this? Bush and a host of leading congressional figures had implored the lawmakers to pass the legislation despite howls of protest from their constituents back home. Not enough members were willing to take the political risk just five weeks before an election. More on this Story Here.
These are the People Looking out for Us???
As President Bush was talking to the nation about the consequences of uncontrolled spending and speculating and the resultant need for the $700 billion bailout of Wall Street, Congress passed a $633 billion Continuing Resolution (CR) that not only funds the Department of Defense; Homeland Security and Military Construction (VA), but also includes over 2,300 earmarks. While pork is nothing new, carving it up in the dark is rare. When the huge spending bill hit the House floor last night the Defense funding portion, which was the carrier of more than 2,000 earmarks, was seeing the light of day for the first time. Most of Congress and the public had not seen the provisions, giving them just minutes to review hundreds of pages of spending. Where's the transparency in this? Where's the accountability? And this is the backdrop to the American taxpayer being told Capitol Hill is going to teach Wall Street how to manage its money? And these are the people we are supposed to trust with $700 billion of our money?
Fireproof
Fireproof, the new feature film from the makers of Facing the Giants, debuted Friday in 830 theatres across the country here in Miami is showing at Kendall Regal. The movie is about Captain Caleb Holt, a fireman who is a hero to all but his own wife. The couple, exhausted by constant conflict, prepares for divorce until Caleb decides to follow his father's wisdom. Caleb's father gives his son "The Love Dare," a book of 40 daily challenges that he hopes will point the couple toward reconciliation and faith in Jesus Christ. The movie provides a message of encouragement for those seeking to strengthen their marriage or prepare for marriage. With a hostile cultural climate that undermines marriage, this movie is a breath of fresh air. Spread the word to your friends and family!
Sunday, September 28, 2008
The Winds of War are Blowing...
Saturday, September 27, 2008
Is This Guy for Real?
Venezuela's leftist President Hugo Chavez said on Saturday it was the capitalist system that had caused the financial crisis in the United States and the country should come up with a new constitution. Story Here.
Friday, September 26, 2008
Another One Bites the Dust.
If is Friday it means that another financial institution will go down. And today is not different. In what is by far the largest bank failure in U.S. history, federal regulators seized Washington Mutual Inc. and struck a deal to sell the bulk of its operations to J.P. Morgan Chase & Co. Full story here.
Thursday, September 25, 2008
I wonder Why???
People hoping for a lively discussion on faith and values from Sen. Barack Obama's (D-Ill.) campaign were surprised yesterday when Team Obama failed to show for a media-heavy debate. The capacity crowd that gathered at the Capitol Hill Club had expected Obama's Senior Advisor for Religious Affairs, Rev. Evna Terri La Velle, to square off with Bob Heckman, a representative from Sen. John McCain's campaign. Just hours before the lunchtime event began, members of the sponsoring organizations, the National Clergy Council and Evangelical Church Alliance, received word that Obama's delegation of 11 had backed out. Rev. Rob Schenck, who was scheduled to moderate the debate, released a statement questioning the Obama campaign's genuine commitment to issues of concern to social conservatives. "Democratic Party Chairman Howard Dean assured me...that his party would do everything possible to constructively engage Evangelicals, traditional Catholics, and other moral conservatives... Barack Obama has made similar promises. They did a couple of high-profile media events, but it appears they were not serious at a grassroots level." While the Illinois senator and his campaign never shy away from talking about faith, they have missed opportunities to let that faith be examined up close to determine how it would impact their public policy positions.
Source: FRC.
Wednesday, September 24, 2008
Pressure Works.
Democrats have decided to allow a quarter-century ban on drilling for oil off the Atlantic and Pacific coasts to expire next week, conceding defeat in a months-long battle with the White House and Republicans set off by $4 a gallon gasoline prices this summer.
House Appropriations Committee Chairman David Obey, D-Wis., told reporters Tuesday that a provision continuing the moratorium will be dropped this year from a stopgap spending bill to keep the government running after Congress recesses for the election.
