There were no reversals by the Wisconsin delegation, as the House voted to pass the financial services bailout. As with Monday's failed vote , Democrat Steve Kagen joined Republicans Tom Petri and Jim Sensenbrenner in voting “no.” Joining Republican Paul Ryan in a “yes” vote, Democrats Gwen Moore, Tammy Baldwin, Ron Kind and Dave Obey. “The boy genuses on Wall Street do not deserve to be rescued,” said Obey, who added that “sometimes in life, if we're responsible, we have to clean up not just the messes that we've created, but the messes that others have created as well.”
The House voted 263-171 for passage of the recuse of the nation's stricken financial services sector. The package, which the House rejected on Monday, was taken up and approved Wednesday by the Senate (Wisconsin's Senators, Democrats Russ Feingold and Herb Kohl, split their votes. Feingold voted “yes,” Kohl “no.”), which tacked an additional $150 billion in tax breaks onto the measure, bringing the total to $850 billion.
“My top priority in Congress has always been to protect the taxpayer,” said Ryan, the Janesville Republican who again voted for passage. “The Bush Administration bailout included no oversight, no limits on executive compensation, and no expectation that Wall Street share in the costs of their recovery. This rightfully offended the American people, and I fought to secure a better deal.”
Obey said the rescue package cannot prevent “a severe recession,” but will buy time to make needed changes. “There are three things missing from this bill,” said Kagen, the Appleton Democrat who faces a strong challenge in November from former state Assembly Speaker John Gard. ” A reward for people who diligently save their money; tight and effective regulation of speculators to prevent this from happening again; and transparency and accountability. Our goal must be to re-instill trust and credibility in our free market system by rewarding savings and punish those who take excessive risk.”
