What is the status of the Bush/Obama bailout bonanza?

[burythehatchet]

I believe the house defeated the release of the second half. Was this a meaningless vote? Does the House have the ability to defeat this giveaway?

[babylonsister]

1. I don't know if the House voted? Senate votes today...

Obama awaits vote in Senate for $350B bailout

By JIM KUHNHENN
Associated Press Writer


WASHINGTON (AP) -- Not quite the president yet and Barack Obama is looking for his first legislative victory. A wary Senate is scheduled to vote Thursday on Obama's request for $350 billion in financial bailout money - the first installment of his economic recovery plan.

When President George W. Bush asked for the $700 billion Troubled Asset Relief Program last fall, he won it in part because his economic advisers painted a doomsday economic scenario.

If Obama wins the release of the second half of that fund Thursday, it will be in part because Bush's economic advisers aren't making the pitch again.

Instead, it is Obama's economic team that has fanned out across the Capitol. Their lobbying effort culminated in a closed-door meeting Wednesday between Senate Republicans, top Obama economic adviser Larry Summers and incoming White House chief of staff Rahm Emanuel.

"These folks have much more credibility already than Secretary Paulson," Sen. Jim DeMint, R-S.C., said, referring to the Bush administration's treasury secretary, Henry Paulson.

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