Obama on bailout failure
Posted: Monday, September 29, 2008 3:14 PM by Domenico Montanaro
From NBC/NJ's Athena Jones
WESTMINSTER, Colo. -- Obama said he's confident a deal will be reached on a bailout plan, despite it failing in the House.
Explaining why he was delayed at the start of his event, he said in this town about 20 minutes outside Denver, "I was on the phone with Secretary
Paulson as well as the Speaker of the House and the Congressional leaders, because they are still trying to work through this rescue package. And obviously this is a very difficult thing to do. It's difficult because we shouldn't have gotten here in the first place.
"We meet here at a time of great uncertainty for America. The era of greed and irresponsibility on Wall Street and in Washington has led us to a financial crisis as serious as any we have faced since the Great Depression. They said they wanted to let the market run free but instead they let it run wild, and in the process they trampled our American values of fairness, balance, and responsibility to one another. Now, because of speculators who gamed the system and regulators who looked the other way, your jobs, your life savings, and the stability of our entire economy is at risk."
"So we've been left with no good options. And today, Democrats and Republicans in Washington have a responsibility to make sure that an emergency rescue package is put forward that can at least stop the immediate problems that we have so we can begin to plan for the future."
"Now, as I said, this is a hard thing to do. And, you know, right now, Democratic and Republican leaders have agreed, but members have not yet agreed. And there are going to be some bumps and trials and tribulations and ups and downs before we get this rescue package done.
"It's important for the American public and for the markets to stay calm, because things are never smooth in Congress, and to understand that it will get done. We are going to make sure that an emergency package is put together because it is required for us to stabilize the markets and to make sure that when a small business person wakes up tomorrow morning, he's going to be able to make payroll. That your, that your 401k and all the planning you've done for your retirement, that that's still going to be there. That we're not going to be losing jobs at a faster clip than we're doing right now, so I'm confident that we are gonna get there, but it's gong to be a little rocky. It's sort of like flying into Denver. You know you're going to land, but it's not always fun going over those mountains."
"At first, just some brief remarks on the deal that was arrived at last night, or night before last. Because I think it's important for people to understand what's currently on the table. It may go through some more modifications. It's a plan that has improved a good deal from the time it was first introduced by the Bush administration. This administration started off by asking for a blank check of $700 billion to solve the problem. And I said absolutely not."
