Congress Passes Historic $700 Billion Wall Street Bailout ("Rescue Package")

The Average Taxpayer May Never See Benefit from the Legislation

In one of the fastest pieces of legislation to move through the political system of the United States, president Bush signed into law Friday afternoon, October 3, the $700 billion bailout legislation (expanded into an $850 billion rescue package) that was passed today just before noon. An amazingly short forty-eight minutes passed from bill passage to signing. Just a mere two weeks ago, Secretary Treasurer Henry Paulson proposed a $700 billion bailout of Wall Street and met behind closed doors in Washington with key legislators to iron out a plan that might pass the House of Representatives and the Senate.

And it still failed. Capitol Hill was inundated with mail, e-mail, phone calls, and petitions to vote down the legislation. Legislators were scrambling for their political lives.

Two days later, the Senate passed the measure by a three-quarters majority, with addenda -- $150 billion worth.

And two days after that, on Friday, the House of Representatives went round two with the bill. This time, the House passed the bill by a substantial margin, 263-171. Many Congressmen changed their votes due to "sweeteners," earmarks that were added to the bill, and because of the drastic drop in trading on Wall Street after the failure of the bill to pass on Monday (the Dow Jones fell 778 points, the largest single day drop in history). The number of people communicating a negative response to the bill was also lighter as voters began to feel that something needed to be done to shore up the flagging American economy. Repackaging the bailout legislation not as a "bailout" of Wall Street but a stabilizing buyout to free up lending capital helped alleviate doubts as well.

Secretary Paulson said that he would get to work immediately to implement the new authorities given him and would work in close cooperation with Ben Bernanke, Chairman of the Federal Reserve.

Some are now labeling the passage and signing of the $850 billion bailout bill as a Paulson-Bush financial coup d'etat.

So What Happens Now?