Congress Says “No” To Bailout Plan

From: The Desk Of Gary Bauer

This afternoon, the House of Representatives voted down the administration’s economic rescue plan 205-to-228. At one point, the stock market plunged seven hundred points.

Over the weekend, House Republicans succeeded in forcing major improvements in the bill. President Bush made a brief statement shortly after 7:30 A.M. this morning to calm nervous markets and to rally members of Congress for the anticipated vote. In spite of his plea, and in spite of support from the Heritage Foundation and the Wall Street Journal, a majority of House members voted “no.”

Consider this: Republicans voted against it because there were not enough protections for the taxpayer. The Democrats who voted “no” did so because they wanted more of what got us into this mess to begin with – more loans to people who couldn’t pay them back.

On the verge of this vote, Speaker Nancy Pelosi went to the House floor and launched into a vitriolic attack against President Bush and the GOP. She continued the week-long liberal assault of blaming John McCain and the free market philosophy for this crisis.

Republicans have been biting their tongues in recent weeks – not playing the blame game, trying to find a workable solution to this crisis – when in fact liberal policies and politicians, as we and others have documented, deserve virtually all of the blame for the mortgage meltdown. But Speaker Pelosi just couldn’t restrain herself. When bi-partisanship was desperately needed to do the right thing for America, Pelosi put partisanship first.

House Republican Leader John Boehner just concluded a press conference where he made it clear that votes existed to pass this plan, but Pelosi’s vile assault on the GOP blew it. As I write, Barack Obama is at a campaign event blaming Republicans and capitalist greed for this crisis.

Republicans tried to be responsible. Republicans tried to act in a bi-partisan spirit for the good of the country – from President Bush taking the lead on this plan to John McCain suspending his campaign to return to Washington. Yet, at every juncture, they have been “kicked in the groin” for their efforts to reach out to Democrats.

My friends, I don’t think it is possible to overstate just how critically important this election will be for the future of our country. We are in a battle for the heart and soul of this nation. The freedoms we cherish hang in the balance. I have been saying for months that the Democrats and their radical leftwing allies intend to destroy the conservative movement. Deliberately taking down our economy in order to “change” it with something that resembles Big Government European-style socialism now appears to be part of their plan.