Thursday, October 02, 2008

Lowdown on Bailout Bill Senate Passes


Asian market responds positively to U.S. Senate passing bill

From SmartMoney

The Senate passed a modified version of the $700 billion bailout package designed to rescue the financial industry on Wednesday night, sending the bill to the House for a vote tentatively scheduled for Friday.

The Senate approved the 451-page bill by a vote of 74 to 25. The dissent came largely from Republican lawmakers, who opposed the bill's ancillary tax breaks, additions that inflated its actual cost to $810 billion.

Still, the sentiment on Capitol Hill was overwhelmingly positive as lawmakers congratulated one another on a bipartisan achievement that came two days after the House defeated an earlier version of the bill and sent the markets reeling.

"It's a much improved bill, and Congress rose to the occassion," Sen. Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) said on Larry King Live after the vote. "The Senate did, and we hope the House will in a few days."

The new bill includes $110 billion in tax breaks, including scaling back the number of households required to pay the alternative minimum tax and incentives for using renewable sources of energy. The bill also temporarily raised the ceiling on the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp.'s guarantee on bank deposits from $100,000 to $250,000.


I'm still waiting for the elimination of Capitol Gains Tax, Inheritance Tax and Newt Gingrich's mark to market idea. We'll see what the House does with this, and the polls show how Americans like the Democrat Senate increasing the bill from $700 to $810 billion. Unbelievable!

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