House Republicans change pace of negotiations
By DIANA MARRERO
[email protected]Posted: Sept. 26, 2008
Washington - Armed with their own ideas about how to rescue the financial industry, House Republicans have changed the dynamics of congressional negotiations over a $700 billion bailout plan by Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson.
Rep. Paul Ryan, a Janesville Republican, is at the center of the alternative proposal that threatened to derail agreement on the Paulson plan. By Friday afternoon, however, a top Democratic leader said congressional negotiators working on a fix were willing to consider the conservative proposal “if this will bring the House Republicans to the table.”
Ryan, who has emerged as a key player in the negotiations, said his caucus did not like Paulson’s plan. The administration proposal would allow the government to buy bad loans from troubled firms in an effort to give sluggish credit markets a boost.
Under the House Republican proposal, the government would offer companies insurance for their mortgage-backed securities for a premium. The government would pay up only on those that default. The government already insures roughly half the nation’s mortgage-backed securities.
“Our goal is to protect the taxpayer,” Ryan said.
Paulson already had considered an idea similar to the one offered by House Republicans but discarded it in favor of the plan that he recommended. Throughout the day Friday, Democrats accused Republicans of putting a kink into the carefully negotiated agreements between congressional leaders and the Bush administration.
http://www.jsonline.com/story/index.aspx?id=799852