As of 1:45pm EST the bailout vote failed in the House. It needed 218 votes, and only has 202, with 8 votes left to count. The Dow plummeted several hundred points in response.
The total came to 207. However people can still change their vote, and a few did change to Yes 
… just have to wait…
Good news, if only just. Any idea how long until they vote on it again or will they have to reintroduce a new bill? If there’s still time to oppose this insanity I’m ready to write up a storm.
A vote like this could make me reconsider the question of the existence of God.
Well, ok, almost…
I had not written my representatives, but if this does fail, and they have to do it all over again, I’m going to be scribbling up a storm!
Wow! Great news.
Who were the Representatives that opposed the bill?
A vote like this could make me reconsider the question of the existence of God.
Well, ok, almost…
Given that the most accurate, most vocal opponent of the bill was a strict fundamentalist Christian, you’d have a decent case. 
This news made me immensely happy. I immediately called my family and made sure they sent e-mails to all of their Congressional representatives. We desperately need to keep this opposition front fortified long enough to change the terms of the debate.
The NYT says that bill supporters will try to bring the bill to vote again, so we should definitely be as diligent as possible and write our representatives LETTERS and FAXES. I wouldn’t trust an email to make it through a political spam filter.
My rep voted No!
Wow. I’m glad to hear this.
That said, of course…the Dow is down almost 550…
Basically, the American voter said no to the boondoggle 10-1! YES! There is hope for this country after all!
“But many lawmakers continued to oppose the plan for a variety of reasons, including the massive price tag that would expand the national debt, and GOP members said constituents were calling 10-1 in opposition to the bill, which had been described as too much government intervention. Of 235 Democrats, 141 supported the legislation. Of 199 Republicans, 132 opposed it.”
If the Democrats did not support it given the outcry against it, then it is a message that we do not want bureaucracy governing our economy, which is a positive sign of the American sense of life.
Just hope it doesn’t pass the Senate, since I guess it could still become law.
TELL THEM NO!
I haven’t been so elated by a piece of news from Washington in the last 5 years. Unbelievable declines in all the markets, even oil!!! It really fuels my soul to know that, for wahtever reasons, the root of the opposition to this bailout package was the American people.
Edit: Without short sellers covering, the stock market has no bids and is taking the biggest dump I’ve ever seen.
At this point I have a question. If President Bush’s 700b plan is not the answer despite his attempt to jam it down our collective throats, what if anything should be done? I’ve heard about lowering the capitol gains tax as an option but am unsure what that implies economically. I think the vast majority of every day Americans are against the bailout for one reason or another. I’d argue that some that are for it, are simply for it only because they see no alternative offered.
Look at Pelosi here. She’s the one who killed the bill because of this stupid speech.
EXCERPTS:
“700 Billion: Only a part of the cost of the failed Bush economic policies…”
“Bush inherited Clinton budget surpluses, with his reckless economic policies, within 2 years, he turned that around”
“Republicans claim to be free market advocates, when it’s really an ‘anything goes’ mentality…If you fail, the taxpayer will bail you out. Those days are over.”
“Democrats believe in a free market. We know it creates many good things in our economy..”
I actually like the one I bolded. Hah.
A quote from representative Thaddeus McCotter from earlier today:
“In the Bolshevik Revolution, the slogan was ‘Peace, land, and bread,’” McCotter said. “Today, you are being to choose between bread and freedom. I suggest the people on Main Street have said they prefer their freedom, and I am with them.”
A quote from representative Thaddeus McCotter from earlier today:
He makes me have pride in the name “Thadius” (even it it’s spelled differently). Brilliant. I wonder what Ms. Rand would have said to that, considering she lived through that revolution.
The whole situation faintly reminds me of a reverse “Equalization of opportunity bill”. Remember in AS, when a bill to help out newer businesses at the expense of older, more productive ones was reluctantly passed with a grim sense of duty? It seems like this was voted down reluctantly with a grim sense of duty.
At this point I have a question. If President Bush’s 700b plan is not the answer despite his attempt to jam it down our collective throats, what if anything should be done? I’ve heard about lowering the capitol gains tax as an option but am unsure what that implies economically. I think the vast majority of every day Americans are against the bailout for one reason or another. I’d argue that some that are for it, are simply for it only because they see no alternative offered.
The free market.
Write down bad debt.
Orderly, rapid bankrupcies of failed institutions.
Liquidate capital assets (homes, etc) at lower prices.
Once assets have shifted to solid balance sheets, and the income they generate can go to bottom line results in new better managed companies, then banks can start lending again.
Note this all delivers justice throughout the system. Well run banks will be winners. Poorly run banks are losers (along with their management teams, and their equity holders).
With this mechanism the pain will be short (1 yr, maybe 2), and the economy will take off again. With the bailout, get ready for the Great Depression.
The free market.
I definitely agree with Kendall here. Of course, in a free market, we wouldn’t be here in the first place, but given what is out there, setting the markets free would solve the problem in a few years, and housing prices would come way down (if you were buying, that would be good; if you were trying to sell, it would be difficult).
Unfortunately, however, we don’t have a free market (and I don’t think a bloated bureaucracy is the answer to that), so how long it will take to produce our way out of this is anyone’s guess – maybe 5 years; but that is better than stagnation and maybe stagflation over the next ten to twenty years.
Without reversing the laws that got us here, though, I don’t know how it is going to be getting better quickly – there are still people buying homes they can’t really afford, so more fuel is being added to the meltdown. The Community Reinvestment Act and others like it need to be reversed, and the sooner the better.
Edit: Without short sellers covering, the stock market has no bids and is taking the biggest dump I’ve ever seen.
I’m not sure how short sellers would have saved the plummet, except perhaps that they would have signaled it ahead of time, so it might have been 300 down Friday and 300 down Monday. Unless you are talking about something else.
This news story states how short-sellers are long-range thinkers and don’t move the market but rather predict it in the long-run.
I’m rather surprised that they didn’t halt trading after the failure. I wouldn’t have advocated that, of course, but it just seems like it would have happened.