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Democratic leaders are demanding limits on pay for executives of financial firms that unload their bad debts on the government in what one Republican leader is calling "the mother of all bailouts.'' And they are renewing their push for a new job-creating economic stimulus package, with an added cost of $50 billion, as the White House presses Congress to approve a bailout before adjournment for elections at the end of this week.
Yet, despite the enormousness of the federal action which Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson is pressing Congress to swiftly approve - possibly exceeding what Congress has spent on the war in Iraq, and pushing the federal deficit to new record highs - it is clear that he has convinced congressional leaders of the urgency of acting to avert a meltdown in credit for American consumers.
"We need to act quickly, and we will in my view,'' Sen. Chris Dodd (D-Conn.), Senate Banking Committee chairman, said today on ABC News' This Week. "We don't have any choice but to act,'' Dodd said. "I can tell you that (Senate Majority Leader) Harry Reid and (House Speaker) Nancy Pelosi are prepared to act quickly and deliberatively.''http://www.swamppolitics.com/news/politics/blog/2008/09/congress_ready_mother_of_all_b.html