United Liberty

Watch what I am watching - http://cspan.org/ (Refresh to get new posts by pressing F5)

1:47 - H.R. 3997 Is defeated. This is a great day indeed.

1:45 - H.R. 3997 might be defeated

1:44 - 192 Y | 215 N - 26 votes left.

1:43 - 185 Y | 201 N - 43 votes left.

1:42 - 177 Y | 187 N - 19 seconds left (CSPAN counter)

1:41 - 168 Y | 172 N

1:40 - 162 Y | 167 N

1:39 - 157 Y | 153 N

1:37 - 136 Y | 139 N

1:35 - 123 Y | 115 N

1:30 - 108 Y | 74 N

1:27 - Voting time.

1:16 - Boehner just looked like he was crying. Barney just called up Hoyer. He opens up with being sworn to protect the constitution.

1:14 pm - Boehner just called it a “mud sandwich”. He doesn’t like the bill. “These are the votes that separate the men from the boys and the girls from the women.”

1:12 pm - John Boehner is up. He thanks Barney and says “The American people are angry”. “NObody wants to vote for it, nobody wants to be around it.” Says that votes for the bailout to pass are in serious doubt. Is it a bluff?

1:07 pm - Barney Frank is coming in here. Cracking jokes. In every piece of legislation, he says he puts something in there for poor people, for the people who don’t get a “fair shake”. The man is a flaming socialist.

1:06 - Markey: If we don’t act now, we won’t just punish wall street we hurt main street.  STOP THE BAD SLOGANS!

1:01 - Roy Blunt rising in support to “deal with things”. “Taxpayers won’t lose anything”

1:00 - It’s looking like a very sad day for America.

12:57 - Spencer Bachus, has decided to support the bill. He’s “not willing to take the gamble of doing nothing”. His speech was applauded.

12:56 - It’s time to vote. Last speeches coming now.

12:55 - The main street over wall street line is waaay overused. Wow. Grow a brain.

12:55 - I think we are getting close to vote time.

12:54 - Joseph Crowley will be supporting “its not a perfect bill”.

12:52 - John Shadegg is against the bill, says Market to Market rules are killing the prices.

12:51 - Henry Waxman is supporting the bill, even though George Bush wants it done. This is the best thing to do for now, even though he doesn’t seem to like it.

12:49 - Timothy Murphy: 700 billion is a years worth of oil.

12:47- Kucinich- protecting Wall Street is not the same thing as protecting Main Street

12:44- Bobby Etheridge- Our financial markets have overdosed on credit (sounds like a vote against)

12:43- Rahm Emmanuel- we have made dramatic improvements in this bill, but our job is not done till we avoid the recession on Main Street (def. vote for)

12:38- Michelle Bachman- wants to try practical solutions before “pulling the trigger” on this bill

12:37- “We have to have a bipartisan vote on this to send the proper message.  I know the Democrats will come through.  I hope the Republican will.”

12:34 - “We are on a precipice and we’re doing something that could pull us back from that precipice.  We are telling Wall Street that the party is over”

12:34 - “We must insulate Main Street from Wall Street.  This discussion is not over- we have difficult choices.”

12:32 - Pelosi is saying that not one penny of this should be carried by the American people.

12:13 - “We have a gun to our head on this” - Ginny Brown-Waite. Do you like 10 trillion dollars in debt?

12:04 - John Spratt: mumble mumble… The bill’s cost will be substantially smaller than $700 billion. Let’s see how true that is in 6 months? He is for the bill.

11:55 - Jeff Fortenberry: Is this the right type of bill? Are we rushing to a solution and overlooking accounting rules? Against the bill.

11:54 - Sheila Jackson Lee says that we need more information for this bill or any solution to work. There isn’t enough transparency.

11:52 - Paul Ryan is going to vote for it because otherwise he couldn’t look himself in the mirror or his wife in the eyes. It was a very passionate speech.

11:48 - These speeches are getting me to think that this bill might not pass… but I guess the analysis says otherwise… maybe some people will have a last-minute change of heart.

Do your part to try to change their opinions: Visit http://track.nocashfortrash.org and call your congressman!

11:46 - Carolyn Kilpatrick: Says it was a lack of regulation and predetory lending that caused this problem. We have lost 600,000 jobs, the American dream is slipping away. She says since there is no judicial review, the people who are suffering are not going to get help.

11:44 - Louie Gohmert says that the fear tactics are so apparent. Says that next we are going to have to save the community banks because of this. Gohmert: YOU ARE GOING TO OUTSOURCE THE MANAGEMENT TO THE PEOPLE THAT CAUSED THIS? haha awesome.

11:41 - Jeff Flake rises against this bill. The premise of this bill is that the free market failed us. “we don’t have enough money in the treasury”. Great quick speech.

11:38 - James Oberstar on the floor, this body has been here before. They have done this before and it has worked out. What would happen if we didn’t rescue these businesses? “We have to do it.”

11:37 - Sam Farr will be voting in favor of the bill. I’ll never vote for him again. .http://track.nocashfortrash

11:28 - Washington is not listening to you, the calls are coming in 100 to 1. You should be outraged - E. Scott Garrett

11:27 - I’m going to call my Congressman, Sam Farr then register the results at track.nocashfortrash.org

11:23 - Maxine Waters says that understanding & making sense of economics was an impossible task. Will be voting in favor of the bill. Is there irony there?

11:22 - Darrell Issa is against the bill. Says we are ending the Reagan era.

11:22 - Just got a twitter from Jeff Flake that he is going to speak soon against the bailout http://twitter.com/JeffFlake

11:18 - Peter DeFaizo: We are better off than we were a week ago with the Paulson’s first plan. He doesn’t buy the new plan though, there are things that are less risky and would work better. This is like a financial ‘surge’. The golden parachutes have been replaced with camo parachutes, the execs are still going to get money.

