Blame Game: US House of Representatives reject bail-out Bill
Sep 30, 2008 News Breaks
Well, at least we know that it’s not just Malaysian politicians who, well, play politics.
That’s what’s happening in the United States now, as the reports flood in about how the US House of Representatives voted against (here’s another take) the bailout plan both sides - that’s the Republicans and the Democrats - had technically agreed to over the weekend.
The vote was 228 to 205 against - the House needed 218 to pass the Bill.
The New York TImes report that 60% of Democrats and only 65 Republicans (one third) voted for the Bill that was expected to pass.
Of course, the blame game happened really quickly. John McCain slammed Obama (strange, that) while of course, the Democrats blamed the Republican (who insisted that many flipped their vote because of House Speaker Nancy Pelosi - a Democrat - had “poisoned” the vote by making a scathing remark about Bush’s administration).
The Democrat’s number two Steny Hoyer came out to defend her, saying:
“Because somebody hurt their feelings, they decided to punish the country?”
Ah, sounds familiar? Politik politik politik.
Now, I don’t know if voting against the Bill is punishing the country, or whether voting for is. Just read the comments for this post on Anderson Cooper 360 Degrees blog - public sentiment remains high that the bailout should not happen.
I don’t know enough about finance but I do know that a solution needs to be found. Not only did the Dow Jones drop by more than 700 points yesterday (it’s biggest in a day, ever - and the market even started falling before the vote) but so did stock markets around the world. The Star’s front page story states that European markets went sharply lower, and that stock markets in Asia “took a beating” with Hong Kong closing down 4.3%.
Whatever the solution is - wether it’s this Bill, or something else - there’s not better time for the US than now to show that they can indeed save the world (guess all the faux bravado in Hollywood movies are coming back to bite them in the ass, huh?). Yahoo! Finance offered some suggestions.
Oh, and I forgot to mention: No one really blamed George Bush. A lame duck will always remain a lame duck. I bet he’s glad he’s leaving soon.
To find out what the Bill is all about, CNN Money explains.
10.19 Malaysian time (+8 GMT)
Tags: Bailout plan, Down Jones, Stock markets, US economy, Us House of Representative
