Capitalism in limbo as renegades kill bailout - by David Olive
In a stunning rebuke to U.S. President George W. Bush and GOP presidential candidate John McCain, Republicans in the U.S. House of Representatives, joined by many Democrats, yesterday killed a bailout scheme promoted by the administration to rescue a U.S. financial system in paralysis.Bush, who twice has addressed the nation on the urgent need for passage of the rescue package, and from McCain, who stayed in the capital over the weekend making calls to recalcitrant Republican members of Congress to win their reluctant support for the bailout bill, 133 GOP and 95 Democratic members of the House joined to defeat the bill in a 228-205 vote. The rebuke amounted to a repudiation of the elites by Congressional backbenchers and their constituents. So why this remarkable revolt, which leaves the global financial system in a state of "credit gridlock"? All 435 House members have been deluged since last week with correspondence from constituents angry at what they perceive as a bailout of Wall Street fat cats at taxpayers' expense. And many Americans who've managed to keep up their mortgage payments are also resentful about indirectly bailing out neighbours who bought houses they couldn't afford.
All 435 members of Congress face re-election in just five weeks. Even those who voted for the bailout did so while holding their noses, and are fearful of confronting wrathful voters when they return to their districts later this week to campaign for re-election.
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