Republicans have made lifting the ban a key campaign issue after gasoline prices spiked this summer and public opinion turned in favor of more drilling. President Bush lifted an executive ban on offshore drilling in July.
"If true, this capitulation by Democrats following months of Republican pressure is a big victory for Americans struggling with record gasoline prices," said House GOP leader John Boehner of Ohio.
Democrats had clung to the hope of only a partial repeal of the drilling moratorium, but the White House had promised a veto, Obey said.
The House is expected to act on the spending bill Wednesday. The Senate is likely to go along with the House.
"The White House has made it clear they will not accept anything with a drilling moratorium, and Democrats know we cannot afford to shut down the government over this," said Jim Manley, a spokesman for Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid. "We look forward to working with the next president to hammer out a final resolution of this issue."
While the House would lift the long-standing drilling moratoriums for both the Atlantic and Pacific coasts, a drilling ban in waters within 125 miles of Florida's western coast would remain in force under a law passed by Congress in 2006 that opened some new areas of the east-central Gulf to drilling.
Just last week, the House passed legislation to open waters off the Atlantic and Pacific coasts to oil and gas drilling but only 50 or more miles out to sea and only if a state agrees to energy development off its shore. It quickly became clear that measure would not get the 60 votes needed in the Senate.
Republicans called that effort a sham that would have left almost 90 percent of offshore reserves effectively off-limits.
The Interior Department estimates there are 18 billion barrels of recoverable oil beneath the Outer Continental Shelf, about half of it off California.
While the ban on energy development will be lifted if the Senate goes along with the House action, it doesn't mean any federal sale of oil and gas leases in the offshore waters _ much less actual drilling _ would be imminent.
The Interior Department's current five-year leasing plan includes potential leases off the Virginia coast but probably would not be pursued unless the state agrees to energy development. And the state is unlikely to do so without Congress agreeing to share federal royalties with the state.
The congressional battle over offshore drilling is far from over. Democrats are expected to press for broader energy legislation, probably next year, that would put limits on any drilling off most of the Atlantic and Pacific coasts. Republicans, meanwhile, are likely to fight any resumption of the drilling bans that have been in place since 1981.
John McCain, the Republican presidential nominee, has promised to make offshore oil drilling a priority if elected president. He has called for developing the oil and gas resources along all of Outer Continental Shelf and for the federal government to share royalties with states who go along with drilling.
Democratic presidential rival Barack Obama has said he would support limited drilling in certain areas _ possibly the South Atlantic region _ if it is part of a broader energy plan to shift the U.S. away from oil to alternative fuels and more energy efficiency.
The debate over offshore drilling is not expected to subside in the first months of the next presidency _ no matter who sits in the White House.
Lifting the drilling ban gives considerable momentum to the underlying bill, which includes the Pentagon budget, $24 billion in aid for flood and hurricane victims and $25 billion in loans for Detroit automakers in addition to keeping the government open past the Oct. 1 start of the 2009 budget year.
But Democrats decided not to use the must-pass measure as a battering ram to carry an extension of unemployment benefits for the long-term jobless past White House veto promises, prompting grumbling among some lawmakers. Efforts to boost food stamps and give states billions of dollars to help with Medicaid bills also fell through.
But the measure would double, to $5.2 billion, funding for heating subsidies for the poor, Obey said.
The measure also would provide more than $600 billion to fund the 2009 budgets for the Pentagon, Homeland Security Department and the Veterans Affairs Department. Nine other spending bills for the 2009 budget year starting Oct. 1 remain unfinished.
Bush had threatened to veto bills that don't cut the number and cost of pet projects known as "earmarks" sought by lawmakers in half from current levels or cause agency operating budgets, taken together, to exceed his request. Obey said, however, the White House would reluctantly sign the measure.
Source: One news.
