Liveblogging hearing of H. R. 1424 Revised Financial Markets Bill

Started watching the hearing more than an hour ago.

Saw Charles Rangel bullfrog his way into another year as Chairman of the House and Ways Committee. At least that's what it looked like when he was saying his "good-byes" to Jim McCrery (R-La), the minority's leader in the Committee. McCrery is retiring from Congress after failing to land the Chairmanship.

Republicans and Democrats are selling hard the bill, especially the California caucus but for Rep. Sherman(?). Roy Blunt gave a rousing speech. So did John Lewis. David Kucinich decided not to speak but to have his rejection of the bill into the record.

Paul Ryan asks if the bill will stop us into going into a recession? Of course he answers, NO.

Best quote so far has come from Barney Frank, the chair of the Banking Committee : "Ever weary of having George Bush leading us down the path to socialism, I yield my time to the gentleman from Georgia". Awesome.

Rep. David Obey asks Congress to ... obey. Heh. He also agrees this bailout is not going to stop us from going into a recession.

Rep. Steven LaTourette (R-Ohio) : Where did the number come from? He quotes the Forbes article : "It's not based on any particular data point. We just wanted a really large number". And he breaks out the charts showing the pork. OMFG : They are giving NASCAR $100 million in tax breaks?

WOW! Go LaTourette!

Joe Barton (R-Texas) is voting against it because he doesn't believe it addresses the real problems we're facing now. He says Libor (percentage rate loans  is only .5% down from one year ago.

Edwards is voting for it after voting NO. She asked clarification from Frank about what Paulson was going to d to relieve voters from foreclosures and Frank says that yes, Paulson understands part of that money and new Treasury powers would be spent on foreclosure relief.

Marilyn Musgrave (R-Co) is voting against it due to the haste with which this bill has been put together.

Marcy Kpatur (D-Ohio) says we should used the power of the FDIC and SEC to deal. She's voting against it.

Ron Paul : It says we are in a liquidity crisis and a credit crunch but no injection of more money or credit has solved the problem. What is happening in the market today is something more draconian and that is that our government is insolvent. We want to do this to prevent recession or depression but you should have thought about that 10-15 years ago. It was created by the bubble. You can't paper it over, the recession and depression will come. Not to let the market to liquidate debt, let bankrupcy happen and let the market to correct will make the situation worse.

Maxine Waters (D-Ca) : "We own them now". She's saying that it makes sense to go with theis package because now that the government owns all these "bad loans" it can actually re-write and reset these loans and make them work for homeowners instead of liquidating them through foreclosures.

Barbara Lee is voting for the bill "to stop the bleeding". Hates the bill. Believes there's a lot of bad stuff in it but she has to vote for it due to the high amount of foreclosures in her district. "Make no mistake, this is a bail out".

Spenser Bachus (R-Al) is voting for it even though he wanted to reduce the upfront amount and even though he still believes it is a bailout. "I am not willing to risk capitalism and slide into socialism if we succumb to this crisis".

Oy.

Jame Clyburn (D-SC):  760,000 jobs lost this year so far. He is describing how the people who are being hit the most by the subprime mortagage mess are people of color who have all their loans resetting at obscene rates and now have no access to credit while the value of their homes is crashing.

(R-Miss) Chip Pickering : This is a legacy vote, my last vote. This vote is to save capitalism and free markets. Today I will cast this vote and I will leave and see my son play basketball.

My Congresswoman, Rep. Carolyn Maloney is voting yes. Boo!

Shireen just twitted that since this bill came from the Senate, there is no possibility of changing it.

Steny Hoyer has a looot of time for his speech. He's basically saying that the craziness of the past week is pushing people to vote for this bail out because the have no choice.

BTW : If there is a reason why most of the California delegation is voting for the bill it is not just due to the indecent amount of foreclosures they have. That's what Barbara Lee refered to when she said "stop the bleeding". Yet it also has to do with the state government's inability to meet payroll this month due to lack of credit :

California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, alarmed by the ongoing national financial crisis, warned Treasury Secretary Henry M. Paulson on Thursday that the state might need an emergency loan of as much as $7 billion from the federal government within weeks.

The warning comes as California is close to running out of cash to fund day-to-day government operations and is unable to access routine short-term loans that it typically relies on to remain solvent.

Ouch.

John Boehner (R-Ohio) who called this bail out a "crap sandwich" is voting for the bill. "Am going to vote for this bill today because it is the right thing to do."

Nancy Pelosi is in da houze : Even though the damage is in Wall Street, we are feeling the pain of Mr. and Mrs. Jones on Main Street.

That line reminds me of this other line.

Says Madame Speaker that the legislation will stave off foreclosures and do away with golden parachutes : "The party is over." She is outlining all the provisions in the legislation including addition to end health care discrimination of mental health patients.

On Motion to vote for H.R. 1424 : With less than 8 minutes remaining they only have 118 votes.

Three minutes remaining and they only have 187 votes. HOLY CRAP! they don't have enough votes?

The bill was passed.

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