Politico.comIn a closed-door session with House Republicans, Minority Leader John A. Boehner just called the financial rescue deal a "crap sandwich" – then said he'll vote for it when it comes to the floor Monday.I've come to the reluctant conclusion that the Republicans in the House, and John McCain should blow up this bill. It is now an undisputed fact that McCain and the House Republicans blew up a very bad deal forming on Thursday. This was a good thing. In it's place we have a better bill, as the link to the side by side comparison shows. The GOP by exercising their leverage was able to strip out some of the onerous things, but not enough in my view to be worth it. We still have a $350 billion bailout to Wall Street, possible another $350 if congress approves further. What is swinging my opinion is that very smart people are saying the only thing necessary is to change the rule on Mark to Market Accounting:
House Republicans are the key to the bill's passage – Speaker Nancy Pelosi said earlier today that it's a "bipartisan" bill and will need "bipartisanship" to pass – and it now appears that a substantial number of them will put cast their votes in favor of it.
According to a source in the room, the plan has so far won endorsements from Minority Whip Roy Blunt, who negotiated it on behalf of the House Republicans; Eric Cantor, the chief deputy whip; and Paul Ryan, a hard-core conservative from Wisconsin who may hold more sway with conservatives on this issue than any other member of the House.
There are other very smart people who insist that MTM is not the problem and will not help things. But why not write the bill in such a way as to try the cheapest easiest stuff first, then the harder stuff, then finally the taxpayer bailout.Economist Wesbury is saying that if we change that one rule and don't force them to mark down to market value and just let them hold on to all the stuff, and say just on sub-primes for this period of time you can change that rule -- a temporary change -- that'll free the market up. It's seized right now; it's frozen. This will thaw it out and get it going again. He says that'll solve 60% of the problem ... and I think he's right.
