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WORLD> America
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Bush team, Congress haggle over $700B bailout
(Agencies)
Updated: 2008-09-23 22:18 Lawmakers on both extremes of the political spectrum assailed the plan as a massive, poorly conceived bailout. Conservative House Republicans and liberal House Democrats both huddled privately Monday to express their concerns, and they were drafting their own legislative alternatives. The emergency legislation would give the government broad power to buy up devalued assets from troubled financial firms in a bid to unlock the flow of credit and stabilize badly shaken markets in the United States and around the globe. In an expansion of its original proposal, the Bush administration is asking for broad power to buy up virtually any kind of bad asset -- including credit card debt or car loans -- from any financial institution in the US or abroad in order to stabilize markets. Frank said he and Paulson had agreed to create a congressional oversight board as part of the bailout and to require that the government come up with a plan to avoid foreclosures on any mortgages it acquires in the rescue. A government official with knowledge of the talks confirmed the administration backs those provisions. There still were divisions on which tottering financial firms would be helped and what kind of assets the government could buy as part of the bailout. Lawmakers in both parties appeared to be coalescing around the idea that executive compensation limits should be part of the bailout, although Paulson says he is concerned that such curbs would discourage companies from participating. Investors were uncertain just how successful the administration's plan would be in unfreezing credit markets, which many businesses depend on to fund day-to-day operations, and for propping up the still-weak housing market. |