11:17 - Judy Biggert wants to start over taking more things into account.

11:12 - John Dingell is very old. He supports the bailout and says that Barney Frank did a great job of making a bad piece of legislation much better. The supporters of this legislation are just spouting rhetoric. Barney Frank’s voice…

11:10 - Ted Poe: This bill costs $1 billion a page! VOTE NO!

11:01 - Virgil Goode will be voting against this measure.

10:57 - Paul Kanjorski:  Look to the old movies about the depression, we need to take action to make sure that doesn’t happen again. Voting yes. We stopped the Treasury Secretary from having total dictatorial powers.

10:54 - Tom Davis wishes there was a better way, but he’s voting for it anyway.

10:52 am - Barbara Lee is against this bill because it does little to address the real problems. This bill just bails out the people who created the problem.

10:48 am - Ron Paul is up. This bill is only going to make this problem worse. This bill is only more of the same, we are looking at the collapse of a market that is unstable. Jeez… he goes so fast.

We look to the people who created the problem for the solution. This is the failure of corporatism. We are promoting more and more government. This is going to destroy the dollar.

Basically. He’s Ron Paul. Cavuto called him a genius on this stuff recently.

10:42 - Lynn Westmoreland says that only 2 witnesses - Paulson and Bernanke. Why not other opinions? Says the bill is only 24 hours old, shouldn’t be voted on without adequate hearing and testimony. Says they don’t know enough to make the right decision.

10:35 am - Making coffee. Brb.

10:33 am - Brad Sherman (one of the most outspoken D’s against the bill), “just because this bill isn’t liked by your constituents, doesn’t mean you are being patriotic in voting in favor of it”.

Nobel laureates, 400 professors of economics against it.

10:31 am - Paul Broun says this bill is going to hurt the taxpayer, will not help banks. He sees this bill as a stop gap. “We are still going to have all the problems this is supposed to fix.”

10:29 am - Carolyn Maloney: This bill isn’t popular, but its needed, this would be an economic heart attack. Taxpayers are rightfully outraged.

10:23 am - Dan Lungren is speaking in support of the act. He says if something is dying, you do all you can to rescue something. When bank after bank goes down & there appears to be consensus ‘we need to do something’. Would have preferred to go with the republican plan.

10:22 am - Jim Costa says to do nothing is not an option.

10:21 am - Jim Costa is grilling from a Dem. perspective. Barney Frank says there are many concerns about the community banks, says there are a few protections. It seems like this bill really does not protect locals.

10:17 am - Mike Pence, who has been opposing this bill since the beginning is giving a great speech. “there are alternatives to massive government spending”

10:14 am - John Culberson “don’t bankrupt our kids to save wallstreet”.

Just like Iraq and the Patriot act, this bill is passing on fear. - LLoyd Doggett

10:12 am - Texas Republicans look like they are leading the charge against the bailout.

10:10 am - Ike Skelton is supporting this bill.

10:07 - Jeb Hensarling just called this bill the slippery slope of socialism, will be opposing the bill. Right now the speeches against this bill from both D’s and R’s are far more impassioned. “Err on the side of freedom.”

10:06 - James Moran praised Barney Frank for his leadership, he says that Taxpayers are in a great position to reap the benefits of the low cost of acquisition of these assets. There are a few making this argument that we should be able to make a profit or break even. This sounds like right before Iraq to me.

10:00 am - Thaddeus McCotter just nailed our side of the argument. He did an amazing job.

9:38 am - Gary Miller is now talking about how they [Reps.] could just wait around for things to happen and not vote. There is a catch-22 with supporting or opposing the bill.

9:25 am - Barney Frank just stood up and hopes that everyone votes in favor of the bill.

9:15 am - Vote on the adjournment is going to get killed, about 4 more minutes of voting. Rep. Rahm Emanuael D-IL is talking about the ‘great aspects’ of the bill.

9:06 am - Congressman Louie Gohmert from TX has called for an adjournment to “Stop Doing this terrible thing to America”

9:00 am - All of the callers who are in favor (its about 5 to 1 against) are people who made bad decisions on purchases. Do they realize that this bill is unlikely to trickle down to them?

I like this quote from CNN:

“This is a classic ‘orphan bill,’” said Larry J. Sabato, director of the University of Virginia’s Center for Politics. “A week after the vote, no one will claim parentage, and fingers will be pointed every which way. ‘I held my nose and voted for it, lacking a good alternative,’ will be the best anybody offers.”

8:54 am - The Washington Post printed the front page article expecting victory for the EESA.

8:43 am - Every caller into CSPAN is against the bailout. They are all raising great points in opposition.

8:27 am - CSPAN is covering the votes left over from the weekend. Congress will begin voting on procedures very soon.

I found the video they played here:

8:15 am - CSPAN is now playing a video of Dennis Kucinich where he mentions all of the problems with this Bailout. “Our system is accelerating the wealth upwards”. He also uses the “No Cash for Trash” line that inspired that project.

8:13 am - CSPAN reports that they will be doing some procedural votes and then move to a 3 hour debate. The earliest it’s looking like we will see a vote is around noon.

8:10 am - This morning (about a half hour ago) President Bush gave a short speech to make us feel better about the debate.

Because I’m a glutton for punishment and I really really want to see where these guys are going with all of this considering NO ONE seems to want them to do this. I’ll be blogging what I see from the C-Span coverage. Check back soon for more info & as I get set up downstairs. Reddit here: http://www.reddit.com/r/politics/search?q=bailout+debate+live+blog&x=0&y=0&t=day