So what DID the House Republicans and John McCain add to the Bill?

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from Hilary Rosen at HuffPo: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/hilary-rosen/did-john-mccain-help-main_b_130081.html



WELL, for two days they demanded additional tax cuts so that banks and other institutions could buy up the bad assets rather than the government. Of course, that meant that they would also benefit from any increase in value to those assets. What? John McCain and the House Republicans wanted to add tax cuts for profitable businesses to a bailout bill??? Shocking, I know. That was too greedy even for Hank Paulsen who is used to being surrounded by a high level of greed.

Finally, in an effort to get a deal done, Paulsen and the Democrats agreed to the final McCain/House Republicans additions to the bill. They agreed to let the McCain club devise a way for the private sector to profit without getting additional tax cuts in the process. In other words, they could profit only once, not twice.

The legislation creates authority for a federally backed insurance program that would make the so called "bad" mortgage-related securities, salable to the private sector. How? By making them a good deal for them and reducing risk, obviously. The compromise reached would require Paulson to "establish" such an insurance alternative, but he is not compelled to use the insurance option.

Oh, by the way, the McCain/House Republican additions to the bill also include $3 billion to help small community banks (not their mortgage holders or depositors) take a deduction for losses from their investments in Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, since taken over the government this summer.

John McCain went back to Washington to save main street from Wall Street. The problem is, his "main street" ran through a pig's trough. Will he take credit for that?

[Olney Blue]

1. They are so predictable: the only answer to any crisis is tax cuts for the rich.

[ColbertWatcher]

2. Kick and rec for revealing the truth behind all the noise. n/t

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3. such a large bill

there's got to be more

[ColbertWatcher]

6. You're right not to trust a GOPher! n/t

[FarCenter]

4. It allows Treasury to write Credit Default Swaps

In other words, the idiots are encouraging Treasury to get into the business that brought down AIG and almost brought down a number of other insurance companies like MBIA.

The only good thing is that it requires Treasury to set it up, but it doesn't mandate that Treasury actually offer CDS at a price that will cause anyone to buy them. I doubt that Paulson would ever put it into effect.

So one of the big questions for the electorate is: Do you want McCain as President telling his Secretary of the Treasury to get into the Credit Default Swap business?

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5. that sounds like Paulsen's

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7. McThuselah's contribution

He came to the meeting late, hadn't done his preparation, asked stupid questions that the group had already discussed and resolved, then demanded a solution that nobody in the room could endorse. I see folks like that all the time in church board meetings. And if it wasn't a church board, I'd holler at them for being so fucking stupid and obstructionist.

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8. I'm starting to think he was duped by the republican leadership into coming

They probably led him to believe he could play king in theirs and the WH's court, but he found out that all they had was a weak bluff and a tired old bribe of some kind of tax cut for their cronies in the industry in return for their vote. Not what McCain imagined it would be.

[Poseidan]

9. confederate crap

And American folly. For how long now have Americans fallen into Confederate traps, arguing over whether things should be regulated or de-regulated, rather than debating what should be regulated, how and why?