$300 billion mortgage bailout steams ahead in Senate, 83-9 (Roll call voted added)
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Ethics, schmethics. Despite the cloud over Countrywide pals Chris Dodd and Kent Conrad, the latest mortgage bailout boondoggle has cleared another congressional hurdle. The Senate voted 83-9 to move forward on Dodd’s housing aid bill. Final vote is scheduled for later today. We’ll see if the White House upholds its veto threat.
Meanwhile, Politico asks Senate members to show them their loans. Check out the results here.
It’s so, so tough to be a U.S. Senator, isn’t it?
Sniff.
***
Update: Here’s the cloture motion roll call vote. Look who’s AWOL again…
Update: Just received from Sen. John Cornyn’s office:
As part of a continued effort to strengthen public disclosure and increase transparency in Congress, U.S. Sen. John Cornyn, Vice-Chairman of the Senate Ethics Committee, announced today that he and Senate Ethics Committee Chairwoman Barbara Boxer, D-Ca., have introduced an amendment to the housing reform bill, currently under consideration in the Senate, which would require Members of Congress to disclose residential mortgages as a liability on their financial disclosure reports. In addition to Sens. Cornyn and Boxer, the amendment is cosponsored by Senators Mark Pryor, Ken Salazar, Pat Roberts, and Johnny Isakson, who together compromise the full Senate Ethics Committee.
Currently, there is an exception to the disclosure requirement for residential mortgages. The Cornyn amendment provides that this exception will no longer apply to Members of Congress.
“Accountability in government is only an empty promise without transparency and disclosure. The more information that we can put in the hands of citizens and journalists, the stronger our democracy will be, particularly as we take the necessary steps to rebuild the confidence of the American people in their government,” Sen. Cornyn said today. “This amendment would close an unwarranted loophole and provide citizens and journalists with more complete information on financial disclosure forms. I appreciate the bipartisan support this amendment has received and I am hopeful it will be included in the housing reform bill.”
Chairman Boxer said, “Ethics in government is something that needs to be revisited continually. This update will help make our disclosure rules stronger, and I believe it is an important step forward.”
Under the Cornyn amendment, Members of Congress will have to make a “full and complete” disclosure of residential mortgages. This will require Senators to disclose the date that the mortgage was entered, the range of the amount, the interest rate, the term, and the name and address of the creditor. It will take effect as Members of Congress file their financial disclosure forms next year.
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Categories: Subprime crisis
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Lets hope Bush still has a few vetos in his pen.
Character. Something badly lacking in politicians these days.
Characters. Washington is overrun with them.
My, how the slightest differences become so vast.
Irony or comic gold? You decide.
I busted my butt to save money to buy a house. I shopped around for the right mortgage. I put my 2 kids through college with 2nd mortgages to the point where I owe as much as I did 12 years ago when I bought the house. And flippin’ idiots who probably can’t read get a mortgage they can’t pay get bailed out? I’m the one that needs the bailout!
Looks like all of the taxpayers are going to pick up a second or third mortgage on a property they are buying sight unseen courtesy of our congress critters. For those of you that have never had a mortgage, Congratulations and you didn’t even have to go through all of the paperwork or even be pre qualified.
Can we vote all of them out of office now?
I think a lake house sounds nice right about now. I’m sure there is some way that I can show it is not a speculative or second property. Thanks everyone, I will think of you at my first bbq!
I demand that the J S Ragman Institute for Fairness in Public Policy Mortgage Counselling Service receive at least $40 million of these funds for the counselling of Irish-Slovak-Filipino Americans.
And Michelle, I think that’s $300 billion with a B.
Holy Smokes!
When did Boxer grow a brain?!!!
83-9! Only 9 conservatives left?! Why do I feel like a violinist in a quartet on the deck of the Titanic? (opens wallet) I wonder if they’ll take these moths as collateral?
I hear these idiots don’t even know how to pay for it! Yet they let it go full steam ahead?
Congress rating: 12%; soon to be like Hell’s Angels (1%).
