Harry Mitchell voted to give pork to fat cats on Wall Street

Harry Mitchell voted to give the fats cats on Wall Street $5,332 of your money

Harry Mitchell voted to give the fats cats on Wall Street $5,332 of my money! With the bailout being $700 billion, you divide it by the 300 million people in the USA and that means every man, woman and child will pay $2,666 to bail out the rich fat cats on Wall Street! Of course since children don't pay taxes that means each adult in the USA will be shaken down for $5,332 to give to the fat cats on wall street!

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Half of Ariz. delegates vote 'yea' on $700B bailout

Oct. 3, 2008 11:43 AM

How they voted

Half of the eight members of Arizona's congressional delegation voted in favor of the proposed bailout.

On Monday, all eight members voted against the legislation. Today, three of the four Arizona Democrats and one of the state's four Republicans voted for its passage:

Jeff Flake, R, no

Trent Franks, R, no

Gabrielle Giffords, D, yes

Raul Grijalva, D, no

Harry Mitchell, D, yes

Ed Pastor, D, yes

Rick Renzi, R, no

John Shadegg, R, yes


What would Thomas Jefferson and his pals be doing today if they were alive?

I am sure the would be getting out the guns right now and soon be on their way to Congress where they would string the b*stards up from light poles. Just as they wanted to do to King George.

We like to think we are free. But Thomas Jefferson and his pals told King George to stuff it over a lousy 1 and 3/4 percent tax on tea. They over threw the local British government because of a lousy 1 and 3/4 percent tea tax.

Us American who think we are free don't think a thing when the State of Arizona shakes us down for a huge 8 percent sales tax everytime we buy something.

Nor do we complain when the Feds shake people down who earn min wage for an even bigger 10 percent income tax. And if you make decent money the Feds will steal a third or more of your income.

Nope we Americans are not free we are serfs to the Royal Federal government. Thomas Jefferson and his pals overthrew the British over a lousy 1 and 3/4 percent tax on tea, while we don't even complain about 8 percent sales taxes or 33 percent income taxes.


Source

Bush signs historic $700B bailout bill into law

Oct. 3, 2008 12:38 PM

Associated Press

WASHINGTON — With the economy on the brink and elections looming, Congress approved an unprecedented $700 billion government bailout of the battered financial industry on Friday and sent it to President Bush for his certain signature.

The final vote, 263-171 in the House, a comfortable margin that was 58 more votes than it garnered on Monday. The vote capped two weeks of tumult in Congress and on Wall Street, punctuated by daily warnings that the country confronted the gravest economic crisis since the Great Depression if lawmakers failed to act.

President Bush signed the bill into law just before noon Arizona time.

“We all know that we are in the midst of a financial crisis,” House Republican Leader John Boehner of Ohio, said shortly before casting his vote for government intervention in private capital markets that was unthinkable only a month ago.

“And we know that if we do nothing, this crisis is likely to worsen and to put us into an economic slump like most of us have never seen.” Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., said the bill was needed to “Begin to shape the financial stability of our country and the economic security of our people.”

Stocks were up on Wall Street, where there was a lot of anticipation of the vote but where investors also were buffeted by a bad report on the job market. The Labor Department said employers slashed 159,000 jobs in September, the largest cut in five years and further evidence of a sinking economy.

Even before the measure cleared Congress, the White House sought to dampen optimism of its immediate impact on the economy. “This legislation is to fix a problem in our financial markets,” said spokesman Tony Fratto. “It's not sold as giving a boost to the economy, but rather preventing a crisis in our economy... If it works as we hope it will, credit will be able to begin flowing again.”

The House vote marked a sharp change from Monday, when an earlier measure was sent down to defeat, largely at the hands of angry conservative Republicans.

Senate leaders quickly took custody of the measure, adding on $110 billion in tax and spending provisions designed to attract additional support, then grafting on legislation mandating broader mental health coverage in the insurance industry. The revised measure won Senate approval Wednesday night, 74-25, setting up a furious round of lobbying in the House as the administration, congressional leaders, the major party presidential candidates and outside groups joined forces behind the measure.

