There were 25 “no” votes on the Wall Street bailout, most of whom were Republicans. But as with the Monday vote in the House, nine Democrats and one independent balked:
- Maria Cantwell, of Washington
- Byron Dorgan, of North Dakota
- Russ Feingold, of Wisconsin
- Tim Johnson, of South Dakota
- Mary Landrieu, of Louisiana
- Bill Nelson, of Florida
- Bernie Sanders, of Vermont (the independent)
- Debbie Stabenow, of Michigan
- Jon Tester, of Montana
- Ron Wyden, of Oregon
Here is Feingold on the bailout, from The Nation:
“It fails to offset the cost of the plan, leaving taxpayers to bear the burden of serious lapses of judgment by private financial institutions, their regulators, and the enablers in Washington who paved the way for this catastrophe by removing the safeguards that had protected consumers and the economy since the great depression,” said Feingold. “The bailout legislation also fails to reform the flawed regulatory structure that permitted this crisis to arise in the first place. And it doesn’t do enough to address the root cause of the credit market collapse, namely the housing crisis. Taxpayers deserve a plan that puts their concerns ahead of those who got us into this mess.”
And here are Sanders’ comments:
“The bailout package is far better than the absurd proposal originally presented to us by the Bush administration, but is still short of where we should be,” argued Sanders. “If a bailout is needed, if taxpayer money must be placed at risk, if we are going to bail out Wall Street, it should be those people who have caused the problem, those people who have benefited from President Bush’s tax breaks for millionaires and billionaires, those people who have taken advantage of deregulation who should pick up the tab, not ordinary working people.”
These 10 joined with 15 conservative Republicans in tilting at the Wall Street windmills.
Alabama Senator Richard Shelby, a Republican who has been a key player on banking issues and who actually had the wisdom to oppose the deregulation moves of the late 1990s that helped create the current crisis, told senator Senate were in the process of having “failed the American people” by acting hastily.
“I agree we need to do something,” said Shelby. “[But] we haven’t spent any time figuring out whether we’ve picked the best choice.”
This odd coalition defeated the bailout in the House and may again — though the so-called “sweeteners” might draw just enough Congressmen to drag the bailout to passage.
Hank Kalet 