That survey is a joke. Do you really expect any of these clowns to answer “yes” to a question asking if they received “special terms” on their mortgage(s)?
I want to be bailed out. I want others to pay my bills and give me, give me, give me…. where do i go to put out my hand ???
sarc off
This is so insane. Hard working people get screwed again. I am tired of paying for stupid people. Some people do not deserve a house of their own. It is called RESPONSIBILITY…. If we would stop all the entitlements now people would learn that it is their responsibilty to take care of themselves not the govt. AND NOT USE MY MONEY TO TAKE CARE OF STUPID PEOPLE.
How come no one else is mentioning the credit card payment disclosure requirement they snuck in this bill?
(Because receiving money through paypal is paramount to having a mortgage)
When the people find they can vote themselves money, that will herald the end of the republic. Ben Franklin
This is just the beginning of the transfer of your wealth to the entitled needy.
I’ll support my local 81 before I will these rumpswabs!
That’s a common misconception. It’s the banks and the lenders who are being bailed out.
Hope the President does veto this piece of pandering trash legislation …
I have a question …
According to the US Census Bureau our population is currently approximately 300 million …
This bill is providing $300 million …
Logical deduction says that means each and every one of us is going to receive $1 million …
Guess we can all pay off our mortgages now … right?
That’s why I’ll vote for Cornyn, no matter my opinion of McCain. He hasn’t been there long enough to be totally corrupted (yet).
Only if America’s bilionaries are the entitled needy.
Lordy! I guess that’s the “new math”.
She didn’t. This is just an attempt to veto-proof the bailout. This will not take effect until next year when President Obama will sign whatever bill that repeals this.
Now if you really wanted to make a change that would cleanup and hold all politicians accountable do this. Pass a law that makes all officeholders, or candidates for office, their spouses, and their senior staffs, credit reports public record.
flenser …
I was being facetious there …
You really need to go back and review elementary school arithmetic.
Taking care of those who took care of him?
The Hells Angles are not nearly as dangerous as Congress.
So, what’s the alternative? I’m afraid to think about it.
Bad legislation, but I’ll give some of the solons the benefit of the doubt, that they believe this will turn around the home market, and stop the downturn that is hurting realtors, construction trades and builders.
Although I wouldn’t extend that those charitable thoughts to all our senators.
As usual the will of the people is totally ignored by the corrupt and elite ruling class known as Congress.
We need to totally purge the 535 elitist and start anew with people who will work in the interest of the American middle class.
They are relentlessly pushing us toward the proverbial torches and pitchforks. The system is so broken. This is no longer a government by and for the people. It’s a disgrace and the founding fathers are turning in their graves.
I keep saying it: There is no difference between Republicans and Democrats anymore.
I noticed that both of my Senators voted Nay.
Yeah Wyoming.
Especially in the Senate. Not as big as the margin a Republican Senate gave the ACLU’s chief abortion rights litigator, Ruth Bader-Ginsburg, when Clinton nominated her for the Supreme Court, after Robert Bork had been rejected by a Dem Senate for being too conservative.
geez … what a bunch of dolts … no sense of humor whatsoever … can’t recognize something being posted tongue in cheek huh? …
btw … as for your math slurs I’ll pit my math skills against yours any day of the week …
and last I recall $300 million / 300 million people = $1 million each …
so what did you math whizzes come up with for an answer ???
There, fixed it.
just kidding … we all know it is 1$ but I had to get some levity into these threads today … nothing but slurs everywhere today …
Gotcha …
*Exasperated Sigh*
I couldn’t agree more. We have a one party political system. That party advocates only for lobbyists and big money donors. In this case, the bank lobbyists. The American middle class is inconsequential.
The Stupid Lender and Idiot Subprime Paper Investor Protection Act rolls on!
Hey, Waltere #29….Good for Wyoming….I’m an old Wyo boy(Goose Egg), now in Utah…Not sure how my guys voted but it looks like they went along with majority…Damn Shame…..
The provision to establish a mortgage lender fingerprint database should have been enough to bury this bill. However, our one party authoritarian system must think that’s a deal-sealer.
