Pentagon Correspondent Dawn Casey will cover the Pentagon gaggle and press briefing.
News Director Lovisa Frost will be reporting the White House press briefing.
The Washington Bureau will be covering a discussion with former Speaker of the House Newt Gingrich on his solutions for the financial crisis. They will also cover a forum at the Institute for Public Policy on “The Election and the Economics of Inequality”.
New York Times columnist Thomas Friedman describes how he asked former Vice President Al Gore to write a column apologizing for underestimating climate change as a way to express how bad things have become (0:49).
Senator Judd Greg (R-N.H.) compares the financial bailout bill to a tourniquet put on a patient to give time to get the patient to the hospital. He says the bill will not solve the entire financial crisis, but if it is not passed more serious consequences (such as amputation) may ensue. (0:28)
New York Times columnist Thomas L. Friedman says that the next great global industry will be energy technology and that whoever dominates the field will have the greatest economic, national, and energy security (0:26).
Senator Chris Dodd (D-Conn.) says that his constituents are angry, but they also say they’ll be angrier if Congress does not act to solve the financial crisis. (0:30)
Barney Frank (D-Mass.) says that he does not believe House Republicans voted against the bill due to Pelosi’s speech and jokes that if he can have the offended members names he will speak “uncharacteristically nice” with them (0:32).
Associating with the European Union is the number one concern for Ukrainian President Viktor Yushchenko in maintaining his nation’s sovereignty. This is the factor Yushchenko believes will differentiate the present maintenance of independence from the past. (0:33)
Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) says that House Democrats fulfilled their responsibilities and outlines that changes made to the bill to keep it bipartisan (0:42).
UN World Food Programme Executive Director Josette Sheeran speaks about the many benefits of school feeding programs and which particular countries are helped and why. (1:07)
“The Democratic side more than lived up to its side of the bargain. The legislation may have failed, the crisis is still with us,” said U.S. House of Representatives Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) during a press conference on the rejection of the Wall Street bailout plan by House Republicans.
According to Pelosi the bill was bipartisan. Democrats had put in language about capping CEO salaries and protecting about-to-be foreclosed homeowners keep their homes, and steps were taken to provide for congressional oversight.
Pelosi said that although the majority of the House Democrats heeded Secretary of Treasury Henry Paulson and President George W. Bush’s warnings regarding the need for the bailout plan, the House Republicans did not.
“We extend a hand of cooperation to the White House and to the Republicans so that we can get this issue resolved for the benefit of America’s working families, to strengthen our economy and therefore strengthen our country,” said Pelosi.
Chairman of the Financial Services Committee Barney Frank (D-Mass.) said that some members of the House had advised Paulson to make sure that his proposal was acceptable to both Wall Street and to the House Republicans, but that Paulson had not properly done that.
Frank said that the Bush administration should take the initiative to change the stance of the House Republicans.
The Democratic leadership disagreed with insinuations that the plan was derailed due to a partisan speech by Pelosi.
“I am appalled…We have come together on a bill to alleviate the crisis, and because somebody hurt their feelings they decide to punish the country? I would not have imputed them that degree of pettiness and hyper-sensitivity,” said Frank.
He went on to joke,
“There were 12 Republican members who were ready to stand up for the economic interest of America, but not if somebody said someting? Give me those 12 people’s names and I will go talk uncharacteristically nicely to them and tell them what wonderful people they are, and maybe they’d now think about the country.”
The plan was supported by 60 percent of the House Democrats and 67 percent of House Republicans voted against it.