It worked — augmented by a sudden switch in public opinion that occurred after the stock market took its largest-ever one-day dive on Monday.

“No matter what we do or what we pass, there are still tough times out there. People are mad — I'm mad,” said Republican Rep. J. Gresham Barrett of South Carolina, who opposed the measure the first time it came to a vote. Now, he said, “We have to act. We have to act now.”

Rep. John Lewis, D-Ga., another convert, said, “I have decided that the cost of doing nothing is greater than the cost of doing something.”

Critics were unrelenting.

“How can we have capitalism on the way up and socialism on the way down,” said Rep. Jeb Hensarling of Texas, a leader among conservative Republicans who oppose the central thrust of the legislation — an unprecedented federal intervention into the private capital markets.

It was little more than two weeks ago that Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson and Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke concluded that the economy was in such danger that a massive government intervention in the private markets was essential.

The core of the plan remains little changed from its inception — the Treasury Department would have $700 billion at its disposal to purchase bad mortage-related securities that are weighing down the balance sheets of institutions that hold them. The flow of credit has slowed, in some cases drying up, threatening the ability of businesses to conduct routine operations or expand.

At the same time, lawmakers have dramatically changed the measure, insisting on greater congressional supervision over the $700 billion, taking measures to protect taxpayers, and insisting on steps to crack down on so-called “golden parachutes” that go to corporate executives whose companies fail.

Earlier in the week, the legislation was altered to expand the federal insurance program for individual bank deposits, and the Securities and Exchange Commission took steps to ease the impact of the questionable mortgage-backed securities on financial institutions.

In the moments before the vote, Rep. Barney Frank, D-Mass., chairman of the House Financial Services Committee, pledged “serious surgery” next year to address the underlying causes of the crisis.

If anything, the economic news added to the sense of urgency.

The Labor Department said initial claims for jobless benefits had increased last week to the highest level since the gloomy days after the 2001 terror attacks. The news of the payroll cuts came on top of Thursday's Commerce Department report that factory orders in August plunged by 4 percent.

Typifying arguments the problem no longer is just a Wall Street issue but also one for Main Street, lawmakers from California and Florida said their state governments were beginning to experience trouble borrowing funds for their own operations.

Pelosi said, “We must win it for Mr. and Mrs. Jones on Main Street.” One month before election day, the drama unfolded in an intensely political atmosphere.

Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama, a supporter of the bill, made calls to members of the Congressional Black Caucus, who publicly credited him with changing their minds.

Rep. Elijah Cummings and Donna Edwards, both Maryland Democrats, were among them. They said Obama had pledged if he wins the White House that he would help homeowners facing foreclosure on their mortgages. He also pledged to support changes in the bankruptcy law to make it less burdensome on consumers.

“It's not too often you get the future president telling you that his priority matches your priority,” said Cummings.

Obama's rival, Sen. John McCain, who announced a brief suspension in his campaign more than a week ago to try and help solve the financial crisis, made calls to Republicans. His impact was not immediately clear.

Republican Rep. Sue Myrick of North Carolina, who said she was switching her vote to favor the measure, said of McCain: “They told me he was going to call me. He didn't.”

Looking ahead to election day, she added, “I may lose this race over this vote, but that's OK with me. This is the right vote for the country.”

The White House issued the latest in a series of grim warnings of the risks of defeat. “If the financial markets fail to function, American families will face great difficulty in getting loans to purchase a home, buy a family car or finance a child's education,” it said in a written statement.

The vote on Monday staggered the congressional leadership and contributed to the largest one-day stock market drop in history, 778 points as measured by the Dow Jones Industrial Average.

Across the Capitol, Senate leaders reacted quickly, deciding to sweeten the bill with a series of popular tax breaks as well as spending on rural schools and disaster aid. They also grafted on a bill to expand mental health coverage under private insurance plans.

At the same time, the change in federal deposit insurance and the action by the SEC on an obscure accounting rule helped produce a steady trickle of converts.

 

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