House and Senate negotiators have reached tentative agreement on a financial rescue plan after a marathon Capitol negotiating session that started Saturday afternoon and stretched into early Sunday morning. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) and Sen. Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) said the deal still had to be “committed to paper,” a process that will continue throughout the night. Republican Whip Roy Blunt (R-Mo.), the chief Republican negotiator, said he was “looking forward to what we’re going to see on paper” but said he was optimistic that it would be something House Republicans could support. Said Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson: “We’ve been working very hard on this and we’ve made great progress toward a deal which will work and will be effective in the marketplace and effective for all Americans . . . .We’ve still got a lot to do to finalize it, but I think we’re there.”
In case you’re wondering what Congressional negotiators eat at a time of economic crisis, it’s Cosi, which was delivered around 8 p.m. Fairly reflective of the economic hard times, though it’s a step above Subway. Limitations of executive pay, more oversight than the original Bush administration plan, and the opportunity for the government to get a kick-back from a possible turn in the market are in the agreed-upon plan. Also probably included, to grab House Republican support, a concession to the insurance idea:
To help win the support of House Republicans, the deal also likely includes an option under which Paulson and future Treasury secretaries could choose to sell companies government-backed insurance to cover securities – thereby improving their value – rather than buy the assets as initially proposed.
Earlier today, Pelosi was pushing a new “Wall Street tax” that would be implemented if taxpayers got hosed on the $700 billion:
“If after five years … the CBO decides that the American taxpayer has lost money in this, then there would be a fee on financial institutions,” Pelosi said, adding that she hoped the provision could be part of a final bailout deal. Pelosi said that the Secretary of the Treasury could determine how to assess the fee.
And, the insurance idea was apparently gaining momentum at some point during the earlier negotiating today:
The idea of charging large financial firms fees to set up an industry-funded rescue insurance fund was gaining momentum as key House and Senate negotiators continued to meet Saturday evening to iron out the final details of a $700 billion rescue package for Wall Street. Lawmakers and staff reconvened their meeting around 7:30 p.m. EDT in the offices of House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D., Calif.), hopeful they could broker a deal on the much anticipated but exceedingly difficult-to-negotiate legislation that would have the federal government buy up billions of dollars of soured assets.
McCain was on the phone with various negotiators today, but not on the Hill.
Mr. McCain remained in his condominium in Arlington, Va., until 12:30 p.m. Saturday, when he emerged and made a one-minute trip in his motorcade to his campaign headquarters around the corner. Mr. McCain, who arrived home at 4 a.m. Saturday from the presidential debate in Oxford, Miss, could be seen in his car talking on his cell phone. But there was no word from his campaign on who he was talking to, or the extent of his involvement in ongoing negotiations. By mid-afternoon, Mr. McCain’s closest adviser, Mark Salter, told reporters that Mr. McCain would not go to Capitol Hill on Saturday but would make phone calls to try to push the deal along. “He’s calling members on both sides, talking to people in the administration, helping out as he can,” Mr. Salter said. Asked why Mr. McCain did not go to Capitol Hill after coming back to Washington to help with negotiations, Mr. Salter replied that “he can effectively do what he needs to do by phone.”
I confess to being confused once again by McCain’s strategy, which makes it harder for him to argue that he was taking the crisis more seriously than Obama who was doubtless working the phones today as well, but from the campaign trail. I do think he deserves credit for getting House Republicans in on this deal, bringing them to the table, and some credit for any insurance deal included, given that that was central to House GOP concerns, but it’s going to be hard to claim it against the inevitable media coverage.
