The Progressive Caucus and the Bailout

by: Matt Stoller

Sat Sep 27, 2008 at 18:31


The push for this deal feels inexorable even as more economists leave the urgent camp, but I do think there is a slim chance it can be stopped.  I can't quite figure out the strength of the anti-bailout forces in the House.  Around 30 members said they would or might vote for the bailout if it included bankruptcy provisions, and would not vote for it if it does include bankruptcy provisions.  That does not include 'hard no' votes like Pete Stark, people who will simply vote no for a bailout because they do not think it makes sense to do a ridiculous give-away to Wall Street and want to wait until the election to deal with the liquidity, insolvency, and political crisis.

16 members signed this progressive caucus letter (part two is here) demanding homeowners protections and a transactions tax to force the people who caused the mess to pay for it (or as they call it, a progressive PAYGO).  I know there are probably overlaps here, and not every hard no vote is included, so there are probably between 40-50 Democratic members who are a no on this bill without bankruptcy protections.  That's a sizeable chunk of the caucus, and that's a rough minimum.  Obama's public statement that he doesn't want Bankruptcy Bill revisions in this package has hurt House member organizing on this provision, though his people are trying to walk back his words privately.

You'll note that the progressive caucus has 74 members, and this letter has 16 signatures on it.  The ones who put their name down include some real progressive heroes, old warhorses like John Lewis, Barbara Lee, and Pete Stark, and younger fresh voices like Keith Ellison.  And yes, that's Donna Edwards on the letter, one of our Better Democrats.

This is the rock we build upon.
Matt Stoller :: The Progressive Caucus and the Bailout

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The Progressive Caucus and the Bailout | 9 comments
Obama (0.00 / 0)
Major Obama financial backer Whitney Tilson is pushing for the bail out. Yes he's a hedge fund manager, why do you ask?
A lot will depend (0.00 / 0)
on whether the national outrage continues through next week, seems to me. It sounds like legislators are genuinely getting scared by the reaction. The question then becomes whether the backers will manage to shut people up with fear and "compromise".

Anybody know what the procedure will be on this? I'm afraid of something like a quick voice vote on some "compromise" on Monday before anybody even knows exactly what's in the bill. Can Congress ever work that fast? Who has a good tactical plan of opposition?

Demonstrations (4.00 / 1)
We need more demonstrations.
[ Parent ]
Fuck that PAYGO shit (0.00 / 0)
man, why does congress have to make scrambled eggs of everything. what does buy and selling stocks have to do with the Fed Resv and banks over lending in a bubble Real Estate market and then the banks repackaging the mortgages into complex financial assets, and the ratings companies taking a powder on review the crap?

what does general trading have to do with that at all? nothing. this is some dumb view that all stock traders are millionaire brokers screwing the common woman/man. nonsense. if they want to add a tax to pay for a bailout then put an insurance fee of some sort on bank institutions. while they're at that they might want to raise the FDIC insurance premium.

Michael Bloomberg, prince of corporate welfare

Obama Also Wants To Be A Transformative President (0.00 / 0)
He's a man with enormous ambition and self-confidence. Fine. He's watching the almost sure failure of his first year in office, at the least, as he stands back and let's this crazy bailout happen. He's got to care more about that than some damn hedge fund adviser.

Is there any way to direct our displeasure toward Obama and his campaign, as well as at congressional Democrats. Matt, you have more contacts than the rest of us. Can't we get some kind of resistance organized?

One of my greatest frustrations is the way in which the blogisphere has not figured out how to organize itself on short-notice to influence Democrats in crucial moments to wake up and realize that their best bet is to listen to their base- and never to Republicans.

Every blog should be asking their readers to continue to call congressional offices - and send emails - with a unified message. Slow down this process. There is no Monday deadline. The asian markets is a crock. Have hearings early next week at which actual economists can testify.

It worked last week enough that Dodd and the rest of them are entirely aware of how much this bailout is hated.

I would also think that it's still important to let them know what HAS to be in any bill they come up with if they don't want to find themselves holding the bag on this one, just like they ended up doing on Iraq. Let the bag men hold the fucking bag this time. Remember, even if they come up with a bill by Sunday, Monday it goes to he floor, and I don't think it's likely to sail through

So, for anyone close enough to get to Washington by Monday, there should be as large a contingent of bloggers and blog-readers politely storming the offices of the Democratic leadership as well as the banking committees. Ditto for wherever Obama and Biden are campaigning - people with signs demanding leadership from both of them.

It's clear that Dems know this is wildly unpopular, but they need to believe that there is real danger for them, and that this is one time their own voters won't forgive or forget.

mybarackobama (0.00 / 0)
Is there any way to direct our displeasure toward Obama and his campaign, as well as at congressional Democrats. Matt, you have more contacts than the rest of us. Can't we get some kind of resistance organized?

Maybe we could create a No Bail Out group on MyBarakObama, similar to the Get FISA right Group

[ Parent ]
That'd be great -- although I think Facebook is even more promising ... (0.00 / 0)
If anybody starts up a group on my.barackobama.com, please add the link to the list here.

That said, we need to put pressure on all the Congresspeople, and for that, Facebook's a better platform.  No blank check for Wall Street's wall-writing campaign is one approach -- and the only one I've seen so far.  From the wiki:

As well as building a large group of supporters, we can also use Facebook to communicate directly with politicians: most of them have Facebook pages, and those pages have Walls where anybody can leave a message.

An organized wall-writing campaign leverages the direct communication of Facebook in a unique way. And while it's no substitute for phoning politicians, wall-writing also has some major advantages: you don't have to spend time on hold, voicemail doesn't get filled up by people leaving long angry rants, and press and activists get to see how much feedback the politician has gotten. Get FISA Right prototyped this briefly with its 50-state strategy, and initial results were promising; this time, the approach is a lot simpler.

Please get involved!  And even if you're not on Facebook, you can help get the word out by blogging about it and emailing your friends.

If you'd like to help, please email me!

jon

[ Parent ]
Phone lines get filled up ... (0.00 / 0)
Somebody posted Monday night (I think) that Clinton's voice mail was filled by 8 p.m. or so; and during the day, there are only a limited number of staffers available.  It's almost like politicians don't want to make it easy for people to contact them ....

So yes, phoning is important; it's also vital to find other ways of getting the message to people.  

And yeah, agreed about the frustration with the progressive blogosphere.  They've been great at expressing outrage on this.  In terms of helping organize a response, not so much....

jon


[ Parent ]
I called Mike Capuano's office (0.00 / 0)
And urged him to vote against this monstrosity.  The very nice constituent staffer that answered my call said that he would read the legislation first and then decide, but that he had been on the right side in past debates (i.e. FISA).

I really hope that this bill gets torpedoed by the combined Republican and progressive "No" votes.  That way Pelosi and Reid have no choice but to come back and re-insert the bankruptcy provision and dare Bush to veto this "vitally important" bill!

[ Parent ]
The Progressive Caucus and the Bailout | 9 comments
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