Published: October 02, 2008 09:13 pm         

Byrd, Rockefeller help pass Wall Street bailout

Call it a bailout. Call it a rescue.

One thing you cannot tag the $700 billion plan aimed at keeping America’s economy from sinking in a sea of failed mortgages is cheap.

“That ain’t chicken feed,” Sen. Robert C. Byrd, D-W.Va., aptly observed after the Senate agreed by a 74-25 vote Wednesday night to pass the controversial bill, with his reluctant support.

Now, it heads back to the House, where the initial version was shot down, but in its revised form, supporters feel it has a much better chance.

Rep. Nick Rahall, also D-W.Va., has termed the matter “vital” to sustain the nation’s economy, and is geared less than the salvation of Wall Street but for the interests of ordinary Americans on Main Street.

Without its passage, Rahall has warned, credit lines that keep small businesses going would be in jeopardy.

Byrd pointed out the ultimate cost of the plan exceeds the annual defense budget and is 14 times what the nation throws on highways and mass transportation.

What many fail to see, however, Rahall pointed out, is that the first phase of the plan bears a price tag of $250 billion, with the next $100 bill installment to be taken up by the next administration, followed by congressional approval of the final increment of $35 billion.

Byrd acknowledged he, along with many Americans, cannot fully understand “all the nuances of the financial mess that we are told is creeping into our Main Street communities and threatens to jeopardize the security of millions of Americans.”

“But we all understand that, when working families were suffering because of the economic policies of these past eight years, nobody in the Treasury Department or the Federal Reserve told us about the dangerous course we were on,” he said.

A product of the Great Depression himself, Byrd said he sees parallels between now and then, when Republican administrations pursued policies that pushed America to the brink of total collapse.

“For the past eight years, we have again heard the same slogans reflecting the same philosophy, and seen another Republican administration follow the same reckless path,” he said.

“Unleash capitalism has been the cry for the past eight years. Get the government off our backs. The government is the problem, not the solution. We have heard it all before.”

Sen. Jay Rockefeller, D-W.Va., said he shares the “anger and frustration” of the public but said Congress has no choice but to get the bailout plan on President Bush’s desk.

“Failure to act will severely hurt West Virginia families and that is a risk I am not willing to take,” he said.

— E-mail: mannix@register-herald.com