See checks and balances do work but only when the Speaker pisses off over half the House

A deeply divided U.S. House has narrowly rejected a massive taxpayer bailout of the troubled financial sector. President Bush pushed hard for the roughly 700-billion dollar bailout, warning that there could be dire consequences for the national economy without it. Though there was considerable crossover in the votes, most Democrats voted for it, while most Republicans voted against it. The Dow responded by dropping like a stone, losing more than 600 points at one point.

Stay with Newstalk 1190 WOWO for the latest developments

Ironically Republican incumbent Representative Mark "my small town values" Souder who has so much experience in Congress that he decided not to stand up and represent his constituents in his legacy vote regarding the Administration's welfare benefits package for corporations, and instead tried to structure his argument for the legislation as inevitable and capitulate by marking the legislation as "put(ting) a finger in the dike".

Sorry Mark, a dike doesn't cost 250-700 billion dollars to build, or repair.

Monday he called it "a bold bill that will help keep the crisis in our financial system from spreading throughout our economy." Souder said he was concerned abut the effect of the economic turmoil on northeast Indiana jobs. If jobs leave the area, he said, "they won't come back. We have more at risk than other areas." Souder said his office has been flooded by calls from constituents who oppose the bailout and said a "yes" vote is unpopular with voters. "Sometimes you got to gut it out," he said. "I don't like it," Souder said of the bill. "I tried to delay it" to allow for more discussion. Last week Souder said he was leaning toward voting against the bill, but Monday he said the revised legislation was better than Paulson proposed last week.

Mr. Souder, if citizens get frustrated enough, they might just have the guts to send you back home for good.

Here is a breakdown of the vote: There are 435 members in the House of Representatives in the United States Congress. The EESA 08 was defeated 205-228 (note that is more than half against); 65 Republicans and 140 Democrats who voted "yes"; 95 Democrats and 133 Republicans voted "no". There were one or two Representatives missing from the vote.

WOWO NEWS UPDATE 6pm:
6 out of 9 Representatives from Indiana voted against the EESA.
The DOW has closed @ 777 pointes down today in response to the vote.

To Watch It Unfold Rep. Dennis Kucinich (D) Ohio | Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D) California Speech
After The Vote Rep. Barney Frank (D) Massachusetts | The Republican House Leadership
Source: TowleRoad

FURTHER READING:
Fort Wayne Politics | Emergency Economic Stabilization Act of 2008 (pdf) |
Souder bucks GOP on bailout | Fort Wayne News | Speaker Nancy Pelosi's (D) California speech text

TO SEND MARK SOUDER HOME LEARN MORE ABOUT OUR CANDIDATE FOR CONGRESS
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