Word: wednesday
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...passage would be to allow two substitute bills, one Democratic and one Republican - cosmetic votes that would fail from the get-go but would give senators the chance to vote for certain provisions near and dear to their hearts that are not in the compromise package. Democrats, scrambling late Wednesday to find a way to get a bill passed, were also considering allowing votes on amendments. "We're trying to see if there's any flexibility out there," a top Democratic aide said of the search to scrounge enough votes. (See the 50 worst cars of all time...
...again, the Administration's emissaries had little success swaying Senators' views. Senate Republicans Wednesday staged a mini revolt at a 90-min. luncheon with White House chief of staff Josh Bolten and Vice President Dick Cheney. The GOP leaders emerged from the lunch only to acknowledge that they were far from having the necessary votes. Not only are many strongly opposed to a plan they believe will only postpone the inevitable bankruptcy of GM and Chrysler, they feel that the President has a much easier alternative that would provide them political cover; allow the money instead to be taken from...
...investment losses are sure to rankle lawmakers already unhappy with the way the Treasury has handled the first stage of the $700 billion financial-rescue plan. In a hearing on Wednesday, members of the House Financial Services Committee said the Treasury has not done enough to slow foreclosures, increase bank lending or protect taxpayers' money. Lawmakers questioned Assistant Treasury Secretary Neel Kashkari on why his agency had not yet hired an outside firm to help manage its investments. They also wanted to know whether the Treasury Department had set a limit on executive compensation at the firms in which Treasury...
...Also out on Wednesday was a report by an oversight board appointed by Congress to evaluate Treasury's economic-rescue efforts. The board, which is headed by Harvard law professor Elizabeth Warren, criticized Treasury for failing to set up a program to monitor the effectiveness of TARP. In particular, the oversight board said it was important for Treasury to institute a method to determine whether the banks receiving government funds are using the money to make loans. "American taxpayers need to know that their money is having a tangible effect on improving financial stability, credit availability, and the economy...
...recent Wednesday, 432 people have called in. Nadezhda Kumyiny is one of them. She's phoning from a small village in the Kursk region, southeast of Lyudinovo. She wants to borrow 30,000 rubles - just over $1,000. The woman taking her call fills in the details on a screen. Experienced call-center workers can process a request and grant pre-approval in under six minutes, but Kumyiny can't remember her zip code, which slows everything down. Watching over the process is deputy operations director Viktoriya Selezneva, who says the economic crisis has yet to arrive. "The volume...