Leaders back historic bailout; 'Now we have to get the votes'
WASHINGTON -- Democratic and Republican leaders worked into the night Sunday to line up enough votes for a $700 billion bailout of the nation's troubled credit markets.
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., scheduled a vote for Monday morning on a bill that the White House helped negotiate.
Congressional leaders who last week expressed opposition to the White House bailout said Sunday they back the new version because it includes provisions to limit the taxpayers' exposure.
Emerging from a three-hour closed-door meeting with Republicans House Minority Leader John Boehner, R-Ohio, said he urged them "to support the bill." Asked if there were enough votes, Boehner said, "I don't know."
After a marathon weekend of work on the legislation, weary negotiators said that the hardest part is still before them.
"Now we have to get the votes," said Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev.
Congressional leaders said the price tag of the bill may be unpalatable but is necessary to keep credit flowing for student loans, car loans and home mortgages. Boehner said it's needed to "avert the crisis" in the nation's financial markets."
"If we don't pass this bill, serious harm will occur," agreed House Financial Services Committee Chairman Barney Frank, D-Mass.
The legislation got a tentative thumbs up from presidential candidates John McCain and Barack Obama.
"My inclination would be to vote for it, with the understanding that I'm not happy about it" Obama, the Democratic nominee, said on CBS' Face the Nation. Republican McCain, speaking on ABC's This Week, called the bailout "something that all of us will swallow hard and go forward with."
Backers of the bill said it will help ordinary Americans as well as teetering investment houses.
"This isn't about a bailout of Wall Street," said Pelosi. "It's a buy-in so we can turn our economy around."
There remained deep opposition in both parties. One Democratic member of the House Financial Services Committee, Brad Sherman of California, accused the Bush administration of creating an "exaggerated panic" about the possibility of the stock market collapsing.
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