The bill to that has been derided as the “Bank of America bailout” is pushing forward on Capitol Hill. This morning the bill got the sixty votes needed to limit debate, ending any possibility for a filibuster against it.
A vote on the bill, which may actually have been written by Bank of America lobbyists, is expected as early as tomorrow. It will likely pass the Senate. President George Bush has vowed to veto the bill.
The bill would create a multi-billion dollar mortgage refinancing fund, providing a huge financial windfall to mortgage lenders with risky loans. Countrywide, the nation’s largest mortgage lender, was recently acquired by Bank of America. Banking committee chairman Chris Dodd, who sponsored the bill, has come under fire for accepting sweetheart loans from Countrywide. Bank of America executives have recently contributed tens of thousands of dollars to his campaign fund.
But you know what? That old saw about watching laws getting made doesn’t apply. This isn’t like watching sausages getting made. Not at all. It’s more like watching their post-digestion disposal.
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Congress makes me want to vomit
I never thought I’d agree with a Bush veto.
If Bush does not veto this, his whole legacy will be this welfare bill and his tax and spend approach over the last two terms…an FDR for our times. Very interesting…and it probably will not help McCain either way.
“that’s why i don’t really care about all nasty politics! it’s the grave for commitment.” my friend from _RIDERLOVE.COM_ said so after reading this! and he’s a kind and honest cowboy!
Absolutely appalling, but not surprising. I always knew politicians were under the serious influence of lobbyists, but I didn’t think it only took $17,000 to buy them off.
I read somewhere that the reason why there’s been no investigation, even with the public outcry, is that no one knows how far this scandal reaches.
Chris Dodd should lose his senate seat over this. However, the democrats will not throw him under the bus because then they lose their simple majority in the senate.
But if you live or know anyone who lives in his district make sure they hear/read/watch this story.
I wonder how this list compares to the recent Senate vote for cloture:
http://www.politico.com/homeloans/
http://noisefromthetrain.blogspot.com/2008/06/plot-still-thickens.html
In addition to the $300 billion of default risk transferred to the US Government from CFC and BAC books(among others) – here are some interesting provisions of the bill – wtf?
http://demint.senate.gov/public/index.cfm?FuseAction=PressReleases.Detail&PressRelease_id=bb59c9d8-abbb-655b-09b6-e53d5678930e&Month=6&Year=2008
A.IRS Reporting of Americans’ Electronic Credit Card Transactions: Requires payment companies (credit cards and third party payment systems) to report to the Internal Revenue Service every individual entity (“payee”) they made a payment to and the gross amounts paid to those entities.
B. New Fingerprint Database of Bank Employees, Realtors, and more: Requires anyone involved in originating a mortgage loan, including part-time bank employees and real estate professionals, to submit their fingerprints to the FBI.