Sep 30, 2008 5:24 pm US/Eastern
Md. Congressman Has New Economic Rescue Plan
ANNAPOLIS, Md. (WJZ) ―
One day after the biggest sell-off in Wall Street history, US markets are showing signs of recovery. The Dow skyrocketed over 250 points just a day after falling 778 and the NASDAQ is up just over 100 points.
Weijia Jiang reports a Maryland congressman has a new economic rescue plan.
The so-called federal bailout would have handed over $700 billion to banks. Lawmakers killed the bill by a 228-205 vote.
"It's like a child when you give them medicine they don't want to take but you know if they don't take it even though it tastes bad, they will continue to be sick and that's what's happening here," said Representative Dutch Ruppersberger.
In Maryland, delegates Gilchrest, Sarbanes, Hoyer, Van Hollen and Ruppersberger passed the bailout measure while Cummings, Edwards and Bartlett rejected it.
"These are taxpayers' dollars, $700 billion of them to be spent probably within the next 120 days by one person. And so what we've got to do is make sure whatever we do is we do it in an urgent manner but at the same time, a careful manner," Representative Elijah Cummings said.
Cummings introduced a new bill Tuesday afternoon with other lawmakers who voted against the bailout. It focuses on using less taxes while adding more protection against foreclosures and changing the distribution of loans, which as it stands would be controlled heavily by Secretary of Treasury Henry Paulson.
But some Maryland lawmakers say there were enough details to keep taxpayers financially safe.
"There was a lot of work done to make sure there was protection for the taxpayer, protection for the homeowner trying to deal with foreclosure issues and other things. It wasn't enough for some people yesterday," said Representative John Sarbanes.
Though the original plan was a bi-partisan effort, just 65 Republicans voted yes compared to 140 Democrats; 133 Republican lawmakers voted no along with 95 Democrats.
"I think the Republican ideology overcame their common sense, overcame their sense of crisis and the request by their leaders to act so that this crisis could be, if not averted, at least diminished," said House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer.
Whether Republican or Democrat, all sides do agree something has to be done and soon. The House will reconvene on Thursday with hopes of a quick vote to pass a reworked version.
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