Word: capitol
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Dates: during 2000-2009
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...proposed $700 billion bailout of the nation's beleaguered financial markets has become a taffy pull between the Bush Administration and lawmakers from both parties. Many on Capitol Hill believe Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson is seeking too much unregulated cash and power in his effort to stabilize the economy by buying up toxic mortgage-backed securities. He's also asking Congress to lift the ceiling on the national debt to a record $11.3 trillion from the current $10.6 trillion, which could weaken the U.S. dollar, raise interest rates and act as an additional drag on the economy. All that money...
...point to a drop in housing prices of nearly 20% since mid-2006 and say the government's eventual loss could approach $1 trillion. By seeking $700 billion - roughly akin to the cost of the Iraq war (so far) - the Treasury is taking a middle path. But many on Capitol Hill are pushing a proposal to commit an initial sum of $150 billion to $200 billion before handing over the whole...
...possibility of giving the taxpayers a bath." But it also makes for quick and easy implementation. "When you go to a financial institution and say, 'We'd like to buy your bad assets,' they're going to say, 'Let's sit down and talk right this minute.' " Some on Capitol Hill, including Representative Barney Frank, the Massachusetts Democrat who heads the House Financial Services Committee, think the deal is too sweet for Wall Street and are pushing to give taxpayers a piece of equity in the companies they would bail...
Paulson faces other problems on Capitol Hill too. Both parties in Congress are by now deeply skeptical of any new Administration demands for increased executive authority and are vehemently pushing for more oversight of how Treasury will manage the bailout. The Paulson plan is bigger in that regard than just about anything Bush asked for in the war on terror. Section eight of the proposal he sent to Congress says, for example, "Decisions by the Secretary pursuant to the authority of this Act are non-reviewable and committed to agency discretion, and may not be reviewed by any court...
...sure, there's no shortage of grousing on Capitol Hill on both sides of the aisle. Democrats are happy to paint Republicans and the Bush Administration as disproportionately interested in Wall Street fat cats. But the Dems also know that they can come out on top by passing, with some alterations, a plan that is fundamentally in line with their philosophical approach to government regulation of the market. Republicans, for their part, quietly hate the proposal but can't get in the way of it this close to an election. "They think the market's going to melt down...