Step 1 Completed -- Senate Bill Passes

The Senate voted 74-25 for a bill that contained the essence of the original bill, along with certain sweeteners that are largely popular with Congress on both sides. My sense is that enough Republicans will now vote in the House, while Democratic leaders will have to work hard to keep their yes votes in place.

What is interesting is that while opponents of the measure have been flooding congressional offices, the polls suggest a more even response. This shouldn't be surprising. In just about all arena's of life, the opponents of something are louder than the proponents. I know this from being in church. So, when the Dow dropped dramatically on Monday, other voices began to be heard. And that is why we may see more yes votes this time around. The American people may not like everything here, but they want Congress to show some leadership and get this done.

So, we've made it through the first stage. Now it's time for the House to come through. There are lots of other elements that need to be addressed, but this buys time.

Comments

Mike L. said…
I wish the discussion was more in the open. I'm concerned that this will amount to little more than a plan to extract 700 billion and move it to the people who caused the problem.

Here's the plan I'd like to hear discussed by the experts...

Use that 700 billion to simply buy up all the sub-prime mortgages in foreclosure, put the owners in interest only loans for 24 months until prices recover. Everyone holds to their responsibilities. By getting involved at the root of the problem instead of placing a big band-aid on top, we could fix the entire mess.

If we bail-out wall street but leave those homes in foreclosure, we've still got a housing mess and a sluggish economy. If we keep people in their homes and free up their income, everyone benefits.

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