From Deseret News archives:

Hope reviving for a bailout

Senate is expected to vote today on financial-rescue plan

Published: Wednesday, Oct. 1, 2008 12:11 a.m. MDT
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WASHINGTON — Senate Democrats and Republicans have agreed to hold a vote today on a $700 billion financial-rescue plan amid evidence voters and lawmakers regretted Monday's U.S. House vote to kill the bailout.

Supporters of the multibillion-dollar economic rescue plan fought to bring it back to life Tuesday, courting reluctant House members who smacked it down the day before.

Wall Street, at least, regained hope. The Dow Jones industrials rose 485 points, one day after a record 778-point plunge following the House vote spurning the plan.

The Senate vote expected today could pressure the House into acting. But the Senate plan was to include a tax-cut proposal that already has been rejected by the House.

Sen. Bob Bennett, R-Utah, who has been a negotiator on the financial rescue package, warned in a Senate speech Tuesday that if Congress does not enact a package soon, markets will drop again, and "your retirement account will be hurt in a way that will take years to recover."

He said $700 billion for a bailout is indeed a lot of money. But during the market drop on Monday, people with "ordinary Main Street kind of 401(k) plans" lost $1 trillion in market value, "and they lost it in a matter of minutes."

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As an example of "Main Street" kind of problems emerging, Bennett said a Utah car dealer — who is the largest employer in his town — called to tell him he could not pay employees because his bank was unwilling to give him his normal short-term loans to cover such things amid the current turmoil.

"That is the implication of the seizing up of the credit markets. That has nothing to do with the stock value of this particular car dealer. That has to do with the paychecks that go into the pockets of the people who fix the cars, who wash the cars and who try to sell the cars. They are the ones who will pay the price of the inaction in Congress," Bennett said.

Bennett said he understands voter anger at Wall Street, but reforms can and should come later. "Let's put out the fire right now. Let's not spend our time as the fire is burning running around trying to find out who the arsonist may have been, while the fire destroys the building. Let's free up credit markets right now."

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., and GOP leader Mitch McConnell of Kentucky unveiled the Senate plan late Tuesday. Among other things, it also would raise federal deposit insurance limits to $250,000 from $100,000, as called for by the two presidential nominees only hours earlier.

Recent comments

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Take your arguments up with the economics...

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Image
Tim Sloan, AFP, Getty Images

Republican Sens. Jon Kyl of Arizona, Bob Bennett of Utah, Minority Leader Mitch McConnell of Kentucky, Jedd Gregg of New Hampshire and Lamar Alexander of Tennessee discuss the crisis Tuesday on Capitol Hill.

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