The Democrats and Republicans used to war over abortion and gay marriage, now they war over… nothing.
There is only one way to eliminate the one party system. That is to reject the McCain candidacy.
By doing so, the RNC will realize they are nothing without it’s conservative base. If we support McCain, even marginally, it sends the message that we accept the GOP and RNC’s direction for the party.
It’s tough love time. A vote for McCain is a vote for the one party system. The time to strike back is now.
Respectfully disagree, I’m voting for the RINO because the country will survive his term, I’m not sure we’ll survive as a major power and capitalist representative democracy under the Obamunist.
Once Obama guts the military, gives the country an expensive new health care entitlement which will never be rolled back (they never are), which will constrain future defense budgets, and packs the Supreme Court with libtards, not even a real conservative President and Congress will be able to undo the damage.
I second Ed’s comments. There is still a country to look out for and that trumps any sort of sending a message to a political party. We can vote to change the congress and I strongly urge everybody to vote for one of the Iraqi veterans running on the Republican if you can.
Ed and Grunt, I agree much as i hate to say it. There is not 1 issue i can think of that i find myself in agreement with Mcshame other than national security. Which he isn’t all that strong on outside the military, he is for open boarders and allowing law breakers to entitlements(tax funded) they haven’t earned.
I still have reservations about him, he’s just an angry, old, stubborn lib…he only became a Republican to get in the house in the 1st place, Az being conservative at the time.
Voting for Juan, what will the Repubs throw at us next time?? that’s the scary part, how much further left will they drag the party, which i have resigned from…now an Independent and thinking hard about joining The Constitution Party.
Thanks for posting that link Grunt!
I really, really, really will have to sit and think as to whether or not to cancel the mortgage payment that goes out on the last day of the month. I mean, why bother? Uncle Sam can take care of me and my kiddies./sarc off but makes one think.
Where’s my check for being a responsible homeowner? Where’s my check to cover the depreciation of my car now that gas is $4? Where’s my check now that ethanol mandates and subsidies have pushed milk to $5.45?
The reason its a problem is that Congress has become self absorbed and arrogant, and imagines themselves as rulers, not as public servants.
This is not a new issue.
Juvenal, a 1st century Roman satirist wrote;
Quis custodiet ipsos custodes?
Who will protect us against the protectors?
Although removing them by stabbing them to death in the Roman fashion would be emotionally satisfying, I believe Term Limits will do the jub a bit better.
8 years (4 terms) in the house, 2 terms (12 years) in the senate.
20 years is sufficient, and if you look where the problems are, its with those that have spent more than 20 there in the belly of the beast.
Office holders have become our MASTERS….
How did THAT happen????
They are really supposed to be our SERVANTS…
More later as to the slippery slide to socialism where my $$$ and your $$$ are used to buy votes by giving your $$ and mine to “help those in need” or better still….”the Chiiiildren!”
Bailing people out like this only helps it all spiral down. Where I live, people who are abandoning their homes are in fact dumping them due to their investment being cut in more than half. I know of a number of people who CAN pay their mortgage but do not want to and are letting it go into foreclosure due to it taking a long time they feel to get their house up to what they paid for it.
So when do we start bailing out people who make bad decisions in the stock market? Where does this bail out end? We feel sorry for people and bail them out is our solution?
I’ve alwyas felt it ridiculous that an elected representative is able to NOT vote. They have become too big for their britches.
My guess is that the senators did some cold, election-year calculating:
# of mortgage “victims” > # of angry taxpayers
We’ll see if they’re right.
Roll call
$300 Billion of our money to buy votes. Unbelieveable.
Without reading this bill, I’m guessing that it’s not designed to help those who took out mortgages that they couldn’t afford (not that they should get help, they need to suck it up like everyone else).
No, I’d bet this bill is designed to protect those who either lended stupidly and still hold the lousy mortgages, or those who bought the lousy mortgages through various types of investment paper. C’mon, you can’t expect people to be held responsible for their own lousy lending decisions (hey, you have no job and lousy credit - here’s $500k for a new house!) or their own stupid investment decisions (hey, let’s buy all this paper backed by mortgages given to people who can’t afford to pay!!).
