Today in Washington D. C. - Sept 30, 2008

The House voted down the economic stabilization ("rescue") plan (H.R. 3997) Monday by a vote of 205-228, sending Congressional leaders back to the drawing board. More comments later. For those in Arkansas, all four Representatives. The House needs to consider the Senate version of tax extenders bill (H.R. 6049) sent over on Monday. The Senate resumed post-cloture consideration of the Amtrak bill (H.R. 2095). Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid has indicated he still wants to pass the Amtrak bill and a bill implementing the U.S.-India nuclear agreement (H.R. 7081), which the House passed on Saturday.

From Senate & News Sources: National Review Online’s editorial reports, “The $700 billion bailout bill is palatable to no one.” Certainly this is true for everyone on Capitol Hill, especially in the House of Representatives . Despite this, most lawmakers on both sides of the aisle still consider some sort of action necessary. The NRO editorial went on to argue the reason why: “If the crunch that [Treasury Secretary Hank] Paulson and [Fed Chairman Ben] Bernanke are warning about comes, it will squeeze off credit — the very lifeblood of capitalism — to businesses, entrepreneurs, and consumers all around the country. The Paulson plan is an intervention designed to keep capitalism functioning rather than supplant it. If it is successful, the assets the government buys will be sold back on the market (perhaps at a profit), after the panic passes.”

It is instructive to look at some potential explanations for yesterday’s House vote. Much of the discussion has centered on House Republicans, but as ABC’s Jake Tapper asks, “What About Those 95 Democrats?” The bill needed only 13 more votes to pass, and NRO notes “[House Speaker Nancy Pelosi] didn’t deliver five of her own committee chairmen and lost more than a dozen of her fellow California Democrats.” Isn’t it the job of the Speaker to ensure that legislation passes the House? The Wall Street Journal sheds some light on why Democrats had no problem voting against the bill, “Democratic leadership aides said they didn’t try to compel rank-and-file lawmakers to vote for the legislation in recent days, leaving individuals largely on their own to make decisions.” So, House Democrats didn’t seriously whip on the bill. No wonder that Tapper writes, “Rep. Hank Johnson, D-Ga., told me yesterday that he felt no pressure at all to vote for the bill.” It is very evident that Pelosi leadership is in the "toilet." She can only try to hide that she is not even in control of her own constituents by haranguing the Republicans for not voting her way.

As NRO wrote, it is important to “keep capitalism functioning rather than supplant it.” Sen. Judd Gregg echoed the opinions of many GOP senators yesterday when he said, “I’m hopeful we can move forward and I certainly intend to follow the (Republican) leaders’ suggestion that we just stay here and keep working.”

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