The Senate will be convening tonight to vote on the bailout plan that the House rejected. While financial bills must originate in the House, the Senate is twisting the rules by including tax breaks that the House already rejected in an attempt to induce more Republicans to vote for the bill.
By the way, I am now firmly OPPOSED to this $700 billion giveaway to the banks. I changed my mind on it when I read from respected economist Dean Baker the following:
For the record, the restrictions on executive pay and the commitment to give the taxpayers equity in banks in exchange for buying bad assets are jokes. These provisions are sops to provide cover. There are not written in ways to be binding. (And Congress knows how to write binding rules.)
Nice to know that Congress is telling us all one thing, and the Treasury is telling the Wall Street banks another. Can we actually get some REAL leadership on this?
And no, John McCain ain't providing it ... he's too busy playing politics with it all. Unfortunately, neither is Obama, as he's going to vote for the bailout in the Senate tonight, even if it's larded up with yet more tax cuts to put us even more in debt.
