Pelosi's failed speechBy Steven T. Jones
I'm not putting too much stock in Republicans blaming the failure of the bailout bill on Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi's floor speech today. "Somebody hurt my feelings; I'm going to punish the country," was how Rep. Barney Frank correctly sized up that excuse.
But watch the speech and you'll see how Pelosi blew an opportunity to help pass a bill she supports (although it was hard to tell from her speech that she supports it). Between her ill-timed partisan broadside and her repeated emphasis on the "Seven...hundred...billion...dollar" bailout package (even though, as the Post notes, the government is likely to recoup much of that outlay), this wasn't a speech that was going to win anybody over.
Bottom line: there are many different ways to deal with this financial crisis, but if you've concluded that this bill is the way to go, Madame Speaker, it's your job to sell it. Otherwise, we're all in for a helluva ride.
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Comments (3)
This woman is out of control. She knows how to kill a bill- for that I thank her....but she needs to go. Leave, Nancy, leave, and go far far away.
Jennifer Summers
Helotes, Texas
Posted by Jennifer Summers | September 29, 2008 04:27 PM
The economy does not need Bush's bill. I was not going to vote for Cindy Sheehan, but after Pelosi carrying water for Wall Street with zero progressive or liberal economic analysis behind it, Sheehan gets my vote.
The bankers can jump for all I care.
What is needed is to approach the ongoing asset deflation, bubble popping in a way that cushions the fall for average people. As housing prices deescalates, that means ongoing flexibility in mortgages that would effectively place much housing stock off the speculative market for a moment. And we need to prime the pump of the domestic economy with a trillion dollar infrastructure program.
Buy cutting out of Iraq, Afghanistan, and from foreign aid to Israel, Egypt and Pakistan, we'll quickly find that ire against u is tempered. Eliminating military in offense means you don't have to pay as much for military in defense.
And the people who ripped us off with these scams have names, addresses and assets. To Club Fed with them all!
-marc
Posted by marc salomon | September 29, 2008 09:19 PM
Barney's just got sour grapes. It's the responsibility of the leadership of a majority party to make sure that they have the votes from their own party before proceeding. This is a colossal failure on Pelosi's part, one that should have House Democrats thinking of replacing her as Speaker.
On the other hand, it's probably just as well that the stinker of a bill didn't pass. The urgent nature of this crisis is completely overblown. Better to have the money available for a real stimulus/spending bill to provide for jobs after the flawed actors in the market are removed. Banks won't stop lending to credit-worthy borrowers; they can't make $ otherwise.
Posted by mike joyce | September 30, 2008 09:59 AM