Congress works to stall unemployment

Rep. Carolyn Maloney (D-N.Y.) said that the United States is in "an unbearable financial situation" in a Joint Economic Committee Hearing. She said the job market has been "deteriorating" for the last year.

Bureau of Labor Statistics Commissioner Keith Hall said that jobs have been lost for nine consecutive months. According to Hall, a recession is realized after nine or 10 consecutive months of job losses. He said that the biggest job losses have been in industries such as manufacturing, retail, and construction. Hall said the U.S. currently has "a broadly weak labor market." He also said said that the many jobs that have been shipped overseas "did not return."

The September Jobs Report released today, showed that 159,000 jobs were lost this September, the highest monthly loss in five years and the unemployment rate is at 6.1 percent. The report also said that while wages have increased by 3.4 percent in the last year, inflation has increased by 5.4 percent.

"Billionaires" back bailout

As the bailout bill inches closer towards congressional approval, the workers rights organization Jobs with Justice met in 17 cities to voice their opposition. In DC, this took a unique form: Political theater.

A satirical group calling themselves Billionaires for the Bailout donned homemade top hats, thrift store suits, and cheap cigars to imitate the Wall Street elite at a rally held in Farragut Square. The group demanded "blank checks for billionaires" as they paid visits to the surrounding banks, stopping at each to perform a short skit.

"Senator, I need you to scrub the dirt off my feet," pleaded one of the skit's "billionaires" before resting her foot on the back of an actor labeled "the American taxpayer". The Senate archetype eagerly obliged, and scrubbed the billionaire's feet with money as actors representing foreclosed home owners, oppressed workers, and uninsured patients encircled the group in opposition.

When asked how Jobs with Justice felt about the President's promise, event organizer Carlos Jiminez replied, "the President has said a lot of things" and mentioned the absence of WMD in Iraq.

Politics and bailout aren't mixing well

Former Rep. William Frenzel (R-Minn.) said the bailout plan failed to pass in Congress because of the "real struggle between the hard right and the hard left," at a discussion held by the Bookings Institute. He said there is "an extra level of animosity" between political parties, which made bills "doubly difficult" to pass.

Frenzel said that the bill will have to contain more "goodies" for it to be passed. In order to get the necessary 12-15 more votes to pass the bill, it will have to "move to the right" in order to get Republicans to vote for it next time. He was adamant the bailout would be passed because there was a small group of Congressmen that will change their vote.

Senior Fellow at the Brookings Institution Alice Rivlin said that the economy will recover when the United States "gets credit flowing again." She supported the bailout bill, saying it will "probably work." Rivlin said that if the U.S. does nothing, it could result in "a financial meltdown around the world." She added that if we can successfully rescue failing banks and companies, that there is no reason to think there is something "fundamentally wrong" with the U.S. economic system.

Professor of Entrepreneurship at MIT Simon Johnson said that while we are in a dangerous situation, the U.S. government is ahead of all other industrialized countries in economic expertise. He said that while the bailout plan is needed, we must take a comprehensive look at how this happened. He said we will "continually have problems if [the U.S.] relies on stopgap measures."

Bailout bill doesn't thrill experts

"This was a joke," said Co-Director of the Center of Economic Policy Research Dean Baker of the proposed bailout bill that failed to pass in Congress yesterday. Baker and other economic experts analyzed the economy at a discussion held by the Institution for Policy Studies (IPS). Baker said that the Bush administration was "trying to hold a gun to our head," and that the general public was smart enough to oppose the bill. After the bill failed to pass in Congress, Baker said "I was out there celebrating yesterday."

Baker said the central reason for the economic problems we've had is the drop in the housing market. He said that housing prices have gone down 20-30 percent since 2006, and said that eliminates up to $70,000 of every homeowner's net worth.

Director of the Economic Policy Institute Living Standards Program Jared Bernstein asked why Treasury Secretary's initial plan required $700 billion. Bernstein said the reason for the amount asked for in the bill was never made clear. He also asked why the government "would not intervene directly in the housing market." He said that this proposed bailout will, for the taxpayers, be "a uniquely unrewarding recovery."

IPS scholar and New York Times bestselling author Barbara Ehrenreich said that a big portion of the problem was the "polarization" of the economy in the United States. She cited the fact that the U.S. is the most economically polarized country of all industrialized nations. Ehrenreich also said that 25-30 percent of employed Americans are "failing to makes ends meet." She said that the U.S. has used "easy credit as a substitute" for those that do not make enough money on their own. She said that this system must change, and that the wealthy "could never have imagined the problems" of the poor in the United States.

Pelosi: The legislation may have failed, the crisis is still with us

"The Democratic side more than lived up to its side of the bargain. The legislation may have failed, the crisis is still with us," said U.S. House of Representatives Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) during a press conference on the rejection of the Wall Street bailout plan by House Republicans.

According to Pelosi the bill was bipartisan. Democrats had put in language about capping CEO salaries and protecting about-to-be foreclosed homeowners keep their homes, and steps were taken to provide for congressional oversight.

Pelosi said that although the majority of the House Democrats heeded Secretary of Treasury Henry Paulson and President George W. Bush's warnings regarding the need for the bailout plan, the House Republicans did not.

"We extend a hand of cooperation to the White House and to the Republicans so that we can get this issue resolved for the benefit of America's working families, to strengthen our economy and therefore strengthen our country," said Pelosi.

Chairman of the Financial Services Committee Barney Frank (D-Mass.) said that some members of the House had advised Paulson to make sure that his proposal was acceptable to both Wall Street and to the House Republicans, but that Paulson had not properly done that.

Frank said that the Bush administration should take the initiative to change the stance of the House Republicans.

The Democratic leadership disagreed with insinuations that the plan was derailed due to a partisan speech by Pelosi.

"I am appalled...We have come together on a bill to alleviate the crisis, and because somebody hurt their feelings they decide to punish the country? I would not have imputed them that degree of pettiness and hyper-sensitivity," said Frank.

He went on to joke,

"There were 12 Republican members who were ready to stand up for the economic interest of America, but not if somebody said someting? Give me those 12 people's names and I will go talk uncharacteristically nicely to them and tell them what wonderful people they are, and maybe they'd now think about the country."

The plan was supported by 60 percent of the House Democrats and 67 percent of House Republicans voted against it.