People keep saying that, but they never explain why they think it. I don’t believe America will survive McCain.
(Karate chops arm and channels his inner David Byrne) … same as it ever was … same as it ever was.
Ok, once was an innocent and amusing mistake. Now it’s getting scary.
Yup. Congress is not doing this to help the poor and middle class. They are doing it to help their wealthy friends.
No surprises here. Considering the fact that the BANKERS own our government…and politicians, again the taxpayers get the royal shaft. All these program costs and overage comes out of the middle class taxpayer’s wallet. Every cost of business is passed along to the people at the bottom of the economic food chain. For the most part, the ultra wealthy are immune because their spending power so far out-strips the burden or then themselves have positions in the Federal Reserve member banks (which earn a 6% premium per year guaranteed per the Federal Reserve web site).
And bail out is such a harsh term. Think of it from their standpoint: investment protection.
On June 24th, 2008 at 1:39 pm, b4lucy said:
Hey, Waltere #29….Good for Wyoming….I’m an old Wyo boy(Goose Egg), now in Utah…Not sure how my guys voted but it looks like they went along with majority…Damn Shame…..
It’s a bank bailout! Get it?
Bank of America wrote the damn bill.
I thought Webb and Warner were sworn to “uphold and defend the Constitution”. Yeah, right! Dream on, conservative. This is so obvious unconstitutional, but no-one is interested in the Supreme Law of the Land anymore. Well, people wanted it and now they got it…a government run amok. I fear my young grandchildren will never know liberty, except as a “forbidden” word.
All of you who think there is a grand canyon between Obama and McCain are fooling yourselves.
Look at that. I though BHO would not vote on it and he did not disappoint.
COWARD And he wants to run the country.
and here I thought climate change aka global warming was the biggest scam of the year so far, silly me.
Now isn’t this just rich.
why isnt clinton voting… still
Hey Soap, the question is why is Hillary still not taking stands?
LOL AJ, ya beat me to it.
#61:
That makes me want to throw up. I wonder if Hoyer knows about the bribes from the stripclub?
This marks only the second time I’ve heard a Boxer statement and/or bit of legislation I agree with.
john, i heard she was there? so what up with el skanky?….. lol, not that it matters much.
OT - Obama’s latest endorsement:
Indian group asks Hindu monkey god to lead Obama to election triumph
NEW DELHI — A dozen priests chanted around a sacred fire in New Delhi on Tuesday as a group of Indians offered prayers to the Hindu monkey god Hanuman asking him to grant U.S. presidential hopeful Barack Obama an election victory in November.
…”From the land of (Mahatma) Gandhi we convey our best wishes to Mr. Obama for the forthcoming presidential elections in the United States,” said Brij Mohan Bhama, a local businessman who organized the event.
Bhama said an Obama victory would be good for India and the rest of world “because he stands for change” and would help stem rising prices, poverty and terrorism.
http://canadianpress.google.com/article/ALeqM5hutGB9LNthoKMVlmzIYL7oA03pdw
I did also, but the bill itself is afu.
Aj, She’s supposed to be with Barack to get money for her 20 million debt. LOL.
#52
It definitely won’t survive what the American hating Marxist will do…
If you really can’t stand McCain, it is your right as a citizen to cast a protest vote for the Libertarian or Constitution party candidate. Just be aware they won’t win.
Unlike most Republicans, who drift leftward from where they campaign (maybe wishful thinking here), if McCain wins, once the Democrat derangement sets in, and they start to constantly bash him, being the cranky egotist he is, he may be less willing to work with them than he is now.
I just happen to believe there is a difference between what is essentially a Scoop Jackson/Zel Miller 1960s pro-American Democrat, which is what McCain has basically been, and an American hating socialist who wants to cripple our military, expand taxpayer funded abortions, create a monstrous ‘free’ health care entitlement, and surrender in Iraq while the US is winning.
this friday they are having their lovefest john…. laura ingraham just said odumbo was going to wear her yellow bumble bee pant suit to make her feel comfortable…. rofl.