House Appropriations Committee Chairman David Obey, D-Wis., told reporters Tuesday that a provision continuing the moratorium will be dropped this year from a stopgap spending bill to keep the government running after Congress recesses for the election.
Republicans have made lifting the ban a key campaign issue after gasoline prices spiked this summer and public opinion turned in favor of more drilling. President Bush lifted an executive ban on offshore drilling in July.
"If true, this capitulation by Democrats following months of Republican pressure is a big victory for Americans struggling with record gasoline prices," said House GOP leader John Boehner of Ohio.
Democrats had clung to the hope of only a partial repeal of the drilling moratorium, but the White House had promised a veto, Obey said.
The House is expected to act on the spending bill Wednesday. The Senate is likely to go along with the House.
"The White House has made it clear they will not accept anything with a drilling moratorium, and Democrats know we cannot afford to shut down the government over this," said Jim Manley, a spokesman for Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid. "We look forward to working with the next president to hammer out a final resolution of this issue."
While the House would lift the long-standing drilling moratoriums for both the Atlantic and Pacific coasts, a drilling ban in waters within 125 miles of Florida's western coast would remain in force under a law passed by Congress in 2006 that opened some new areas of the east-central Gulf to drilling.
Just last week, the House passed legislation to open waters off the Atlantic and Pacific coasts to oil and gas drilling but only 50 or more miles out to sea and only if a state agrees to energy development off its shore. It quickly became clear that measure would not get the 60 votes needed in the Senate.
Republicans called that effort a sham that would have left almost 90 percent of offshore reserves effectively off-limits.
The Interior Department estimates there are 18 billion barrels of recoverable oil beneath the Outer Continental Shelf, about half of it off California.
While the ban on energy development will be lifted if the Senate goes along with the House action, it doesn't mean any federal sale of oil and gas leases in the offshore waters _ much less actual drilling _ would be imminent.
The Interior Department's current five-year leasing plan includes potential leases off the Virginia coast but probably would not be pursued unless the state agrees to energy development. And the state is unlikely to do so without Congress agreeing to share federal royalties with the state.
The congressional battle over offshore drilling is far from over. Democrats are expected to press for broader energy legislation, probably next year, that would put limits on any drilling off most of the Atlantic and Pacific coasts. Republicans, meanwhile, are likely to fight any resumption of the drilling bans that have been in place since 1981.
John McCain, the Republican presidential nominee, has promised to make offshore oil drilling a priority if elected president. He has called for developing the oil and gas resources along all of Outer Continental Shelf and for the federal government to share royalties with states who go along with drilling.
Democratic presidential rival Barack Obama has said he would support limited drilling in certain areas _ possibly the South Atlantic region _ if it is part of a broader energy plan to shift the U.S. away from oil to alternative fuels and more energy efficiency.
The debate over offshore drilling is not expected to subside in the first months of the next presidency _ no matter who sits in the White House.
Lifting the drilling ban gives considerable momentum to the underlying bill, which includes the Pentagon budget, $24 billion in aid for flood and hurricane victims and $25 billion in loans for Detroit automakers in addition to keeping the government open past the Oct. 1 start of the 2009 budget year.
But Democrats decided not to use the must-pass measure as a battering ram to carry an extension of unemployment benefits for the long-term jobless past White House veto promises, prompting grumbling among some lawmakers. Efforts to boost food stamps and give states billions of dollars to help with Medicaid bills also fell through.
But the measure would double, to $5.2 billion, funding for heating subsidies for the poor, Obey said.
The measure also would provide more than $600 billion to fund the 2009 budgets for the Pentagon, Homeland Security Department and the Veterans Affairs Department. Nine other spending bills for the 2009 budget year starting Oct. 1 remain unfinished.
Bush had threatened to veto bills that don't cut the number and cost of pet projects known as "earmarks" sought by lawmakers in half from current levels or cause agency operating budgets, taken together, to exceed his request. Obey said, however, the White House would reluctantly sign the measure.
Source: One news.
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