Bailout Plan Received With Anger & Skepticism

Treasury Secretary Henry M. Paulson Jr. met with anger at today’s Senate Banking Committee where he tried to persuade Congress “to enact this bill quickly and cleanly, and avoid slowing it down with other provisions that are unrelated or don’t have broad support.”

But after hours of back-and-forth they rejected the administration’s plan. “What they have sent us is not acceptable,” the committee chairman, Senator Christopher J. Dodd, Democrat of Connecticut, told The Associated Press.

Senator Dodd also called the proposal “stunning and unprecedented in its scope and lack of detail.”  “After reading this proposal, I can only conclude that it is not only our economy that is at risk, Mr. Secretary, but our Constitution, as well.”

Another expression of disgust came from Senator Jim Bunning, Republican of Kentucky, who said the plan would “take Wall Street’s pain and spread it to the taxpayers.”