#71:
Why don’t you just change your handle to Sean Hannity?
I emailed both of my senators who voted yes on cloture….for all the good it will do.
The so-called conservatives Chambliss and Isakson are my senators. Better than Specter, I guess.
BTW, if you really can’t make yourself vote for the lesser of the two evils who has a chance to win, a protest vote is better than staying home, assuming you vote to limit Obama’s power to destroy this country if he should win, by voting for conservative candidates on the undercard.
If the Republicans held either House of Congress, I’d be less worried about Obama. But if Obama wins, he will almost certainly have ‘coattails’, and may reach a filibuster proof majority in the Senate, which means he will get whatever he wants, and what he wants, is bad for America, across the board.
73 Khan
What is with the insults?
You’re the guy that likes to use big debate terms like ‘ad hominem’ and ’straw man argument’, but you can’t debate the facts.
I get to listen to the last 25 minutes of Hannity’s show on my afternoon commute, his claims of being persecuted for speaking the truth are getting a little old, but other than that, he seems ok to me.
Oh, Khan, the reason I am willing to accept some people here have legitimate reasons not to vote for McCain, but wonder (not saying you are, just saying you walk and quack like one) if you might be an Obama Moby, is the lack of debate, and willingness to throw insults at people trying to engage in legitimate debate.
Speaking of Hannity, I’m enjoying his catfight with Debbie Schlussel. She calls him Sean Brownshirt Vannity.
Maybe it’s because he is speaking at an energy event in Las Vegas. Same reason McCain didn’t vote as he is campaigning in Santa Barbara. How about the other 6 that didn’t vote, are they all cowards as well?
#77:
snort. I’d refer you back to that other thread. Maybe you’ll see who started in with the name calling, etc. If there was one thing you made clear, it was that you are not interested in legitimate debate. Perhaps if you had actually, you know, practiced what you preach.
Great hoogledy-boogledy. Both of my Senators voted for it — Bennett and Hatch. Do they think it’ll encourage me to vote for them? I haven’t been planning on voting for Bennett since he signed on to Pelosi’s open-borders crap last month, and Hatch has just been around way too long for me to want him there anymore.
In other words, I wasn’t planning on helping to re-elect them anyway, but this just sealed the deal. By the way, why didn’t the Hildabeast vote?
Bill Bennett
Ethics are for people, not politicians.
I’m struggling with two house payments. Why? I can’t sell one. Why? Because the market is glutted with pre-existing homes. Why? Easy credit. Why? Greed and no government oversight whatsoever (Remember the savings and loan debacle? Apparently bureaucrats and politicians have short memories.). Combine that with Congress and their special interest friends threatening creditors unless they “give it up” to bad risk borrowers. Why? There’s money to be made.
This and the energy crisis (for the same special interest reasons) has “DEMOCRAT” written all over it. Obama’s and friends new book: The Audacity of Greed.
Khan
You get abusive with everyone who thinks flushing the country down the crapper by electing the Obamunist is a bad idea.
I tried to cool it off with you the other day, you’re not interested in shedding light instead of heat.
Yeah, McCain sucks, but you seem willing to destroy this country to punish him for being a RINO.
Nobody knows what you’re real motivation is for wanting Obama elected as our next President, but if you would bother to explain why you think McCain would be worse than an American hating communist who will push tax payer funded abortions, including partial birth abortions, raise taxes by a huge amount, gut the military and surrender in the war on Islamic terror, I’d love to hear it.
Michael “Savage” Weiner has been calling Hannity “vanity” for years. Of course, since I found out Savage contributed cash in 2006 to Jerry ‘Moonbeam’ Brown, I’ve questioned his intelligence.
If I want an angry guy with an NYC accent, I’d rather listen to Mark Levin. He is more intelligent and consistent.
I honestly think most people do not know about it yet. The disclosure requirements here are much more intrusive than anything FISA ever came up with and people are actually supporting this bill.
