According to a press release just off the wire, the U.S. Senate will allow a vote on only one amendment to the Wall Street bailout bill - an amendment by Bernie Sanders to impose a surtax on millionaires to finance the bailout. I wrote about Sanders' proposal in my last newspaper column. There's talk that Senate leaders are trying to force Sanders into only asking for a voice vote, not an on-the-record Roll Call vote, for fear that a public vote where Senators have to each take a position might pass, while an anonymous voice vote might fail. Here's the excerpt of the press release from Sanders:
WASHINGTON, October 1 - The Senate today will debate an amendment by Senator Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) to impose a surtax on the wealthiest Americans to pay for a $700 billion emergency bailout of Wall Street.
"Having mismanaged the economy for eight years while continually insisting that the 'fundamentals of our economy are strong,' the Bush administration now wants the middle class of this country to bail out Wall Street," Sanders said. "Meanwhile the wealthiest people, those who have benefited most from Bush's policies and are in the best position to pay, are being asked for no sacrifice at all. This is absurd."
Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) set aside one hour to consider the Sanders Amendment to raise $300 billion from a five-year, 10 percent surtax on couples with incomes of more than $1 million and individuals earning $500,000. It is the only amendment being offered to the bill.
"Vermonters and people across America are saying very clearly that this bailout is a bad idea and that the struggling middle class should not have to pay for the greed and excesses of Wall Street. I have received hundreds of calls and more than 2,000 e-mails from Vermonters, almost all of them against this plan. Some 48,000 people all over the country have joined me in signing a letter to Treasury Secretary Paulson opposing any bailout paid for by the middle class," Sanders said.
Read Sanders full amendment here, and then contact your Senators demanding they support it. If we're going to bailout Wall Street, we have to make sure the bailout is - at the absolute minimum - paid for so as to not exacerbate the national debt, drive up interest rates and increase inflation.
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