Quick action urged

Lawmakers representing local citizens say an agreement on a financial bailout for Wall Street must be reached soon or Main Street will feel the effects in terms of layoffs, loan availability and business stagnation.

U.S. Rep. John M. McHugh, R-Pierrepont Manor, and Rep. Michael R. McNulty, D-Green Island, both supported the $700 billion compromise plan in Monday's House of Representatives vote. The plan was defeated 228-205.

McHugh said this morning doing nothing to "let the market play out is a prescription for disaster."

He said there were some in Congress who felt a short-term downturn would right itself, but he didn't agree with that view.

McHugh stressed the importance of getting a deal reached for New York state. Of 29 New York state represen-

tatives in the House, 25 voted yes and four voted no, according to a congressional roll call.

"This bailout isn't to save the skins of those who made unwise financial decisions on Wall Street," McHugh said.

U.S. Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton, D-N.Y., called for renewed bipartisan action following the House's failure Monday to pass the compromise plan.

"This is not a time when doing nothing will see us through," Clinton said in a news release. "We have to take action."

Clinton also stressed the importance of coming to an agreement for the people of New York state.

"This really comes home here," Clinton said in the release. "We have tens of thousands of people who are dependent upon the financial services industry, we have thousands of people who run businesses across our state who can't get the credit they need to stay in business, and we have thousands of thousands of employees."

State Sen. Hugh T. Farley, R-Niskayuna, chairman of the New York State Senate Committee on Banks, said today the bailout defeated Monday wasn't as much of a Wall Street bailout as a plan that would help the average person.

"This [rejection of a bailout] could really be devastating," Farley said. "State revenues are so dependent on Wall Street."

He said 20 percent of state revenues come from the proceeds of Wall Street.

"It's a tremendous problem and a challenge we hope to turn around by the end of the week," he said.

Neither McNulty nor U.S. Sen. Charles Schumer, D-N.Y., could be reached this morning.

Member Comments

View Comments: | 1-11 | Post a comment

mpm227
10-01-08 7:59 AM »Report Abuse	Either Congress acts or we pay the money anyway. Each bank failure will need to be fixed by fdic with tax dollars. The rwal loosers are the people who need to sell a house,, buy a house, rent a apartment, use a credit card, borrow money to meet payroll. No credit no economy, no work. While this should never happen if we had presidnt who wasn't asleep at the switch. The current administration ignored this problem for the last 8 years now the only fix is a massive fix. In addition a huge portion of the New York State budget is funded by wall street if wall street goes down so does the budget of New York State.
shelby27
09-30-08 7:17 PM »Report Abuse	Ok, just a quick comment, on my end. If the $700 billion bail-out plan is what this country NEEDS to stay afloat, then how does the $100billion allocated to the president fit in?
Liferesident
09-30-08 6:53 PM »Report Abuse	A bill does need to be passed to protect everybody. Everyone loses when the market drops. I agree with Patriot1, there is a Lot of blame to go around, some by consumers who overextended themselves. I find it incredible that businesses would make “ninja” loans, which stands for No Income, No Job, and no Assets. What ever happened to the 4 “C’s” of credit??! There is a lot that made this situation bad. I do feel uneasy that the government is left to settle the mess.
bmwfred
09-30-08 6:28 PM »Report Abuse	I think the bail out plan is needed, but have to ask how many "ear marks" have been attached to it. What will they cost?
wrestler79
09-30-08 5:50 PM »Report Abuse	The only way that there should be any bail out plan is if there is spending cuts from the existing budget to pay for it. The cut needs to be one and a half times the total bail out because they lie so bad you know it is going to be worse than what they say. Just like the senior citizens drug plan.
ORiley
09-30-08 3:54 PM »Report Abuse	Forget the bailout give each American $1 million dollars then let each American stimulate the economy and save the tax payers lets see $6,700 million....
Discobulous
09-30-08 2:37 PM »Report Abuse	This is a good time to invest in companies that produce basic goods we can't do without. Everything else may be a gonner for some time. It just proves the old saying that the best way to rob a business is to at the top of it.
RizziBear
09-30-08 2:24 PM »Report Abuse	"This bailout isn't to save the skins of those who made unwise financial decisions on Wall Street," McHugh said. Uh-duh? Then give the money to me.
Patriot1
09-30-08 1:30 PM »Report Abuse	There is plenty of blame to go around: 1. Congress - 50%, for creating the political pressure to allow subprime loans. 2. The banks, the mortgage brokers, and the fatally flawed government constructs Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, the remaining 50%. To paraphrase Mark Twain, "Congress is America's only indigenous criminal class"!!
rocky1
09-30-08 11:38 AM »Report Abuse	Yes it is a tremendous problem. Get rid of the golden parachute that protects the crooks that started this mess and I will support a bailout. Once we take care of these crooks, we then can turn our attention to the rest of the crooks in Politics!
RizziBear
09-30-08 11:30 AM »Report Abuse	The great swindle is underway. No matter what happens now; big losses cannot be avoided by every household in the USA.

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