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Senate Approval Predicted; House Likely to Vote Friday

Money power scam with media control brainwashing sheepsters.




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SENATE, VOTE, BAILOUT, WALL STREET, BANKS, PAULSON, BERNANKE
CNBC staff and wire reports
| 01 Oct 2008 | 01:25 PM ET

Prospects for a financial rescue plan improved as the Senate prepared to vote Wednesday night on a revised measure and House leaders said progress is being made in their chamber.

The Senate is expected to pass the bill late Wednesday and then send it to the House for a vote. The House is "likely" to vote Friday, a senior House Democratic aide said.

Democratic Sen. Charles Schumer of New York told CNBC that there was broad bipartisan support in the Senate and predicted the measure will be approved.

"The tone has changed," Schumer said in a live interview. The reason was that voters appeared to have softened their opposition to a bailout plan.

"Last week, it was overwhelmingly vote 'No,' " Schumer said. "Now it is 'well you may not like this plan, but do something.' "

House Republican Whip Roy Blunt of Missouri also said that prospects for passage have improved, and he said he was particularly heartened by indications the legislation has become more appealing to constituents back home.

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The plan for Wednesday night's Senate vote was set after leaders there agreed to add tax breaks for businesses and the middle class and increase deposit insurance in an attempt to revive the legislation rejected by the House. Click here for details of Senate plan.

But House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer, D-Md., said on NBC's "Today" show he was concerned that the tax issues could complicate the chances of final congressional passage when the legislation comes back to the House floor for a vote.

"There's no doubt the tax package is very controversial," he said, adding that "there's no doubt in my mind that the Senate added this because they thought that's the only way they could get it passed." He said he wasn't pleased the tax provisions were attached to the bill.

There are concerns that moderate House Democrats known as "Blue Dogs" will be repulsed by the tax breaks, and could vote no because they have saying they don't want to see the deficit run up even further.

House GOP Whip Blunt said one of the reasons he is more optimistic is that lawmakers are hearing less vocal opposition from their districts.

He said that calls and e-mails to congressional offices that were running about 90 percent against the measure earlier now are at about "50-50." "It should be before the House as quickly as it can," Blunt said on NBC.

"But we should not set any artificial time limit here." He said that is one of the factors that doomed the bill, which was defeated 228-205 Monday, sending Wall Street into a nosedive with the biggest sell-off since the post-9-11 trading period.

Both Blunt and Hoyer said they thought the atmosphere on the Hill was more conducive to passage now, saying they believe an emerging consensus on raising the federal deposit insurance to $250,000 has helped significantly and that a House vote could come later this week.

Blunt also said he believes there's a better chance of getting the legislation enacted in the wake of a move to ease Security and Exchange Commission accounting rules in a way that would give businesses more leeway in how they value their assets.

Senate Banking Committee Chairman Christopher Dodd, D-Conn., emerged from a meeting Tuesday to tell told reporters, "I'm told a number of people who voted 'no' yesterday are having serious second thoughts about it."

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., issued a statement that suggested she does not like the Senate move but did not reveal her plans.

"The Senate will vote tomorrow night and the Congress will work its will," Pelosi said Tuesday.

Democratic presidential nominee Barack Obama and his GOP rival, John McCain, planned to fly to Washington for the Senate vote, as did Democratic vice presidential nominee Joe Biden.

The expected support of both Obama and McCain will make it difficult for Pelosi to ship the measure back to the Senate with a different set of vote-getting add-ons.
© 2008 CNBC

URL: http://www.cnbc.com/id/26972599/