With the first half of the $700 billion spent and no tangible results to show, the Senate is set to decide if Barack Obama will get the second $350 billion of the Wall Street bailout. With a vote set for Thursday, the Senate faces a a veto threat by Obama, if he doesn’t get what he wants. It’s hard to imagine it will actually come down to that, but who knows what might happen.

The President-elect’s economic team has been in meetings all over Washington, trying to make their case to reluctant Republicans, that Obama needs the money as a first step in our economic recovery. I find it amusing that some of these Republicans seem to be swayed by these meetings. From The Associated Press:

“These folks have much more credibility already than Secretary Paulson,” Sen. Jim DeMint, R-S.C., said, referring to the Bush administration’s treasury secretary, Henry Paulson.

Admittedly, that isn’t very hard to do. Paulson’s record on spending the first half of the money isn’t good at all. In fact, he has completely reversed course and has not used the money to help forestall foreclosures. Instead, he has bought preferred stock of certain banks and what’s more, those banks are refusing to disclose how they are spending the money.

Oklahoma Senator Jim Inhofe is also raising his voice against giving up the second $350 billion, as he did against the original bailout legislation. In a Newsmax interview, he has this to say:

“He was supposed to account for it. Even worse than that, he promised how it was going to be spent. He was going to buy damaged assets. That’s what he was going to do.

“Fifteen minutes after he got his hands on the money, he forgot all about that and never bought any damaged assets and instead bailed out various banks…

“A lot of Republicans are saying, well that money’s not gone, he bought preferred stock and it’s going to be paid back with interest.

“Well that would be awfully nice, but I don’t think that’s going to happen.”

Dominique has a more in-depth look at the Inhofe interview at An Unlikely Perspective 2.

With the way Congress is operating, with liberal leaders who are willing to push through their agenda, at great cost to our nation, I will be surprised if Obama doesn’t get this money. Our only hope is for people like Senator Inhofe, hopefully Senator Tom Coburn, and people like you and me, to make our voices heard. If you are against any further bailouts, please use the number below and make your voices heard. You can also visit the United States Senate website directory of all Senators to get the direct number to your Senators.

United States Senate switchboard–(202) 224-3121

Tags: Bailout, Barack Obama, Henry Paulson, Jim Inhofe, Senate Switchboard, Tom Coburn, United States Senate

This entry was posted on Thursday, January 15th, 2009 at 6:39 am and is filed under News/Politics. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.