It’s official: Congress is not interested in addressing the underlying issues that caused this mess. Instead, they would rather pour trillions of dollars we don’t have into a doomed attempt to maintain the broken status quo.
I predict we’ll be repeating this whole routine in less than six months with a new bailout, after these hundreds of billions fail to fix anything.
Final vote in the House: 263 Yes – 171 No
Here’s how Washington State’s Representatives voted (district map):
YES:
- District 2 – Rick Larsen (D)
- District 3 – Brian Baird (D)
- District 6 – Norm Dicks (D)
- District 9 – Adam Smith (D)
NO:
- District 1 – Jay Inslee (D)
- District 4 – Doc Hastings (R)
- District 5 – Cathy McMorris Rodgers (R)
- District 7 – Jim McDermott (D) (voted YES first time around)
- District 8 – Dave Reichert (R)
Kudos to Jim McDermott (that’s a phrase I never thought I’d use) for actually switching his vote to the responsible side, and to Jay Inslee and Washington’s Republicans for sticking to their principles.
Curious what kind of pork was added to the bill to sway the votes of (at least) 57 congressmen? The Chicago Tribune has a good rundown here.
Update: It looks like my kudos for McDermott were premature. From the Seattle Times:
Democratic Rep. Jim McDermott said his opposition to the economic bailout proposal Friday was a “protest vote” made with the knowledge the bill would pass the House without his support.
…
“I told the speaker [Nancy Pelosi], certainly, if she needed my vote she could have it, but … I didn’t want to vote for it, and I really lodged a protest vote.”
I suppose I should have guessed.