The Wall Street bailout plan has been defeated in the House.
WASHINGTON – In a moment of historic drama in the Capitol and on Wall Street, the House of Representatives voted on Monday to reject a $700 billion rescue of the financial industry.
The vote against the measure was 228 to 205. Supporters vowed to try to bring the rescue package up for consideration again as soon as possible.
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House leaders pushing for the package kept the voting period open for some 40 minutes past the allotted time, trying to convert “no” votes to “yes” votes by pointing to damage being done to the markets, but to no avail.
Whatever the relative merits of the economic legislation, this is still a very good day for our Republic.
It is far past time the Congressional Leadership realized that they are Representatives of the People – not of Wall Street bankers, corporate moguls, and foreign money lenders. With public opinion so dead set against this bill, Pelosi and the others had no business trying to ram it through the House without adequate discussion and debate.
Hopefully, the defeat of Paulson’s Folly today will be a harbinger of a new era of greater accountability and responsibility by our elected representatives to the wishes of those whom they purport to represent.
But whatever the future may hold, at least on this day our Constitutional Republic has shown that it still has some life left in it.
Update: More on the vote from KagroX here.