Dana Bash
CNN Senior Congressional Correspondent
Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid announced tonight they will vote Thursday on the resolution of disapproval for releasing the remaining 350 billion dollars of the bailout fund.
A senior Democratic leadership aide says they are hopful, but admits to CNN that they are still not sure they have the votes to give President-elect Barack Obama the money he argues is essential to fixing the economy.
So, why are Democratic leaders holding the vote without knowing how it will go?
"The longer this thing hangs out there, the more water it takes on," said the Democratic leadership aide.
The decision to hold a Thursday vote comes hours after the President-elect's top aides held an urgent closed door meeting with Republican senators urging them to support giving them remaining bailout money.
But most Republican senators emerged from the meeting saying their minds were not changed and they still were unlikely to support this.
As CNN reported earlier in the day, multiple GOP senators who voted for the program in the fall, no longer support it.
So the challenge still for Mr. Obama is convincing enough of his fellow Democrats, many of whom still tell CNN they are very skeptical.
This disapproval resolution is not allowed to be filibustered, so it only needs a simple majority, 51 votes, to be defeated.
If it is defeated in the Senate, the request will automatically go through, since the law says both houses of Congress must pass disapproval measures to stop the bailout funds from being released.
It is likely this vote will not occur until after 5pm, after the markets close. But the timing is still fluid.
| peter McG |
January 14th, 2009 10:09 pm ET Anderson, Another Obama pick bites the dust. A treasury secretary that would be in charge of the IRS that doesn't pay taxes. Deeply ironic. Peter |
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| Gene Penszynski from Vermont |
January 14th, 2009 10:25 pm ET Listen folks G W Bush and company have left this nation is such a mess that 350 billion seems like pocket change. Give the President -elect what he askes for and lets see what happens. I'm convinced it can't be any worse that what the Bush administration has already done ! |
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| Bob Pomeroy |
January 14th, 2009 10:27 pm ET W's program should not be tied to Obama. I don't like the bail out because it seems to be a revision of Raygunomics trickle down, but if it was as drastic as it was represented and passed, it should be "legalized" during the tenure of its proponent. |
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| Sarah |
January 14th, 2009 11:14 pm ET You know Republicans and Democrats in congress need to GET OVER THEMSELVES. They are seriously acting like children. Obama is the only adult. He sits down with them... listens to their concerns and tells them what he wants to do and understands where they are coming from.. thats still not good enough. look what GWB has done. 65million of us voted so we could start fresh and congress is still hurt by the bush administration. geeez so childish. We have a new administration in a couple of days. |
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| Bad Horsie |
January 14th, 2009 11:34 pm ET The bail-out is wrong. The big banks are the only ones receiving the money, and anyone thinks they are going broke when, through the fractal reserve banking system, that they are going broke does not know what they are talking about. Look at Obama's economic cabinet - |
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| Annie Kate |
January 15th, 2009 12:19 am ET This Congress does not sound like its going to be any better than the last Congress. Hopefully the disapproval resolution will fail and the money will be released to Obama to try to get the economy restarted. I don't like the fact we are incurring so much debt but I dislike the prospect of a long deep recession and high unemployment even more. |
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| Jacqui, Victoria, Canada |
January 15th, 2009 2:21 am ET Here's an idea. Maybe it would be good for Obama if the Senate voted against the bailout package as it now stands, while it is still under the Bush administration. Then the markets can tank some more, and Obama will be able to bring in an improved package with greater oversight for which he will get the credit. Smart thinking in my book! |
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