As for exactly who is getting bailed out, it does not concern me nearly as much as the provisions being contemplated for giving more powers to the federal reserve and government regulation of the “free market” economy. The required disclosure for financial transactions is only part and parcel of slipping that one in under the radar in my humble opinion.
I used to listen to Michael Medved instead of Hannity, but he was not only pro-amnesty (but according to him, if illegals pay a small fine, then it isn’t really amnesty, never mind they then can collect social security), he seemed to distort the criticisms of callers who disagreed, and seemed to eager to imply racism as a motive.
I listen to Hewitt, he seems conservative and intelligent. He occasionally goes off on tangents, but nobody has better guests.
I’m usually at work during Limbaugh. He sometimes sounds a tad condescending to the audience, but he was spot on in spotting environmentalism as the new front for communism back in the early 90s, when the USSR fell and the communists knew they couldn’t advance their agenda openly. He didn’t know it would be global warming, but he did know it would be possible to talk people into crippling the economy in the name of saving cute animals.
#87 WarTip
One of the things that sucks about massive bills that get passed is it appears relatively easy for the party in power to slip things in, and the bills are so complex, most of the Congresspersons don’t know exactly what they are voting for.
McCain strikes me as being more from the anti-American wing of the Democratic party.
If I thought he would not kill the country either through malice or plain stupidity I’d vote for him. I think he would, so I’m not.
This bill is an INSULT to all Americans who pay their mortgages and property taxes.BTW,who is going to pay these lost school taxes from these foreclosures?
#90
We have a difference of opinion on that one.
BTW
McCain might still win, even pissing on what should be his base, his very RINO-ness may make him more attractive to somewhat lib voters in states like New York and Pennsylvania who might find Obama too far gone on the Marxist path, despite the best efforts of the MSM to hide that.
It isn’t a coincidence that the biggest RINO of all time, former RI solon Lincoln Chafee, was from the Northeast, along with both ladies from Maine, who vote with the Dems almost as much as they vote with the GOP, and Specter from Pennsylvania.
Despite having some good people in rural pockets in states like NY (I know, I was stationed out in the country at NPTU Ballston Spa), the states as a whole will never elect a real Republican.
It all depends on whether people up there find out just how liberal/Marxist Obama is.
But right now, I think it is neck and neck between
bronchitis and lung cancerer, the RINO vs The Obammunist, as our next President.A real Republican would be wiping the floor with Obama, in a Reagan vs Mondale style blow out.
Quittin’ time…
There’s an understatement.
- aj
Oh absolutely!
Which is exactly why I feel that our (legally questionable) centralized federal system needs to be completely restructured.
These people are not doing their jobs and need to be replaced but since that will not happen, what are our viable alternatives while they destroy (willfully or otherwise) our Constitutional Republic under the guise of running it as a democracy?
Sadly, I may tend to agree with you on McCain. I really hate saying that but even Hillary had the sense to acknowledge that the nation could not afford all of her socialist programs. B. Hussein Obama seems to have no concept of where the money actually comes from or that it has to be produced by someone. His efforts to socialize and nationalize could very well put the final nails in our national coffin. Imagine a Jimmy Carter actually pushing his agenda on the American People with an infatuated following in both the house and the senate. That is a scary picture to me and one I can easily see with B. Hussein Obama.
However, do not expect me to condemn anyone for not voting for McCain. No matter who gets elected, we are in for one very rough ride. Perhaps I will ride it out here in the Philippines. I do not honestly see any reason to return anymore. My grandfather may be disappointed in my decisions were he still alive. However, if he saw the state of our Nation today, he would likely (quite literally) be up in arms and upset only because I was not by his side.
So has anybody else here seen the very intrusive new requirements for financial transactions included in this bill? Are there really so few of us concerned about the powers this conveys to our
representativereprehensible government?Throw the bums out
#85:
So much for your wanting legitimate debate. Again, if you could just practice what you preach.
Interesting that so many of our congressmen don’t even have mortgages. Just one of the People, eh?